New Apps Discussed on October 18th, 2009:

1. Pang Mobile – $2.99 - Better known to many US Arcade game players as Buster Bros, this is the official mobile version of that game. You are armed with a ball-breaking rope that you must shoot and set in place for bouncing balls to collide with and then hope to break all the balls before they descend upon you. Simple, fast-paced and different, Buster Bros was always one of my favorites in the arcade and this translation is very faithful. Controls are based on a the usual touch buttons and a new D-pad of sorts, a slide bar so you have more room to move left and right with precision. It works ok, but every once in a while I still run into a snag where I don’t get much movement out of it.
2. Layar Reality Browser – Free – Augmented Reality at it’s strongest, this browser allows you to try and find anything and everything by providing a ton of different searchable options and providing them within your camera’s viewpoint. It’s certainly an interesting experiment and the go-to choice if you’re looking to test this stuff out.
3. Noiz2sa Free - Free - The new free version of Noiz2sa, a stylish top-down shmup game where you’re shooting down aliens in a very vector-graphics world. The look of the game has always been a unique point for it – it’s a very abstract presentation. There’s multi-touch shooting so you can move your ship one direction and shoot in another and given the bullet-hell style of the game, where the enemies just keep sending down bullets to kill you, it’s also a bit intense in some areas. This version gives you 10 levels and 4 endless score levels, so there’s quite a bit to be mined in this free version.
4. Graphix48 - Free – The RPN Scientific calculator that made Bob nerd out can be yours too. All the functions and look of a scientific calculator at your fingertips. For free, even!
5. Dark Nebula Episode One - $0.99 - I told myself I would never get into episode-based iPhone games, but here’s one worth breaking the rule for. Dark Nebula, Episode One is another slide-the-ball-avoid-the-obstacles style game, but the presentation is top-notch professionalism and the gameplay is instant, smooth, satisfying, and challenging. It’s like the king of the slide-the-ball games and I just couldn’t stop playing it until it ended. This is a fantastic game and it makes that characteristic about itself known instantly. My one issue is that it is rather short (given that it’s the first of many episodes, I guess that should be a given) lasting only about an hour.
6. Viper SmartStart - Free – A cool remote for accessing your car if it is equipped with the Viper security system. Lock and unlock your car, remote start your car, and even access your car finder/panic button all from this one app. Future development promises push notifications in case of the alarm being triggered.

Apps of the Week:

Hook Champ - (Kevin) – $0.99 - Take one part Indiana Jones, one party Bionic Commando, and another part old-school Mario platformer and you’ve got HookChamp, an 8-bit style 2D sidescroller where you’re main ability is a swinging maneuver that allows you to get around obstacles as you escape an ancient cavern from which you stole an idol. It’s not initially very challenging, but it can get there as you progress. The swinging mechanic is very fun and the ability to upgrade your swinging and add other abilities is very rewarding and gives some previous levels a replay-ability. Definitely a game to be checking out.

ReelDirector – (Bob) - $7.99 – A very viable video editing tool for the iPhone 3GS. Limited to just video that has been recorded to the iPhone (sorry 3G and original iPhone users), this video editing app provides editing on a timeline, useful for stitching and transitioning clips easily. With 27 transitions built-in, including the mighty cross-fade, you have a good variety of choices. There’s also text, titles, and watermarks that can be added to your movie before you decide to upload it directly online for your friends to watch. A bit simple, but certainly a step in the right direction for video-editing apps.

Silly Apps of the Week:

Throw Me – (Kevin) – $0.99 - A simple game in which you throw the Monkey King as far as you can. Some obstacles and boosts help him speed along higher into the heavens or faster along the track. You’re supplied some additional boost you can use on him, but that’s about it. Regardless, I love a good game where I throw around a monkey and this one has just enough high-flying excitement for me to recommend in case you want to throw your monkey too. The music loop is absolutely dreadful, by the way.

You Are Rich – (Bob) – $99.99 – Based around the silly I Am Rich app from a while ago, this is the cheaper version. And that’s about it. Exciting? Oh boy…

Core Topic: Augmented Reality Apps

For this week’s core topic, we took a look at some of the Augmented Reality features being added to many apps, as well as some apps devoted solely to the concept. We found that most of them felt like a novelty, but perhaps these apps will be the stepping stone towards something cooler.

Layar Reality Browser - Free – The big man on the Augmented Reality campus. Though we were not really impressed with the implementation of Augmented Reality in many apps, this was one of the strongest to provide an idea of just how cool the feature could be.

Urban Spoon – Free – An app that recommends food and restaurants, but now with augmented reality! Rather than just present a simple sign of where each restaurant is, the app also provides reviews and additional metadata within the augmented reality scope. Another great feature is the ability to quickly pull up the GPS map by pointing the scope down towards the ground. A definitely cool and working feature for an app that was already quite useful.

Bionic Eye – $0.99 – We had some issues with the augmented reality scope of this app in that all of the augmented signage and metadata was always presented at an elevated level rather than at street level. We also were disappointed by the limited number of places that were available within the app (mostly basics like fast food restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, etc.). We were disappointed by the fact that for a price, this app was just not as good as Layar.

Cheap Gas! – Free – A gas price database app that has a new mode: Cyborg Mode, the augmented reality mode. Like the other augmented reality apps, this mode presents just the gas stations and their prices from the augmented reality view. Worked fine, but Bob found the database to be lacking in that it didn’t include all the gas stations in his vicinity.

Peak.ar – Free – Check out the different mountain peaks nearby and discover their names and heights. Neat, educational, and likely useful if you go hiking, Peak.ar is an augmented reality app that really makes information quick to pull up.

DA Transit – $0.99 – A train and subway station app that allows you to see what stations are coming up and where they will be. Possibly useful if you’re in a new city and looking for where to enter for the subway, but a bit of a disappointment because not all stations (including Kevin’s) are not available.

Arcade Reality – $2.99 – An augmented reality game where you shoot down enemies that fly around your vicinity. Graphics were cheesy, but the idea was somewhat fun. The gameplay doesn’t last very long, but the concept is easy to grasp and works as a tech demo. Pricey for the concept.

Assassin FPS – $0.99 – Shoot anything in your camera viewfinder using virtual weapons. There’s some detail such as the damage that results from your shooting (including nerf-gun darts that stick to your target for a time). There’s a very silly element to the whole package and it works very well as a show-off tech demo.

XmasCamera2 – $0.99 – Print out a grid and then use it with the iPhone’s camera to create a 3D version of a Christmas object. It’s a neat tech demo, for sure, though not really useful.