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By on 05/24/2013  |  Comments

The Room in Review – One Location, Plenty Of Fun

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to invest in The Room or not, but I was really tempted to grab it when the game went on sale for 99 cents.  A raving review in a TouchArcade forum I frequent pushed me over the edge and I made the purchase, but then I began to play it and started having second thoughts.  Once I went back to it after a day or two, however, something clicked and I realized how brilliant the game was.  I’ve always been more interested in Sierra and LucasArts style adventure games with lots of convoluted object puzzles and silly dialog than pure puzzle based games like Myst, but something about The Room captured my attention and wouldn’t let go.

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By on 04/20/2013  |  Comments

The Silent Age in Review – No Marty McFly Here!

Now that developers are comfortable with the iOS platform and have realized how well it works for adventure games we’re starting to see a lot more original content come to Apple’s mobile devices.  One of the latest entries in the genre is The Silent Age, and it’s clear the folks behind this game know a thing or two about what made the old Sierra classics great.  If I had to come up with a down side, it’s that the game was over just as it was reaching its peak.  Thankfully the developers are already hard at work on a sequel, though, so even that little inconvenience will be rectified at some point.

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By on 03/02/2013  |  Comments

Sporos in Review – Puzzling And Relaxing All In One

Sporos is one of those games that makes you wonder why they haven’t done something like it before.  The game is like a chain reaction puzzler except that instead of trying to destroy objects and clear the board you’re attempting to fill the board with the few objects you’re given.  It’s a clever take on the genre, and if it’s been done before I must have missed it.  Whatever the case I’m glad I’ve been introduced to the idea now, and Sporos is certainly a great starting point for getting acquainted with this type of gameplay.

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By on 02/22/2013  |  Comments

Metal Slug 2 in Review: Who Needs 3D?

I’m all for the latest trends in technology.  In the end, though, I just want my games to be fun.  If there’s one thing the METAL SLUG series has proven over and over again it’s that you don’t need the latest 3D accelerated graphics or quad core processor to make an enjoyable game.  In fact, as a whole it seems like ports of older games provide some of the most intense scrolling shooter experiences available on the iOS platform.  Besides, there’s something about awesome pixel art and classic 90’s video game tunes that’s hard to beat these days.

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By on 01/10/2013  |  Comments

Pudding Monsters HD in Review – No Bill Cosby But Still Fun

Cut The Rope was one of the first games to be billed as an “Angry Birds killer”, and while I don’t believe it quite made it to that status, there’s no denying the game’s impact on the mobile puzzle game genre.  The developers are back with an entirely different concept in Pudding Monsters, but the important thing is that the game is just as entertaining as Cut The Rope.  Gamers looking for a challenge might be a bit disappointed, as the current level sets are a bit on the easy side overall, but those looking for a cute casual gaming experience are sure to love the whole package.

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10 New App Store Games To Watch [May 13 - 19]

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This was another week where there were a lot more options than I had slots available to talk about.  I didn’t want to upset the delicate balance of the list by including two infinite runners, but another one that caught my attention was Blade Journey.  Combat, some interesting terrain design and a health and mana system make this much more than a simple Temple Run clone.  On the surface Evilot looks much like a Plants vs. Zombies spin-off.  Be careful, though, because some Triple Town style mechanics could mean you suddenly don’t have defenses where you thought you did, providing for an interesting layer of strategy.  Turbo Racing League is a joint effort between PikPok and Dreamworks Interactive to promote the new animated film Turbo.  More importantly, playing between now and the middle of June will give you a chance to enter a contest with a million dollars worth of prizes!

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Rolling Hero in Review – Chillingo’s Still On A Roll…

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One of the things I really admire about Chillingo is that they have a knack for digging up games that take tried and true mechanics and give them enough twists and flair to make them feel like fresh games.  Such is the case with Rolling Hero.  Anyone that has played games on their iOS device for a reasonable length of time has probably played one or more titles where you rotate the board to get your hero to the proper location, yet this one feels different somehow.  It definitely has a cute factor that seems to permeate a majority of Chillingo’s best titles, but there’s a certain spin this game takes that keeps me wanting to come back for more.  Even if I never completely put my finger on it, I guess that’s a good thing since I’m spending my time with the game. Read More

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10 New App Store Games To Watch [May 6 - 12]

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Wow, what a crazy week! There were a lot of interesting looking releases, and it was hard choosing just 10. Honey Tribe Studios released a new puzzle game called Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians. Whereas their last release was quite cerebral and somewhat dark in tone, Yam Yam is action oriented and good for the whole family. Crescent Moon Games released their latest offering in the form of Dig!, a Qix clone involving a washed up archeologist and a mummy named Nigel. Cool graphics, a good sense of humor and magical hats makes this a variant worth digging into. If you’re not completely sick of infinite running games yet, you’ll definitely want to give Running with Friends a try. No bull about it, this competitive runner could breathe new life into the genre for those that have given up on such games.

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HEAVY – sword in Review – Mario With A Sword, Anyone?

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Heavy Sword reminds me of a cross between Super Mario Bros and The Legend Of Zelda. Now some of you might be thinking “isn’t that basically Zelda 2 for the NES?” That’s probably fair enough, but since I never played that title I’m sticking with the correlation. The problem is that this really isn’t as interesting as either of those games separately, let alone what a good combination of them could be. That alone I could live with, since either of those franchises is hard to live up to. What is troubling me, however, is the fact that the game keeps freezing up on me.

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6 Must Have Photography Apps for the iPhone

By Summer Delaney, Grovo Guest Blogger

It’s no secret that photo apps and platforms are the next big social media movement.  With Facebook’s acquiring of Instagram last month for $1 billion, more and more photo services are continuing to be developed to meet the demanding needs of new consumers ranging from all ages, demographics and occupations.  Here are six applications that can be useful to anyone regardless of profession or hobbies that can either be used with existing apps like Instagram or independently.

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New MirrorCase for iPad Launches on Kickstarter, Provides More Usability

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Last week MirrorCase announced its iPad case on Kickstarter with a splash, raising about 75 percent of their goal in the project’s first week. Already available for iPhone 4, the MirrorCase case design uses a high-quality mirror to reflect back any image that is in front of the device, allowing users to capture images and video from a more natural angle.

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10 New App Store Games To Watch [April 29 - May 5]

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I always like a week full of good games, which means I really liked last week.  For those of you that just can’t get enough, Rovio has returned to their flagship franchise and taken it multi-player with Angry Birds Friends.  The result is classic game play with a few twists and a social aspect – as long as you have a Facebook account, that is.  If you love gamebook adventures but for some odd reason are tired of the Tin Man Games offerings (hopefully just taking a little break), you might want to check out Sorcery!  Yeah, it’s a port of one of the original books written by that Steve Jackson guy, so it should be pretty entertaining.  Hidden object fans will want to take a look at The Curse of the Werewolves.  It doesn’t do anything to stretch the genre, but it’s a solid offering that doesn’t come from Big Fish Games or G5 Entertainment, which is enough to pique my interest.

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Forza Audio Works Cables – An Introduction

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Forza Audio Works is an up and coming cable manufacturer whose hardware is second to none. Forza has workmanship and quality control licked. Matthew, the man behind the brand is hard at work making pretty much every cable you would want.

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Write for Dropbox, a great writing app for the iPhone, is now free for a limited time

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Write for Dropbox, an intuitive writing app with a slick interface, is now free for the iPhone after the release of its iPad version. Using Dropbox to sync all your work, the app opens to a blank note so you can quickly jot down your ideas or notes quickly. You’ll also find an extra row of convenient keys above the keyboard that provides shortcuts to popular Markdown syntax. And aside from the host of sharing options available, one of my favorite little features is the cursor trackpad that lets you easily move the cursor around the screen and select desired text.

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