iOS Weekend Alert: Angry Birds and Diner Dash Games Go on Sale!

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As Christmas approaches, more and more sales are popping up. Notably, Rovio (of Angry Birds fame) and Playfirst (of the hit Diner Dash series) have put up their hugely popular games on sale for a limited time. If you have only a few dollars left in your account, here are appSIZED’s picks for you:

1) Angry Birds Space HD ($0.99/iPad only) – I am not a fan of Angry Birds at all, but I loved what Rovio did with this installment. The laws of physics are at work in outer space, making gameplay more challenging and fun. It’s still the best looking AB game in my opinion.

2) Angry Birds Star Wars HD ($0.99/iPad only) – I like Angry Birds Space more but this is Rovio’s latest game so getting it on sale so new is a great deal to me. Also, if you are a Star Wars fan, an avian Hans Solo should be fun to look at.

3) Cooking Dash Deluxe ($0.99/Universal) – I am probably one of the few who prefer Cooking Dash over the original Diner Dash franchise. Buy it because it’s universal so you can enjoy it anywhere. Unfortunately it’s not optimized for the taller iPhone/iPod screen and you do have to pay for additional levels on top of the standard 50 – not to mention . Again this is a small price to pay for Dash addiction.

4) Bad Piggies HD or Angry Birds Seasons HD ($0.99/iPad only) – I haven’t tried out Bad Piggies yet but it looks promising, and offers a different type of gameplay from the standard Angry Birds fare. Take note however, that Bad Piggies HD has in-app purchases for additional maps. On the other hand, Angry Birds Seasons HD only offers a single in-app purchase for unlimited use of the might eagle (to solve levels) and it’s the kind of game to make you feel a little festive all throughout the year.

5) Wedding Dash Deluxe ($0.99/Universal) – Frantic gameplay and some wedding day drama make up this unique time management offering from Playfirst. Having played Wedding Dash 4-Ever and its tiny people on my iPad, Wedding Dash Deluxe is a welcome alternative.

H(app)y shopping! 🙂

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iOS App Review: Ghostbusters Paranormal Blast


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For kids of my generation, Ghostbusters is an important part of growing up. You have these four funny guys (Egon, Peter, Winston and Ray) banding together to rid the city of ghosts, the scientific way. I learned about ectoplasm and the ways of Slimer, and my sisters and I named our very first hamsters after Egon and Jeanine (the wisecracking secretary).

To give you an idea of what Ghostbusters is about, check out the movie trailer below:

A cartoon series and several movies and later, Ghostbusters is all but forgotten. Not to us who grew up watching them, and not to XMG Studio whose developers have come up with a way to keep the Ghostbusters alive through Ghostbusters Paranormal Blast.

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Back2Back Review: Fieldrunners and Fieldrunners 2 HD for the iPad

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Fieldrunners (iPhone) is a tower defense game that combines cute cartooony runners, vehicles and flying objects with serious looking towers that lob plasma, bullets and shoot electricity. Long before the tower defense (TD) genre spawned hundreds of copycats as much as it has some original concepts going, Fieldrunners for the iPhone was the definitive game of the tower defense genre and iOS app development. Tower defense games have multiplied exponentially since then, from cute themed games to hardcore action.

Meanwhile, Fieldrunners for iPad ($7.99) came out in 2011 – meaning indie developer Subatomic Studios took their sweet time to port the iPhone version to a bigger screen. Fieldrunners 2 HD ($7.99) on the other hand, launched to great success late this year, and is retina-display ready.

With a daunting pricetag and tons of TD games to choose from, should you make space for your iPad for Fieldrunners for iPad or Fieldrunners 2 HD?

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iOS App Review: Roads of Rome 2

In time for the imminent release of Roads of Rome 3 HD, Roads of Rome 2 is on sale for a limited time. If you have Roads of Rome HD (which we loved) or have come across the Roads of Rome 2 sale alert, you are probably wondering if you should shell out a few more dollars. Should you?

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Review: Super Monsters Ate My Condo for the iPhone and iPad

You know by now how much I love the original Monsters Ate My Condo (MAMC) – I have devoted an in-depth review and even a strategy, tips and tricks article to it. Now, nearly a year later, Adult Games and Pik Pok have come out with a sequel Super Monsters Ate My Condo (Super MAMC).

MAMC is all about keeping the monsters happy and preventing the “condos” or tiles from falling, Jenga/Uno Stacko style. With a dancing unicorn, a baby-like crab, a businessman turned green monster and a yellow space dog breathing down your neck, it’s easy to tell that MAMC draws its inspiration and irreverence from crazy Japanese gameshows, making it instantly likable and addictive. With “Super” in front, you’d have very high expectations of a sequel to an already fantastic original.

In a nutshell, Super MAMC retains most of the elements of the original except that the default game mode is Timed (2 minutes). In Super MAMC, you gradually progress in the game simultaneous with the tutorial, slowly unlocking more condos and special combos by fulfilling various level objectives all within two minutes, after which you get to spin the Monster Wheel to earn extra coins and power ups or boosts.

Meeting the original gang of monsters and basically going through the sequel to one of my all-time favorite games, the inevitable question is: is the sequel as good as or even better than the original?

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App-surdities In Review: The Unstoppable Gorg, Giant Pizza, Zombified Frederic, Weardd Corpses and Frenzied Fans vs Footballs

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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!

 

iOS App Review: Granny Vs Zombies HD for iPad

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.

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Exclusive Interview With Robert Lloyd Lewis: From Dexter Producer to iOS Apps Developer

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.

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iOS App Review: Powder Monkeys for iPhone and iPad

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.

 

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iOS App Review: Hungribles for iPhone and iPad

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.

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