I love strange little games and I love developers who never seem to run out of interesting ideas. Some of these games infuse quirkiness and style into tried and tested genres or just simply original in concept and execution.

High on my list is Pizza vs. Skeletons ($2.99/Universal), a former iPhone Game of the Week pick by Apple (I’m a little late to the game, I know!) and currently on sale til tomorrow. If you’ve always wanted to know what it was like to be a 10-foot tall pizza on a mission to crush skeletons in Santa hats, consider your wish granted! The whole premise is just so strange that the various missions in the 110 levels available – from rescuing puppies to outwitting a giant skull, you just find yourself going along on such a madcap ride. The best part? You can style your pizza any way you want it – right now, mine is sporting leopard print.

Imagine this: an epic battle of the undead in the hands of two schoolkids. Corpse Craft: The Incident at Weardd Academy ($0.99/iPad only) feels like a cult favorite, incredibly good but known to a few, and ironically featured by Apple in its underrated apps selection. The ornate drawings, Tim Burton gothic art style – drawings of witches and a giant ball of a monster (who’d go with my giant pizza nicely) feels like something straight out of a deeply twisted children’s book. Even stranger is the marriage of match three mechanics and real time strategy (RTS) which work spectacularly well in this creepy crawly world.

Speaking of zombies, Frederic Chopin is back from the dead! The reanimated classical composer is back in fighting form in Frederic: The Resurrection to take on musical battles all over the world, with musician wannabes unworthy of his greatness. Apart from the interesting comic-book style drawings and slightly cheese voiceovers, it’s the various musical styles showcasing Chopin’s most famous pieces that really get to you – from reggae to J-rock. Hitting the right notes at the right time is another story, however, ’cause the game can be a little bit tough. You can also compete with a friend via Bluetooth for your own version of a musical duel.

Football fans currently keeping track of this year’s draft picks would probably find Fans vs Franchise, a Plants vs Zombies lane style of tower defense, sufficient to scratch that football itch. I can’t say I like the art so much, but the bizarre idea of lining of animated footballs and popcorn to take down crazy football fans kind of goes well with the overall look. This game doesn’t boast of the depth of PvZ, but it gets pretty challenging after the first few levels.

Finally, the Unstoppable Gorg. Sci-fi geeks will surely love this tower defense game which is delightfully stylish and offbeat. Don’t you just find black-and-white B-movies charming? Unstoppable Gorg has awesome art and little movie clips that put you and the planet Earth on the defense after some ugly alien – conveniently disguised as a pretty lady, falls in love with you and will stop at nothing to make you her alien consort. The attention to detail is incredible and the game is simply gorgeous. What makes it even better is that it puts a whole new twist on your usual TD game. Enemies come from various locations, and you only have a fixed path, and need reflexes to diffuse attacks coning from all sides.

Did I miss anything? feel free to leave ac omment!

When the old gives way to the new, the excitement of a new device wanes a little when faced with a daunting prospect: transferring a year or years’ worth of apps and files from the old device to a new one.

When I bought the new iPad (3rd gen) in Singapore a few weeks ago, I didn’t bring my mother computer with me, only the iPad 2 I was using before that. Without my computer and itching to try out the latest iPad, I thought of installing the stuff from my iPad 2 to my new one it via iCloud. To cut a long story short, it worked! So I’m sharing my experience doing the hassle-free transfer for those of you who would want to do the same.

Here’s what you need:

- A fast and stable wifi connection

- A working iCloud account

- Both your iPads running at least iOS 5

- More space in your new iPad than your old one

1) Back up the contents of your old iPad to iCloud – go to Settings, then iCloud and turn on the “Back up to iCloud” option. You can choose which items you want to back up, such as certain apps, calendar, bookmarks in Safari, etc.. Take note that I wasn’t able to transfer my videos in the video app or my music, which isn’t on iTunes match. I’m assuming that you’d need purchased content from iTunes to be able to transfer them. Take note you only have 5GB of free space!

2) To play it safe and avoid confusion, turn off cloud syncing on your old iPad after you’ve backed it up. Just go to settings, then iCloud, and toggle the Back up to iCloud option and turn it off.

3) Set up your new iPad. Choose “Restore from iCloud backup” when you get to that menu.

4) If you have a lot of apps installed, it will take several hours for your new iPad to download everything from iCloud. Files stored within these apps will likewise be restored. For music and movies not purchased fom the App Store, just transfer manually.

Some tips: delete apps you don’t need/use on your old iPad before backing up to make downloading faster. Monitor the progress of your restore from back up closely. Manage your storage space well, especially if you’re moving from a higher spec iPad to a lower-spec one.

I was quite happy with the results when I turned on my new iPad. Everything was just as it was.

There you go. Hope you have a seamless transfer of your stuff!

P.s.

My contacts are all messed up though (iPhone to iPad). Any help would be appreciated!

The best things in life are (in iPad) three

Anyone who comes to me and complains that the iPad has no USB port or expandable storage slot is just rehashing old arguments that will soon be obsolete. Since 2010, I have been transferring files and photos from iPad to my laptop or office PC via – yes, wirelessly, via a third party app called Goodreader, and I have not encountered a dire situation where a USB port would have saved my life. Now, with cloud computing, I did not even open my laptop to port over the contents of my iPad 2 to my new iPad: iCloud did the job for me. Of course, movies and music are another story, but my apps are intact. (More on how I did it next time)

Likewise, whether the processor is dual core or quad core, I’ve not had problems with memory management – the A5 chip continues to make things smooth and easy. I can run a multitude of apps all at the same time without any hiccups. I understand that Apple beefed up the graphics processor to handle the demands of a retina display screen and yes indeed, the graphics are rendered beautifully – all without sacrificing battery life. My iPad since the beginning in 2010, outlasts my laptop and phone.The retina display – it’s simply a marvel. Everything is crisp and clear. Apps are nice and shiny, books have never looked better and everything appears rich in color and detail. It’s not immediately apparent, of course, but once you’ve tried out the new iPad for a day or two, it’s hard to imagine how you managed with the iPad 2.

To go with the retina display is a surprisingly nice rear camera that offers 2X the resolution of my iPhone 4. It’s not embarrassing to the use the iPad to take photos anymore! In fact, at home, I prefer using my iPad to take higher-res photos than my iPhone. (Correct me if I have the wrong impression about photo resolution!)

Of course, there are downsides, too. One is the added heft and thickness, no matter how slight. Another is that it’s slower to charge fully and does tend to get warmer after a while, laptop-on-your-lap-with-the-air-vents-blocked kind of hot.The new voice dictation feature is no Siri, but nonetheless requires Wifi connection. This part I don’t understand, really, but this Cult of Mac article talks about the pros and cons of dictation. Apparently, this means, you are sharing data from your iPad and not just your voice snippets.

If you’re an iPad (1st gen) owner, then upgrade you must. You rightfully skipped a generation to hold out for this one. Then again, you could hold out some more for the newer iPad next year.

If you are an iPad 2 owner, then this iteration might not be such a compelling update. However, if you do upgrade, it’s nice to know that most of your cases and accessories will likely work on the new iPad, just a bit more snug.

If you’re not into changing devices every year, then the new iPad is a good investment for the next few years.

Many times, Apple is a victim of the very hype that makes it so popular. Every new model is held up to incredibly high expectations and even when there are significant enough changes, many fail to appreciate them. There is the inevitable letdown after wishing the new iPad would have a haptic touch screen, 3D and all sorts of innovation that just might happen in the next gen. All the same, it’s comforting to know that Apple still has the best touchscreen mobile computing device on the market.

*Apologies to the Beatles

We choose our Facebook profile photos with care, displaying our photos which paint us in the best light. Cover photo opens up a whole new layer of expression and meaning, allowing us to share with people a photo that we like or made – a beautiful panoramic photo of a place we’ve been, a family portrait, our pets … The possibilities are endless.

Now that Facebook is set to roll out its Facebook timeline feature with a prominent cover photo as its centerpiece, many users will want to choose one major defining photo that’s even bigger than their profile picture. While having a statement cover photo is a fantastic idea, I find the cover photo feature rather frustrating to work with since there was no way to resize photos in such a way that the whole picture can be seen and not just some blown up part of it. Choosing a photo that will fit in Facebook’s irregular cover photo frame is quite challenging, if not outright difficult. Those with some photo editing knowhow will have to edit photos and customize them to appear properly in the Cover Photo section on Facebook.

Luckily, for non-photoshop users like myself, Cover Photo Maker for Facebook Pro+ – is a real godsend. It just made my life a lot easier and my Facebook profile page a lot easier on the eyes, too.

Set to the exact dimensions of a Facebook cover photo, the app saves you the time and headache of editing your own photo via Photoshop, for example, just to make sure that it fits the peculiar specifications of Facebook. At the same, you can put in more than one photo and customize the look of your cover photo using pre-arranged, customizable layouts.

The app boasts of a relatively simple and clutter free user interface. You get to choose from a wide variety of layouts, frames and borders, and you also have an option to include text with your images. Photo editing, however, appears to be limited to rotating and flipping the images, so if you want to edit images individually to get a desired look, you need to go to another photo app first.

Photo manipulation and text editing can be a bit tricky when using the iPhone, but the iPad offers enough space to work with. At the end of it, you can export your image to your camera roll, send it via email or upload it to your Facebook account.

If playing zombie themed games prove to be useful, then we will all survive a zombie attack. Granny vs Zombies HD takes the whole zombie premise even further by making our grandparents the heroes in this story.

The game is your usual zombie shooter that’s seems to be inspired by Zombieville (read the review of Zombieville USA 2), with a few variations. Shoot and loot is the basic premise. You move from point A to B, fending off waves of zombies out to get you. For each zombie kill you can pick up weapons, ammo or money. Power ups are also available for emergency situations.

As in Zombieville, you can also enter houses to get weapons or ammo. You have a lot of weapons to choose from, including defenses for your barricades. My only complaint in the help department, which pretty much covers everything about the game (well, it’s pick up and play anyway) is the lack of descriptions of the weapons you can use, their attributes, all of which you just learn on the fly. However, despite the lack of more detailed attributes, most of the weapons should be familiar and easy to figure out most of the time.

There are two modes of gameplay: walking around Zombieville style, and defending the barricades. You start out in the living room and gradually go outside after completing the first two or three levels.

The second game mode, which is preventing zombies from entering your house is more interesting and more original. Sadly, it just pops up in between regular levels.

I like the art – the crisp, cartoony graphics and cheery colors. The clean lines and the funny drawings make the normally gruesome and scary zombies friendlier, a la Plants vs Zombies. The wonky controls, howver, hamper what is otherwise a very solid game. I find it hard to move around using the D-pad, and weapon selection mid-game is difficult to pull off because you end up with a lot of weapons to choose from yet there might not be enough ammo – or timeto be able to choose among these weapons.

At the end of the day, out of so many zombie themed shooters, Granny vs Zombies HD is not quite average and might prove to be an enjoyable alternative to many zombie games out there.

Price: $0.99

Copy: Provided by the developer

Developer/Publisher: Juan Casañueva

Ver: 1.0.3

Rating: 4 out of 5

A couple of days ago, I got an email from Robert Lloyd Lewis who introduced himself as the producer of Showtime’s Dexter series “in real life” – and here’s the awesome part, decided to dabble in iOS app development and in fact, recently released “VOWEL MOVEMENT” – a word game that’s a mix of Boggle and Scrabble with an interesting twist.

I couldn’t resist such a rare opportunity to interview Mr. Lewis, and here are his thoughts on wearing the newbie iOS developer hat:

Considering your busy schedule as the producer of Dexter, what got you interested in developing iOS apps?

I just can’t turn off my brain, and love to follow through when opportunities present themselves. When I come across a problem, I’m compelled to solve it. I have some other ventures in that vein. One is the very successful OpenX package opener, designed to open those impossible plastic packages. (http://www.myopenx.com) I couldn’t stand struggling to open those plastic clamshells, so I did something about it. We’ve sold millions of them.

Another example: I didn’t like having to use the dreaded, phony 555 phone number in TV shows I produced. So, I started a service called We’ve Got Your Number (www.wevegotyournumber.tv) to acquire actual legally cleared phone numbers for use in entertainment. In Dexter, you will never see a 555 phone number.

My friend Norm Epstein and I love word games. One day at lunch we kicked around an idea for a game, and when Norm proposed calling it Vowel Movement, I knew we had something. We mocked up the game using flash cards and a homemade board and refined the rules. We decided to take a shot at iOS development.

Do you have any prior programming background (not necessarily c++) or did you start from scratch?

I’m not a coder, and, as you implied above, don’t have the time to learn it. I know that a lot of people have had difficulties with coders delivering. Believe it or not, I found a great company to program Vowel Movement…a referral from my hair stylist. Very Hollywood, huh? She lead me to Chel Ramsey Productions in Brentwood Tennessee. Chel is an app producer who works with a programmer and an artist. Norm and I designed the game with crude drawings. We spent a lot of time thinking through and testing the rules. Then Chel (at a very reasonable cost) worked with us to turn it into the app you see now.

Why “Vowel Movement”? Is there a particular reason you chose to develop a word game?

I thought the name would set us apart from the myriad iOS games out there. I hope it’s intriguing enough to spark some attention. The day Vowel Movement was released, I was stunned to see there must have been a hundred other apps released that day. So, you need something to stand apart.

As I mentioned, we just love word games. Especially Norm, who is great at it. He regularly scores over 300 in Scrabble. If you look at the leader board in Vowel Movement, you’ll see that he is always at the top (his game name is “The Bomp”).

Any major snags encountered during the development process (e.g. Device compatibility, bugs, etc.)?

The development process was great. We did encounter bugs and compatibility issues, but Chel fixed those as we found them without much fuss.

What are your expectations about Vowel Movement’s performance, sales wise?

Hopefully we dwarf Zynga…or get bought by them. Actually, I have no clue. I don’t know how big the market is for word games that aren’t breakouts. I’m hoping we can make our investment back, and have some fun along the way. As Norm kept saying, if no one buys it, at least we’ll have a great game to play for ourselves.

Any other app development plans in the pipeline (if you’re at liberty to disclose, that is)?

At the moment, we have a lot that we’d like to do to improve Vowel Movement before we move on to others. It needs sound, and I’d like to offer a two player option. Right now, it’s a one person game, although you can challenge your friends to beat your score.

What do you think are the important factors to consider if you want to go into app development?

I know that in TV and film, the rule is always to make a product that you would personally want to see…don’t try to second guess what the audience wants. I apply that to app development. We made Vowel Movement because we found the game challenging, fun and addictive.

Any advice to other developers?

Apple has brought development to ordinary people at a reasonable cost. If you’re willing to put in the time and the energy, go for it.

Mr. Lewis’ experiences and insights should serve as inspiration to anyone who’s interested in app development. Please do check out Vowel Movement when you can and stay tuned for a full review in the coming weeks!

Supermarket Mania may be a lesser known time management (TM) game, but it does bring something new to the table that is different from your usual Dash type of game. Read on to learn more about its shinier sequel, Supermarket Mania 2 HD (Full).

The basic mechanics of Supermarket Mania are fairly simple and gradually build up into management mayhem. You start with stocking and refilling the supermarket shelves. Sounds simple so far? Well, stocking and refilling is just one aspect of your regular ‘day.’ You also need to keep an eye on your store’s cleanliness level, otherwise, customers may slip and hurt themselves from the dirt and debris piling up. At the same time, new customers wait in line for their shopping baskets and if there aren’t enough free ones, you’ll soon have an angry mob on your hands.

To a certain extent, customer preference affects what seem to be ‘routine’ stocking and filling since some items are restocked more frequently than others, depending on the kind of customers that walk into your store. For example, the single guys tend to load up on meat while elderly customers buy a lot of milk and fruits. Later on, you need to provide food and beverages that need machines and certain ingredients from your wares, such as fruits. Meanwhile, you have to keep an eye on rowdy kids, thieves and thugs that wander in and dirty the floors, wreck machines and generally disrupt the general peace.

Supermarket Mania 2 builds on the original gameplay but makes it more fun and challenging. You have more or less the same upgrades and power-ups to expect, and the same cast of characters. However, the graphics are shinier and prettier, the controls are tighter and overall, the game still feels fresh and fun. I also like the sound effects and background music, which are cheery and energetic and contributing to a sense of urgency.

Strategy-wise, you need to plan ahead when choosing which shelves to re-stock, especially when you have a lot of customers demanding coffee, milkshakes, and all the other stuff that you need to assemble. Of course, it depends on your goals. If you just want to pass the level, then you’ll find that meeting the basic goal is doable. However, if you are aiming for an excellent/expert score every level, then you’ll find the prospect quite challenging.

Currently I am replaying a level because I am unable tor each expert scores – a huge challenge for a TM aficionado such as myself! Thus, I tip my hat to the devs for making this particular TM game more challenging than usual. Of course, aspiring to unlock all the achievements is yet another incentive.

TM newbies and fans alike will find Supermarket Mania 2 HD a great TM fix. The price might be a bit on the steep side, but most Diner Dash games cost about the same and offer the same content, such as 50 levels. Supermarket Mania 2 HD has gorgeous art, content that’s a little different from your usual salon or cafe, and an experience quite challenging for the avid casual gamer.

Sail high on the perilous seas with Powder Monkeys a light and casual role playing game (RPG) with loads of that puts you at the helm of the Monkey Navy, sworn to take back the islands from your Bug foes.

In the far off future, namely the Second Ice Age, humans have been wiped out and evolution saw it fit for only the insects and monkeys to survive. In Powder Monkeys, bugs and chimps fight for supremacy on the open seas. You play the captain of the Monke Navy but when it comes to your avatar, you have a couple of characters and silly names to choose from (apart from your own).

Powder monkeys is apparently a term for crew in charge of carrying bags of gunpowder during sea battles, and I guess the game is a literal take on that!

The tutorial is on the vague side, but you can aimlessly explore, engage in battle and collect loot if you don’t feel like going on quests.

As far as RPGs go, Powder Monkeys offers a pretty extensive customization and leveling up process, and you feel your progress . You wide array of upgradable stuff for your ship and bullets. You either use silver coins or crystals as currency, the latter for more powerful weapons and power-ups. The “bullets” that you fire from your ship are cute and amusing, ranging from the default watermelons to cutlery.

There’s in-app purchase to buy special power ups but you can definitely enjoy the game without shelling out if you’re patient enough. For example, you can do side quests to earn some coins but the income-generating part there, really, is in the exploration of the environment to grab treasure chests which contain goodies. Luck is the name of the game here, and if you’re lucky, you might hit on massive loot.

In addition, you can attack bug-infested islands to capture them and earn some money.

Battles can be played on autopilot and the outcome depends on how beefed up your ship and weaponry are. However, the real fun is in direct engagement, where you race to fill up your slots taking care to strategically place them to maximize/minimize damage. At the end of the battle you earn some coins which you can use to upgrade your stuff.

The story-based quests hardly differ from the side quests since there is no real story to speak of other than the general concept of fighting and plundering your way to the top. This is my chief complaint about the game which is mostly about doing the same thing over and over (grinding, that is) to level up and earn more money. The lack of a story is not a deal breaker but with no defined goals to accomplish, there’s not much to look forward to after completing the story quests.

The graphics are cute and cartoony, matched by the equally cute and cheerful music and effects. The dialogue is a bit on the corny side but a game attempt to make trash talk between chimps and bugs interesting.

All in all, Powder Monkeys is a lot of fun to play and jump into if you’re looking for a quick fix. It’s an RPG adventure casual enough for the newbie player, has loads of personality and plenty to keep you hooked.

App: Powder Monkeys ( Universal )
Price: FREE with in-app purchases
Copy: Provided by the developer
Developer/Publisher: XMG Studios
Ver: 1.1
Rating: 4 out of 5

Hungribles are hopelessly hungry creatures (one of them reminds me of pikachu!) you need to feed with orbs by manipulating a mushroom shaped slingshot. (The fewer orbs used, the better your score) These orbs travel along a rainbow trajectory where they bounce off objects and disappear in empty spaces.

You can make all sorts of crazy angles since the rainbow can curve and bend. The art is quirky and cute, combining cartoon drawings with watercolor-like backgrounds. The music is pleasant but closer to the generic side. The sound effects are funny and cute, however.

The fluidity of the controls is critical in this kind of game and this is where Hungribles needs further improvement. While you can turn your slingshot 360 degrees or bend the angles to your liking, it’s easier said than done.

The help section (unfortunately the comic book style instructions are difficult to understand) recommends that you use two fingers for greater accuracy, but the exercise is often futile and frustrating. It’s difficult to aim and release properly, resulting in unintended errors and tangled fingers. Out of so many tries (and limited orbs!) I only get my aim right once or twice. I cannot tell if the controls are making the otherwise easy puzzles difficult to beat. For this reason, I am hard pressed to recommend Hungribles if the controls are not significantly improved, despite the promising content it offers.

The bewildering phenomenon that is Angry Birds accelerated the growth of the physics puzzler, a previously underrated genre, and spawned hundreds of copycats.  While I am not a fan of Angry Birds, I do see its imprint on many similar games out in the App Store today. In some ways, Hungribles is one of these aspirants and appears to come from the Angry Birds school of physics puzzlers with a bit of Cut the Rope, another popular physics puzzle game. Where the similarity ends and its own identity begins is up to you to decide.

App: Hungibles ( Full / Lite )
Price: $0.99 [ON SALE]
Copy: Provided by the developer
Developer/Publisher: Futuremark Games
Ver: 1.1.3.7
Rating: 3 out of 5

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and people are: (a) hooking up; (b) making up; or (c) breaking up. Whether you’re on your way in, out or just looking around, here are some fun and games and apps to keep you occupied on one of the busiest days of the year.

Instant Poetry Universal for iPhone and iPad (1.99)

You might want to give Instant Poetry a spin if you’re looking for ways to express your love this Valentine’s Day. Choose from pre-selected words and arrange them into a poem to your liking. Note that if you’re not too keen on love, the app as different themes that may adequately express your emotions.

CupidStrikes for iPhone ($0.99)

CupidStrikes is your ultimate dose of all that’s fun, pleasant and cute on Valentine’s Day. It also makes for a nice quick arcade game that tests your skills and reflexes, all while looking to kill a few minutes.

BarStar for iPhone ($0.99) and BarStar HD for iPad ($4.99)

Single and ready to mingle? Check out BarStar for some fun and fast bartending action. Serve drinks and a variety of crazy customers (including zombies!), in an endless party like no other! You’ll find that halfway into the game, you have gained significant knowledge about the different drinks out there, and you might want to go out with your girlfriends to celebrate.

New York Nights: Success in the City for iPhone ($4.99)

If you’re a hopeless romantic or you just want to know if you have what it takes to conquer the Big Apple, then you might want to check out New York Nights: Success in the City where your goal is to become fabulous and successful, and win over a celebrity hottie.

The Creeps: Holiday Edition Universal for iPhone and iPad ($0.99)

Looking for something a little offbeat? I heartily recommend the Valentine megapack (available via in-app purchase) of The Creeps. Here’s your chance to shoot down all that makes Valentine’s Day special. With funny, hand drawn art and equally funny sound effects, The Creeps makes for a good companion on what many see as the loneliest day of the year.

Wedding Dash Deluxe for iPhone ($2.99) Wedding Dash 4-ever for iPad (Free with In app purchase)

Wedding Dash might set off warning bells in your head – or that of your significant other, but before you end up arguing about commitment issues, please remember that Wedding Dash is just a game. It’s not a “dash” to the altar, nor is it a subliminal hint for your man to take it to the next level. One of my personal favorites and one of the best Dash games ever to come out, this game will help scratch that commitment itch, complete with all the drama of wedding organizing, and a totally risk free endeavor.

iKamaSutra HD for iPad (Free)

If you’re looking for some excitement in that department, Kama Sutra XL is more than just about trying out new positions, it’s also about understanding an ancient text that doubles as a guide to merging love and pleasure. Free, instructive and plain fun, here’s your chance to do something a little different this year.

Last but not the least, tons of apps are on sale. Let me point you to Alawar, one of my favorite publishers for time management and other casual games. Most of their apps are on sale and free, so don’t forget to check them out!

H(app)y shopping!