iAppLover

The iPhone brings with it the ability to play flash based word games on the road – just what a nerd like me needs. Maybe you’re in a family that loves word games, classics like scrabble. Perhaps you do crosswords. If you want to use your iPhone to exercise your brain, Wordsworth is the game that you’re looking for. As a typical word game, it does a lot to alleviate the boredom and of course, exercise the mind.

Much like Bookworm, another word game that’s eaten up countless hours around the world, it’s about making words out of a random assortment of letters. Your screen is filled with letters in a honeycomb layout and from there, you select letters so you can make that word. It follows the standard convention of longer is better, along with the added bonus of giving more points if you use difficult letters. You need to get a certain number of before you can move on to a new honeycomb of letters.

For $2, it’s not such a bad deal. It only sounds easy, the way the concept of a crossword or Scrabble seems simple. Then you actually try it and you realize, it’s not the walk in the park that it looks like on paper. Most words are actually too short to add to your point score or mileage. Some bonus tiles come up, tiles that offer extra points but only for a limited amount of time. Shuffling the honeycomb is an option you just need if you really want a new setup. Despite the presence of those timed tiles, it’s not really a game that pushes the bar time wise – it’s more a game that kills time rather than stresses it.

While the iPhone is getting a lot of game apps for it, it was never really meant for that purpose. Controls for most iPhone games can get very, very frustrating, very, very fast. Fortunately, Wordsworth is one with sharp controls. You can tap the letters or just sweep your finger across the group of letters that turn into a word. Too many apps walk around the control scheme, focusing on looks – Wordsworth seems to have been designed for the iPhone itself, making the controls smooth and easy to use.

If anything, the real problem with Wordsworth is its laid back atmosphere. It’s much like the crossword – you’re not looking to get pushed into any thinking sprees. For people who like that sort of game, Wordsworth works out. As addictive as the game is, it’s not for the competitive or even people who want to brag about a high score.

Aside from all these little details, Wordsworth remains a game that’s worth a quick look. For people who are sick of all the match three games running around and want a different kind of word game to play with, this is definitely worth the money.

Bounce On iPhone App

Now, games rarely if ever have to make sense, especially ones on a phone.  You could just be some sort of colored object, perhaps a red dot, trying to get together with that elusive green dot.

I mean, look at snake.  Sure that growing, curvy line evokes images related to the game’s name, but it’s not like that’s particularly logical to begin with.  A story isn’t required – an objective is. That’s what Bounce on has – bring the red ball back to its home, a pocket that it fell out of.  It’s like an adorable little red golf ball that just wants to go home.

Enemies and obstacles abound, existing perhaps just to get in the way of our semi-intrepid little hero and we need to guide him through it. 15 levels of fun abound, following a sorting algorithm of difficulty of course.

You get a world map of sorts as your level selection menu, with little medals representing how hard that stage is.  While it is a novel and fun way of selecting the level, it could be annoying if you booted it for one quick game on a specific stage, since you actually have to move the little blob to the right spot before you can select the level.

It’s a Mario-esque side-scroller where you bounce, hop and roll your way to victory by reaching the end of the level. Instead of coins or stars, you get gems.

While it’s not gonna tax anyone’s mental faculties or drive your eyebrows into a deep furrow, it’s still a fairly enjoyable game that requires a level of attention to succeed in.  It also requires some skill.

The medals for each stage are earned depending on how much effort you put into it.  Simply finishing the stage gives you the less than amazing bronze level.  Collecting every single gem makes the medal silver, while doing so within a specific time frame gives you the always shiny gold medal.

The progression of difficulty gives the game a sense of unity. Unlike many games on both consoles and cell phones, Bounce On is enjoyable enough that repeated failure on a level doesn’t frustrate as much as it probably should.

The game itself is cheap, $3.99, compared to other apps that can hit $15.00 and is well worth the investment.  While it may not have the replay value of a word game or a match three, it’s simple premise and ease of play makes it worth every cent and dollar.

critter crunch

Gluttony may be one of the seven deadly sins, but it’s definitely one of the more fun ones out there.  That joy has been shared and sifted into a video game, a game called “Critter Crunch”.  If you’re going to get a game for your iPhone , this is definitely one that you should consider.

Now, when I look for a portable game, I look for several things.  The first thing I look for in a game is its ease of play.  If I wanted a complex and deep game filled with so many options that it requires its own book to fully understand, I would look for one on the console or for my Mac or PC.

Critter Crunch requires you to grab creatures out of several conveyor belts that are sliding down to you at the bottom of the screen and spit them out so other creatures could eat them.  You feed the smallest critters to larger critters until they’re so full that they “pop”. Your objective is to make those gluttonous beasts pop so you get gems for points.

See?  Not so difficult.

The second thing I look into when I want to buy a portable game is the graphics. The city is either visually confusing due to an insane mix of both colors and lights, sometimes confusing enough that I wonder why there aren’t more seizures running about.  At other points, it’s a depressing shade of grey – concrete and steel aren’t exactly what makes a good panorama.

The graphics for Critter Crunch are very clean and very slick.  Parts of the screen are easily distinguishable from others, making it a treat to both watch and play.  Character design and the animation style of the game is very slick, very expressive.  This is impressive for a game that was developed as a means of portable entertainment.

Sound is also one of the things that I look form though not as much as the other aspects.  Critter Crunch definitely does not disappoint in this department, but when I’m commuting or on break, I still want and like to be able to hear the outside world in case I need to hear something important – like say, the wild horns of a car careening out of control or a fire alarm.  Stuff like that.

For a match three game, it’s one of the cleverer and deeper ones.  While it’s no RPG, it keeps adding elements and special rules and items to the game that add more and more complexity to it.  It also introduces these concepts at a leisurely pace – I’m actually not sure if anyone could actually be overwhelmed by it.

For people who don’t like match three games, it’s their bane – but for people who love that genre, Critter Crunch is the boon they’ve been looking for.