The App Shelf for iPhone and iPod touch
Top Shelf Apps for week of May 15, 2012New apps added every Tuesday! |
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Reviews
Review: Farm Frenzy Fun
Price: $0.99
App Store Link: Full / Lite
Verdict: Love It
Replay Value: High
Pros: Lots of gameplay and achievements; great for long or short play.
Cons: Inconsistent touch controls (e.g. a tap can plant grass instead of trapping a bear)
Bottom Line: This addictive game cleverly builds upon typical time management games by allowing the player to strategize towards each level’s goal, allowing for better scores, times, and outcomes. While the touch controls could be improved, this game will provide countless hours of fun.
In Farm Frenzy, the player is in control of maintaining a farm and is presented with different objectives at each level. The beginning levels start off simple by only requesting that you purchase a set number of geese and collecting a set number of eggs. To keep the geese alive you must plant grass for them to eat, which in turn uses up your water supply that can only be refilled by paying a small fee. You can earn additional money by selling the goods you collect.
As the game escalates, you’ll find that eggs are needed to create flour, which is needed to create bread, and so on. The player is able to collect goods and keep them in a storehouse, which has limited space. To empty the storehouse and earn money, you send your goods away in a truck and after a few seconds the truck will return with your money.
Upgrades are available for purchase; these may be required in the objective of the level, or simply help you make more of an item quicker, allow for a larger storehouse, etc. To add a challenge to the game, sometimes you’ll hear a roar, soon followed by a bear dropping from the sky in order to attack your livestock or possibly spoil your goods. To prevent this, players can tap on the bear several times to lock him in a cage. If you have enough storage space, you can send the bear to the storehouse to later sell for some extra cash. If you don’t have the space, the bear will eventually run off screen.
This is particularly where I found the touch controls to be frustrating at times. While trying to cage the bear by tapping the screen, I would instead plant a patch of grass (which requires a similar tapping gesture), and the bear would go free to kill my livestock. Occasionally, tapping inconsistencies also caused the unintended purchase of various upgrades (an expensive mistake). While this is something that should be addressed, it did not affect the game enough to make it unplayable. Also, if this happened frequently during a level, you can always restart that level or even play it again afterwards and keep what rewards you did earn. Each level typically lasts about 5 minutes, but it can be as short or as long as you choose.
I found the game to be quite addictive, and I really appreciate how much there is to achieve. Not only can you earn the standard type trophies, but in order to proceed to higher levels, you have to earn enough points to purchase upgrades which will be offered in-game once that level is unlocked.
Ultimately, I would definitely recommend Farm Frenzy to anyone looking for a twist on typical time management games and appreciates long game-life. The cute graphics are entertaining and will be sure to keep you in a frenzy to play more. This app will definitely remain on my devise for a long time to come!
Review: Zooloretto: Animal Fun for the Whole Family… Really!
Price: $4.99
App Store Link: Full / No Lite Version
Verdict: Like it
Replay Value: Very High
Pros: Cute animal graphics, great tutorial (suggested), and easy for anyone to play
Cons: When playing against the computer, you’ll always be the first player to make a move, which can drastically change strategy, it should incorporate Bluetooth for multi-player instead of Pass ‘n Play only, and a little pricy at $4.99
Bottom Line: Zooloretto is a unique, family board game that is relaxing to play yet requires strategy and planning in order to do well. While it may be a little pricy, it will entertain for hours.
The goal of Zooloretto is to achieve more visitors than your opponents by carefully planning the location and number of your animals and vendor stands. In each round, the player tries to collect matching sets of animals. However, each of your 3 starting enclosures can only hold so many animals and only one kind of animal. The player loses a point for every extra animal collected and stored in the barn.
Each round consists of several turns. At each turn, the player can do one of three options: Add a tile to a delivery truck (the number of delivery trucks correspond directly to the number of players), choose a truck of items to add to their zoo, or carry out a money action. Players turn over tiles that can reveal an animal, a vending stall, or money. These tiles are placed on one of the trucks, each with three slots. When ready, the player chooses a truck of items to place in their zoo. Strategy comes in to play by selecting trucks with items that you need or even perhaps taking items that your opponent might need to take the lead. The goal is to collect the exact number of a certain animal to fill each area. A round is completed once each player has accepted a truck of tiles.
Money is used to move animals from one pen to another, buy overstock animals from other players, and purchase an expansion in order to collect more animals. Vendor stands can be placed around the zoo to earn extra visitors.
To add a little challenge, if a female and a male animal of the same kind are added to an enclosure, they will produce a baby. While many times the freebie animal will be just what you need to fill up your enclosure, if the space is already full, you’ll be forced to put the extra animal in the barn, therefore counting against your total score.
There are only two problems I saw with the game. One, when playing against the computer, you will always take the first turn. If a player could choose their starting position (or if chosen randomly), it would add more strategy to the game and mix things up a bit. The second problem I found is pass ‘n play is the only option for multi-player. Because the game requires many turns of switching back and forth, I’m hoping they will add a Bluetooth and/or Wi-fi option.
All in all, Zooloretto is a well-thought-out game. The drag and drop controls make the game a breeze especially in contrast to the physical board game itself. In addition, as you play games you earn points that unlock other characters and animals. The developers have even added fun trivia about animals for those who like to learn while they play! I would definitely suggest going through the tutorial the first time around to make sure you understand all the features of the game. It is evident that the developers tried and succeeded at making this a game for all ages, including both children and adults. While it is a little pricy, it will provide many hours of fun for the whole family!
Video Review: The Price is [definitely] Right!
![Video Review: The Price is [definitely] Right!](http://media.theappshelf.com/app_icons/pricerighticn.png){kind=icon}
Price: $4.99
App Store Link: Full / No Lite Version
Verdict: Like it!
Replay Value: High
One of my greatest memories of staying home sick in grade school was watching The Price is Right. So, naturally, when I saw Ludia’s take on the popular daytime TV Show in the App Store, I had to “come on down(load)!” Check out the video review below and head past the break for the written review.
Note: As of right now, the game is on sale for $2.99 in the App Store! Go get it cheap while it lasts!
The App is strikingly similar to the game show. There are two modes that you can choose from to play: Classic Mode and Three-Strikes Mode. Classic Mode begins at Contestant’s Row for your first chance at a pricing game. You win by bidding the closest to the price of the item without going over. You get six chances to move out of Contestant’s Row or it’s game over.
The second part of classic mode can be any one of sixteen different pricing games, all of which should be very familiar to you if you’ve ever watched the show. Since there are so many, I won’t explain each one individually to you. Rather, the game actually does a great job of explaining them instead. Be advised; as with the real Price is Right, sometimes luck will do you more good than actual educated guessing on product prices.
The third part of the game is the Showcase Showdown. In this section, you’re goal is to get as close to $1.00 in two spins on the big wheel without going over. The wheel is separated into sections each labeled in $.05 increments. The game itself is fairly straightforward. Spin, and hope you don’t go over.
If you win the Showdown, you and another player (computer or otherwise) will advance to the fourth and final part of the game, the Showcase. In each Showcase, the players will be shown a loosely-themed set of prizes. Just like Contestant’s Row, you’ll want to bid the closest to the actual retail price of the items without going over. Unlike Contestant’s Row, the difference between your Showcase bid and the retail price must be lower than your opponent’s. There is the added bonus that if you bid within $250 of your Showcase, you’ll win both Showcases.
Three-Strikes Mode plays similarly to Classic Mode with a few differences. First, you’ll play consecutively through each of the parts, win or lose. Each time you lose (with the exception of the second part), you’ll get a strike. Three strikes and you’re out. This particular mode lends itself to one of the other features that I’ll get to here shortly. Once you complete the Showcase—and assuming you haven’t gotten three strikes—you’ll move back to Contestant’s Row and continue cycling through until you strike out.
The game does a great job at making you feel like a part of the show. The soundtrack is all authentically transcribed so you could hardly tell the difference between the game and the television show. Each item you have to price comes with actual footage from the show, Barker’s Beauties and all. The graphics and gameplay, while not on the cutting edge, do a lot of justice to their TV counterpart. Fans of the show will get a kick out of dropping Plinko chips down the board, trying to stop the mountain climber from jumping off the cliff, or playing any of the pricing games made available.
There’s also a two-part achievement system included in the game. The first part is a simple ranking system that rates your pay-outs with titles like “Come On Downer” or “Pro Pricer” depending on how much money in prizes you can obtain in a single sitting (remember that Three Strikes Mode?). The second part awards achievements for each of the nineteen different games you play throughout the whole of the App. Once you’ve unlocked all nineteen achievements, you can play any of the games individually through the achievements menu. That’s a lot of opportunities for replay.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t any problems with the game. The sound effects can sometimes get a little obnoxious and overpowering. Also, there are a few times in the game where a firm press on the screen yields a delayed or no result. There’s also a considerable amount of time spent on loading screens in between each part of the game. Each of these problems wasn’t enough for me to stop playing, and at least one of these could be fixed by a simple volume adjustment.
Overall, if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll really enjoy this App. It’s 76MB of pure nostalgia. Even if you’ve never seen the show before, there’s still a lot of fun to be had.
Video Review: iPhone Makes The Game of Life Even Better.
Price: $4.99
App Store Link: Full / No Lite Version
Verdict: Love it!
Replay Value: Very High
Give the wheel of fate a spin, choose your path, and see how you make out in The Game of Life. EA just released the classic board game title for the iPhone OS, and it’s a winner. If you like board games, you should definitely pick this one up.
EA and Hasbro have teamed up to release another classic board game app to the iPhone OS, and let me be the first to say, Life has never been better than on the iPhone. In this app, EA has managed to accentuate all of the best parts of the Hasbro classic, The Game of Life.
Players have the option of selecting a Solo or Multiplayer game, consisting of 2-4 players total. In a Solo game, all opponents are controlled by the CPU. Next players choose their vehicle color and in-game avatar.
Once those initial decisions are out of the way, it’s classic Game of Life gameplay from start to finish—only better. As the game unfolds, players dive into the game board, surrounded by amusing pop-up art style 3D graphics, and thanks to the touch screen, players can even spin the game’s trademark wheel!
Thankfully, almost everything about the app is automated, so unlike most board games, gameplay is actually fast-paced. The developers of the app definitely did a great job paying attention to the expectations of their audience; for example, the CPU’s turns can be fast-forwarded or skipped all together. This mechanism speeds up gameplay and can even make Solo play quite enjoyable. Plus, because the app auto-saves on exit, it’s great for quick, casual play.
On first impression, I only have one complaint about the app. When players choose their in-game avatar, they are limited to four pre-named choices: John, Bill, Mary, and Rachel. It’d be nice if players could enter their own name and possibly be able to choose from more than four portraits.
All in all, this is possibly the best board game to iPhone translation I’ve played since Scrabble. All the classic elements of the game are intact, from choosing a carrier path, to getting married, to buying a house, to having kids, all the way to retirement. Plus the automated, fast-paced gameplay, fun 3D environment, and pocket-sized portability give the iPhone version a major advantage over the traditional game. So if you’re a fan of the original, or just looking for an amusing way to pass the time with friends, you can’t lose with EA’s version of The Game of Life.
Video Review: Pac-Man Remix - He’s Back and He’s Remixed!
Price: $5.99
App Store Link: Full / No Lite Version
Verdict: Love it
Replay Value: High
Pac-Man Remix is a fun take on the original classic. While the app manages to provide a decent amount of entertainment, the difficulty is nowhere near as challenging as the original, and unlike its REMIX series predecessors, the original is not included. If you’re looking for a re-imagined Pac-Man game with better graphics than the original, you’ll probably enjoy Pac-Man Remix.
Pac-Man makes a triumphant return to the iPhone, only this time in 3D—sort of. Pac-Man Remix is the latest addition to Namco’s REMIX series, which takes classic tiles and gives them a makeover, complete with improved graphics and gameplay.
Pac-Man Remix will remind you exactly of the arcade classic with a few twists. For starters, an over-world map has been added to the game to differentiate between sub-worlds. The app appears to have 6 sub-worlds, and each sub-world contains 5 stages.
As stages get more complex, you’ll encounter obstacles in the form of doors, elevators, and teleporters. There are even boss fights for each sub-world! In fact, the best way to sum up Pac-Man Remix is to imagine the original Pac-Man game play, but as a console platformer.
Once you’ve beaten a level in regular mode, it becomes available to you in free play.
Visually, the game is stunning with its new 3D graphics, though the 3D graphics really have very little effect on gameplay, making the app more accurately described as to 2.5D. The music and sounds effects have also been upgrade for the better, without losing that classic Pac-Man feel.
The app definitely isn’t perfect, however. My two biggest complaints are about difficulty level and controls. Simply put, the app is way too easy, even on the hardest difficulty setting. The ghosts seem much slower and dumber than in original Pac-Man. In fact, any time I lost a life in the game, it had more to do with control issues than anything else.
There are two options to control Pac-Man, arrow keys or directional swipe. I found the latter to be far more effective, but still far from perfect. More than occasionally, Pac-Man would either move in the wrong direction or sometimes completely change course altogether. While most of the time, this was little more than an annoyance, sometimes it did result in death.
Overall, Pac-Man remix is fun new take on the original. While I think the difficulty level needs to be ramped up a bit and controls might need a little tweaking, this is still a very solid game.
If you’ve been wanting a Pac-Man game, but couldn’t bring yourself to pay $5.99 for the original, Pac-Man Remix—though priced the same—may be worth the investment. Unfortunately, unlike some of the App Store Remixes, such as Dig Dug and Galaga, Pac-Man Remix does not contain the original arcade game. If you want that, you’ll still have to shell out $5.99 for it.