As far as physics hurlers go, there are only so many ways that you can hurl things at something and still keep a game interesting. Since the “throw things at block towers” physics game sub-genre is wholly owned by Angry Birds, Runaway Creations had to come up with a new type of physics hurler: one that uses planetary gravity.

Attraxxion is a physics hurler that has you putting large rocks (planets) into and out of planetary orbits. The (very loose) story has you in charge of prepping the universe for the arrival of a new alien race. Because these aliens are picky beings, they want each solar system to meet their specifications, meaning that you have to throw planets into orbits to either add them as new planets or to knock others out.

To accomplish this task, each level gives you a time limit, an ammo (planets to throw) limit, and a big planet throwing cannon on the left side of the screen. To throw a planet, you must slide the cannon to where you want it and then aim with your finger. A simple tap then launches the planet (hopefully) into orbit. If you don’t accound for gravity though, your planets will either launch way past your target or run right into the star that the solar system is rotating around.

As you progress through the game, the levels become much more difficult. Instead of just adding a few planets into orbit, you have to combine planet types (ice, iron, gas, rock) to form new types of planets, avoid black holes, keep certain types of planets in certain levels of orbit, etc.

As far as physics hurlers go, Attraxxion is a nice looking game that is extremely original. The build quality isn’t quite on par with the genre leader, Angry Birds, but it is definitely above average. If throwing objects at other objects is your thing, be sure to give Attraxxion a try.

[ Attraxxion Review is a post from 148Apps ]

If you’ve yet to play Angry Birds, I’m willing to bet you’ve at least glimpsed its icon floating on the App Store’s charts. For good reason, too; it’s an addictive game. The basic formula is a bunch of angry birds, a slingshot, and the egg-stealing pigs and their castles. The goal of this little physics game is to demolish each and every one of the aforementioned castles—but does Angry Birds actually follow the rules of physics?

Apparently one of Wired’s writers, Rhet Allain, just couldn’t stop thinking about the posibilities:

But what about the physics? Do the birds have a constant vertical acceleration? Do they have constant horizontal velocity? Let’s find out, shall we? Oh, why would I do this? Why can’t I just play the dumb game and move on. That is not how I roll. I will analyze this, and you can’t stop me.

Long story short: he took one of the developer’s walkthrough videos and decided to analyze it using a program called Tracker Video Analysis. He used the program to determine path of the bird’s flight, and then used that data to graph the bird’s horizontal and vertical movement separately. (In projectile motion, you typically separate horizontal and vertical components.)

His discovery? Angry Birds considers only the force of gravity on the bird—once you fire the bird from the slingshot; the app doesn’t calculate air resistance or anything like that. And assuming that gravity in Angry Birds is equal to Earth’s gravity, the slingshot is five feet tall and the red bird is a little over two feet. Jeez…talk about a large bird!

The physics that Mr. Allain used actually felt quite familiar—since I essentially had to do the same thing in a physics lab last week. Bounce a golf ball, take a video, then measure its path with a computer and use projectile motion equations — he only difference was that we were trying to determine gravity, whereas he assumed gravity was -9.8 meters per second and instead tried to determine the size of different Angry Birds elements. Of course, the other difference between Angry Birds and my physics lab was that, you know, Angry Birds is artificial, and thus the equations that Wired derived worked a lot better than our sad attempts.

So, if you were desperately wondering—the Angry Birds slingshot is more than twice your height and the birds themselves are giant and vicious. Now I’d like to see him calculate the height of those pig castles.

[Via Wired]

$0.99

Angry Birds

iPhone App – Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Our Rating: :: GREAT
Read Our Full Review >>

Released: 2009-12-11 :: Category: Games / Action

[ Wired, Angry Birds, and Physics: How Tall is that Bird, Anyway? is a post from 148Apps ]

I’m not sure how familiar most people are with the game carrom, but it was frequently played in my home when I was a kid. My family would sit around the kitchen table for hours, our index fingers throbbing with pain (we knew nothing of repetitive stress injuries back then), trying to flick disks into one of the four corner pockets on the board. It was my earliest attempt at playing a true dexterity-based game, and I was hooked.

Now, over 30 years later, carrom has returned to my life in the form of Carrom 3D for the iPad. It’s a nicely designed little game, and it definitely shows promise, but the developers have a way to go to capture the true feel of a game that relies on manual dexterity so prominently.

For those who are unfamiliar with the game carrom, it’s an easy game to explain. Using a large, square wooden board with pockets at each corner, players take turn flicking disks at a group of disks in the center, in the hope of “pocketing” some of those disks for points. That’s about it. But like pool, carrom is a game that requires an intuitive sense of geometry, not to mention durable fingers. After reading that description, it should be obvious why carrom would make a great iPad game: a classic dexterity game plus a touch sensitive screen equals gaming nirvana, right? This is a no-brainer, so much so that I wonder why more traditional dexterity games have not made the transition to the iPad.

Unfortunately, many of my hopes for this game were dashed when I started playing it. First and foremost among the disappointments is the fact that you cannot actually flick your pieces across the board. Instead, you must use (for lack of a better term) a “power meter” to control the strength of your move and to execute it. This takes the fun out of carrom, so it’s my hope that the developers quickly remedy what can only be called a serious flaw.

If played against human opponents, options are also limited. There’s no online play support (maybe in a forthcoming update?) and playing against local players requires passing the iPad back and forth. There’s also no AI for a single player to play against, only puzzle-like Challenges and a Time Trial mode.

There’s a potentially great game at the core of Carrom 3D. The graphics are quite nice and the board is well rendered and manipulated. But until the basic flicking mechanic is addressed, it’s best to pass on this one.

[ Carrom 3D for iPad Review is a post from 148Apps ]

Newly released to the App Store is Skee-Ball HD by Freeverse. If you like their iPhone game, you’ll definitely want to check it out on the bigger screen, and more levels and prizes.

Whether they played Skee-Ball on the boardwalk or at Chuck-e-Cheese as a kid, practically everyone remembers throwing those hard balls down the lane and hoping it’ll go up the ramp to the highest points rung. Skee-Ball HD tries to emulate the physics of the game so that you have the same feeling now as you did back then. The graphics are HD quality and offer a 3D style background to offer a high quality overall experience.

Not only will you have fun trying to reach and beat your own high scores, but as a part of the Plus+ network, you can try and beat other people’s high scores for either ticket accumulation or points. If your friends are also a part of the network, challenge them to a duel, and may the best Skee-Baller win!

It’s easy to pick up and play for the first time – simply flick your ball up the ramp towards the scoring rings. For more experienced players, tilt your iPad for spin and try to do neat tricks or harder shots to impress your friends. They’ll want to try it out, too; it’s an addictive game.

Just like the fun of the original, you can collect tickets to cash in for awesome prizes that include custom Skee-Balls like the Moo Ball, Sun Ball, Dinosaur Egg Ball, and must-have oddities like Vampire Teeth, Peruvian Flute Band CD, New Zealand, and more than 80 others items. Expansions and Upgrades are also available within the game!

At only $1.99, this is one of the least expensive games on the iPad and certainly well worth trying out, especially if you’re already a Freeverse Skee-Ball iPhone user, or just a Skee-Ball fan in general. The all-time classic arcade game has been enhanced for the iPad and should definitely be a fun new game to play.

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[ Skee-Ball HD for the iPad Rolls Out is a post from 148Apps ]

If an app is entertaining but lacks specific goals, does that make it a bad app? Jiggle Balls HD might just be an app whose only real purpose is to be a fun little toy, but as a well-made toy app, there’s certainly nothing wrong with it. The purpose, here, is to play around with physics, even if there’s not really any goal-based gameplay. You are given a screen with your choice of background to unleash a variety of different balls, from generic colored balls to sports balls, all of which you can adjust for size, weight, bounce, and stickiness to the walls. You then just tap on the screen to add the balls to the playing field, and shake, rotate, and twist your iPad to knock the balls around on the screen. Your ultimate goal is entertainment.

Jiggle Balls features great physics work from the underlying physics libraries applied to the game, to make the game feel very good; the ability to customize the physics down to minute properties allows you to really create the kind of experience you want for your time with the app. And it really does take advantage of the iPad’s screen, giving you a lot more room than the iPhone version does to play around with.

Of course, the question about Jiggle Balls HD is just what exactly the point of it is. It’s an app that features balls bouncing around on screen – there’s no ulterior goal to it other than that. There just isn’t much to the app beyond watching the balls bounce around and playing with the properties of them. Some kind of game or competition element (like on the iPhone with the game Jiggle Balls: Spikes) would give the app a lot more value than just as a toy app.

However, despite its seemingly limited utility, Jiggle Balls HD does serve its intended purpose of being a great novelty app and toy that you can play with whenever you feel like just watching the balls bounce around on the screen to let off some frustration, or if you want to show off a silly app to your friends on your iPad.

[ Jiggle Balls HD Review is a post from 148Apps ]