Over the years, I’ve been forced to redefine my definition of “native” game clients for OS X. At first, I was a die-hard, nothing but true native code for me, thanks. Then, as the harsh reality of understanding that true native code is about as likely as Congress putting aside their differences and acting on what’s best for the common man, in a moment of true despair I opined that maybe running games in Crossover wasn’t such a bad idea.

Now, the trend seems to be to use TransGaming’s Cider, which in non-technical terms a wrapper game developers can use to bridge their Windows code over to OS X. It’s not a “true” native client, but, since it doesn’t require a virtual machine or the ritual sacrifices that seem to go along with getting games to run on Crossover, I can handle that. Warhammer Online, from EAMythic is the latest game to get ported. After a few months of beta, it was released October 26. Full disclosure: this isn’t a full review. I’ve only got about 15 hours or so of game play to base these observations on.

I’ve had decent luck with Cider ports, although my sample set of Sims 3 and Spore is a little small. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is definitely the most resource-intensive of the ports I’ve tried. For the most part, it worked fairly well. I have a brand-new MacBook Pro, but with only 2GB of RAM. I had enough stutters and jerks to prove to me that jumping to 4GB would be optimal, but it wasn’t unplayable with 2GB, either.

Gameplay

Warhammer has two modes: one where you fight against the computer-controlled monsters (PvE), and one where you fight against other players (PvP). There are two sides, Order and Destruction, and they are locked in the age-old, time tried, cliché battle to control the lands. What I liked is you can earn the experience needed to level up in both modes — although there is a separate level called Renoun where you only earn in PvP.

The PvE quests are fairly trite, being mostly “go forth and kill me 10 of these.” One nice variation is a Public Quest. When you go into an area, you’ll get a pop up to “kill x of this.” Any player in the area killing these contributes to the kill total. Participating in these earns you some influence you can use to buy better gear — almost all the gear upgrades I found were earned from either Influence or Renoun rewards.

There are also PvP quests relating to capturing enemy turf or killing other players. You can also play PvP scenarios, which are similar to a Team Fortress-type map. You’ll go into a small area and need to fight other player for control of a few objectives. This is where I had the most fun. The battles are short, usually fairly intense, and last about 15 minutes. You can queue up for one with a press of a button. When enough players are queued up, the scenario will begin. When it’s completed the game will return your previous location. Being able to gain levels doing this relieves some of the boredom attached to just running quests.

There are a couple of amusing bones EA has thrown to Mac players. All Mac players unlock an in-game title, “I’m a(n) Order/Destruction” depending on your faction. If PC/Mac people kill enough of each other, you can also unlock a secret title.

Competition

Warhammer’s biggest competition on the Mac is World of Warcraft, and in many ways it’s not a fair comparision. WoW has years of polish behind it and only has a PvE mode (the PvP stuff is more of a tack-on than a core game component as it is in WAR). There is a visual similarity between the two, but it’s ironic. Warhammer Online is based on the old Game Designers miniatures game, which WoW borrowed from for its look. However, I found the look to not be a sharp as WoW, and the characters models were a little bland by today’s standards.

One of the benchmarks I’ve used when reviewing games to judge their elusive “fun” factor is how many times I bullcrap myself into thinking, “I’m just logging in to check one thing,” knowing full well I’m going to be in there for at least an hour. That about sums up my weekend with WAR. You can download a free, 10 day trial here. Existing customers, aka, yous Windoze folks, can download the client for free.

It’s a game series that’s gotten much love over the years, despite, or perhaps because of, the cheesy live action cut scenes featuring actors like Tim Curry. Now, Command & Conquer comes to the iPhone with Command & Conquer: Red Alert ($9.99, iTunes link), named after its PC and console counterpart released in 1996.

How well does the beloved RTS translate to the iPhone platform? That depends on what you’re looking to get out of the game. EA Mobile has clearly tried to faithfully translate the experience, but as with any translation, no perfect one-to-one relationship can exist. What does come through, however, is definitely worth looking at.

Graphics & Audio

Perhaps just to make me sad, EA chose not to go with live action mission briefings for this installment of the series, opting instead to brief you with static cartoon images and scrollable text. It’s not nearly as pleasant as hammy acting, but it does get the job done and prepare you adequately for the in-game action.

In-game graphics look great, and are probably a bit of an improvement over their original counterparts in the PC version. Units are clearly distinguishable from one another, animations are smooth, and the visual special effects look good. My sole complaint for the in-game look of things is that units can tend to stack, which renders some of them invisible. It’s confusing and can hamper effective unit management.

Sound is good, with music from Red Alert 3, which is the latest game in the series for the PC and consoles. In-game voices are well-recorded and clear, as are most sound effects. Again, the lack of audio in briefings and other between-action components is a little disappointing, but not terribly so.

Gameplay

As with any real-time strategy port for the iPhone, the key to enjoyable gameplay lies in making sure the controls are well-designed and intuitive. This can be particularly challenging even when porting RTS games to consoles from the PC, so EA has its work cut out for it with Command & Conquer on the iPhone.

Selecting and commanding individual units on the iPhone is simple enough. You touch a unit to select it, and touch somewhere else to tell it where to go or what to attack. To select multiple units, you have to activate a selection tool by clicking an icon in the lower left-hand corner. At first it wasn’t clear (I hadn’t reached that part in the tutorial yet) and I tried tapping and dragging and two-finger pinch and zoom type gestures.

Once you have selected a group of units, though, you can assign them to a command group using another icon at the lower left of the screen. This assigns them to one of three slots on the left, and allows you to re-select that group at any time with a simple tap. It’s the saving grace of the game, control-wise, and I wish there were more than three spots available to assign unit groups to.

The campaigns are fun, and not too challenging. There is both a Soviet and an Allied campaign, each of which contains five chapters, and there’s a skirmish mode with customizable starting resources and different maps, which really adds to the replay value of the game.

All told, EA Mobile does a great job skirting the limitations of the iPhone’s controls, and provides ample gameplay while still retaining a fairly casual feel, so that you can pick it up and put it down as necessary between meetings or while commuting.

Verdict

For an iPhone game, Command & Conquer: Red Alert feels polished and professional, but it leaves me wanting something more. I can’t help but yearn for the easier controls and richer storyline and gameplay of the PC version, which may in fact be what EA was intending. Perhaps the iPhone game is meant as a sort of teaser demo to attract new customers to the PC/console line. Either way, despite solid gameplay, Red Alert left me underwhelmed. I’d wait for the inevitable price drop to $6.99 or less before picking this one up.

I’m going to get this out of the way right now: Dungeon Hunter is Gameloft’s version of Diablo for the iPhone. No need to insult anyone’s intelligence by dancing around it. Now, does that mean I enjoy playing it any less? It does not.

In fact, Gameloft was very wise in porting this game to the iPhone platform. As far as traditional-style games on Apple portables go, control issues can tend to muddy an otherwise well-developed user experience. Innovative platform-targeted titles like Rolando escape these nagging issues, but a straight-up hack-and-slash RPG is a different fish.

Graphics and Audio

The look and sound of this game are exactly what you would expect if you’ve played previous Gameloft offerings like Hero of Sparta or Assassin’s Creed. You view things from a third-person, three-quarters perspective, which is right in line with the Diablo games it so liberally borrows from.

Your character’s look changes depending upon what class you choose, and what items you have equipped. It doesn’t display quite the level of detail and variety that you get from Diablo 2, but it does do a fair job of keeping things interesting for those easily bored by their character’s avatar.

Monsters and NPCs on the other hand get recycled quite a bit, but let’s be honest, all we’re looking for here is a point-and-click experience fest, and for those purposes, the baddies serve well enough.

In terms of sound, Dungeon Hunter doesn’t offend, but the score also won’t be claiming any awards any time soon. If you tire of vaguely ominous orchestral music, however, there is the nice feature of a built-in music player complete with unfettered access to your iPhone’s music library in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, tucked away nicely where it doesn’t get in the way of anything.

Classes, Attributes and Skills

You can choose from three different classes in Dungeon Hunter. There’s the basic Warrior, the more lightly clad Rogue, and finally the Mage, who is obviously the chief magic user in the bunch. I like the simplicity of class choice, since you don’t get all muddled up trying to choose between shades of difference, like those that exist between a Warrior and a Barbarian. I chose a Warrior as my first character, as I always do, because magic is girly and lame.

Speaking of girly, ladies are out of luck with avatar choices, since there aren’t any heroes of the female persuasion to choose from. That might be story-driven, since you take on the role of the recently deceased king of the land, but I suspect it has more to do with making game design and coding easier.

Each class will assign your attribute points according to their strengths. You can later assign two points per level as you progress in the game towards the attribute of your choosing. I’ve been throwing mine around with abandon, and so far it hasn’t negatively affected gameplay.

Skills are class-specific, and include both active attacks and spells and passive buffs. There is not very much variety here, but each skill has a number of levels so you won’t soon run out of places to put the points you acquire when you level up. In addition to these, you get a Fairy spell that changes depending on which Fairy you currently have equipped. You find these creatures throughout the game.

Gameplay

In Dungeon Hunter, the controls shine, so long as you have click-where-you-want-to-go mode enabled, which is off by default. You can use the virtual stick if you want, as has been the standard for Gameloft’s other action-adventure titles, but tapping where you want to move just feels natural in a Diablo-esque title, and it works well on the iPhone. Spellcasting isn’t as smooth. You have to flick through your available skills to change which you want to use, so I just basically stick with one and put all my skill points into it.

As in Diablo, you travel from town to town and to various dungeons in between, following your central quest arc. You can also pick up a number of side quests along the way, many of which yield items, experience, or both. I wouldn’t call any of the side quests complex or overly detailed, but they also don’t feel tedious, so it works well.

Once you’ve cleared an area, you can either just quit to the map or fight your way back to the entrance to exit. You can also return any time you like to pick up items and defeat more enemies, which respawn. Helps with the occasional grinding that’s required to beat a boss.

Verdict

I paid $7 for this game, and I would gladly do so again. It may only provide a fraction of the addictive, life-ruining enjoyment that I derive from the Diablo series, but it provides it anywhere, any time via my iPhone, and it does this all with sound design and a certain amount of style to boot.

Arcade bowling style games are very popular. In the real world, skee-ball is probably the most recognized of these. In the iPhone world there have been several who have risen to the challenge, but Ramp Champ, the newest game from The Iconfactory and DSMediaLabs, brings a very interesting and addictive twist to this genre.

Boasting an interface designed by The Iconfactory (and award-winning designer Louie Mantia), Ramp Champ takes traditional skee-ball and throws it down in a series of four stylized arcade games, based on the idea of flicking balls at targets of varying points. Right out of the proverbial box, users can play a variety of mini-games, including ones set in a clown environment, an underwater environment, an arcade-style outer space environment or, for Apple fanboys out there, a classic “Icon Garden” style setting. Unlike traditional skee-ball, each environment has multiple targets of varying weight as well as hidden easter eggs.

Each mini-game rewards great gameplay by providing tickets, like a traditional arcade. A “loot” section showcases a page of prizes per each environment, allowing users to trade in tickets for a very diverse collection of prizes. Each mini-game also provides for three goals and awards players with collectible trophies upon completing those goals.

The game also supports in app purchasing of additional environments, including an Adventure Pack which adds ninja and tiki island themed levels as well as a Challenge Pack which adds fantasy and dental themed levels. These additional in app purchases are 99 cents and also include additional goals and prizes.

Ramp Champ is a very fun and addicting game and perfect for long term gameplay or just when you have a few minutes to spare. The original soundtrack and amazing graphics make this a definite must have. Ramp Champ is $1.99 and available on the App Store.

P.S. Among the easter eggs you might find in this game is everyone’s favorite dogcow, Clarus. When playing The Icon Garden level, knock over all of the icons and then one of the two differently colored flowers in the second wave. If you’ve played Ramp Champ, tell me what you think!

The first week of September has seen a deluge of new arrivals at the App Store. It’s time for me to search through the latest releases for iPhone and hand-pick my recommendations for the past seven days.

This week I’ve been looking at Button, Facebook, BlogPress and Quicksilver.

Button (Free)
One of my favorite sci-fi novels, “Better Than Life,” oscillates between a deep space distopia and an almost perfect Earth as it follows the surviving crew members of the Red Dwarf mining ship. It’s soon revealed that the crew’s collective vision of Earth is actually a highly addictive massively multiplayer online game beamed directly into their brains, leaving their real bodies in a seemingly catatonic state. Rather than take a giant leap towards this sinister style of multiplayer gaming, Button instead takes baby steps. There’s a big button, everyone around the world sees the button, when the button lights up you must push the button, sometimes you win a prize, usually you don’t. Button is effectively a nonsensical distraction that seems to tickle just the right bit of your brain. Plus, you can ramp up the futility by playing as a team. I’ve created a special team called tab just for readers of TheAppleBlog, come join my group and let’s push buttons together.

Facebook (Free)
The official Facebook app has finally received its first major update for some time, bringing the service’s iPhone implementation almost (but not quite) up to speed with the 3GS and 3.0 firmware. For starters, the app’s user interface has been streamlined and tidied up — gone are the tiny buttons, pointless scrollable horizontal groups bar and crash-happy inbox. The main feed benefits from having a clutter free interface and now incorporates likes and comments. The menu screen features several big chunky buttons, designed for ease of navigation. Notably, the app now allows video recording and uploads, a real boon for iPhone 3GS users. However, it’s seems that when Facebook update their app, there’s always something missing. In this case, there are no Push Notifications, an OS 3.0 feature which could have been designed solely for apps just like Facebook.

BlogPress ($2.99)
The official WordPress app just isn’t working out for me. While I appreciate the WordPress app being free, I’m still not impressed by the app’s sluggish navigation and overly technical user interface. In essence, the WordPress app doesn’t feel pretty and it doesn’t work as it should. With this in mind, I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement and BlogPress seems to be just the app to knock WordPress off my iPhone. The app features a WYSIWYG editor, incredibly important as you certainly don’t want to be tweaking your latest post’s code on your iPhone’s keyboard. There’s also video uploading, something which the WordPress app doesn’t currently support, handled by uploading your video to YouTube and then embedding within your latest post. BlogPress also supports posting simultaneously to multiple blog services, including Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, WordPress, Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal, Drupal and Joomla.

Quicksilver ($1.99)
And finally, while on the subject of replacing apps, I’ve been on the hunt for an alternative to Nimbuzz — while it’s an excellent feature-rich iPhone IM app, and free too, I’ve been feeling like I need a more streamlined solution. With it’s minimal iChat-esque interface, Quicksilver is the perfect app for a quick bit of iPhone IMing, with one caveat: it’s made for XMPP-compliant servers only, which, in non-geek-speak, means it’ll work with Google Talk but not MSN. The really great thing about Quicksilver is that it incorporates Push Notifications, making it more than worth the two buck asking price. When you close Quicksilver, you’re not logged out of chat, instead you’re status is changed to away. If one of your contacts should get in touch, the message will arrive on your iPhone as a push notification.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

It’s time to take a look at my recommendations for the iPhone, hand-picked from the week’s App Store releases.

This week I’ve been looking at Gomi, Ustream 3GS Recorder, Simon the Sorcerer and Minigore.

Gomi ($1.99)
I’ve been waiting for Gomi for what seems like an absolute age now. The game’s developer, Bovine Dragon, is a regular tweeter and so when I woke up this morning to read that Gomi had finally been approved by Apple and released to the App Store, without even rolling out of bed, I immediately purchased the app. I’ve mentioned it a few times over the past few months, but to recap over the premise, the game blends Katamari Damacy object-rolling with planet hopping à la Mario Galaxy. The graphics are so lo-fi they look to be drawn using MS Paint on an old IBM running Windows ‘98. It’s charming, fun from the start and really easy to get to grips with. Plus, for two bucks you get over 140 levels, eight minigames and loads of achievements and unlockables.

Ustream 3GS Recorder (Free)
We’re going to start seeing more apps that are exclusive to the iPhone 3GS as the weeks roll, on and Ustream 3GS Recorder is most definitely one of them. The app makes use of the iPhone 3GS’s video functionality, enabling you to record video on the fly. Although the app doesn’t support video trimming as with the iPhone’s native Camera app, there are some handy advantages to using Ustream. For avid social networkers, the really special thing about this app is that, alongside uploading to Ustream, the app can also publish your video on Facebook and YouTube. In effect, this free app is an easy way to activate Facebook uploading on your iPhone 3GS and will provide the perfect stopgap before Facebook comes out with its long awaited app update.

Simon the Sorcerer ($4.99)
Another week of releases and another classic retro title gets a refit for the iPhone. In the past few weeks we’ve had Space Invaders, Monkey Island, Flight of the Amazon Queen and now, rather unexpectedly, classic point ‘n’ click fun with Simon the Sorcerer. Plucky young Simon has been teleported in to a world of magic, wearing traditional sorcerer’s garb and with a typically teenage attitude, it’s up to him to defeat the bad guys and find a way home. While the games mentioned in previous weeks have been been updated for the iPhone, Simon the Sorcerer just seems to have been shrunk to fit the device. It’s still a great game though and, while it’s certainly a relic from a bygone era, it’s one worth dusting off and checking out.

Minigore (99 cents)
Behind the scenes app developers seem to be facing some serious issues, but that’s clearly not stopped a slew of brilliant games arriving at the App Store. The latest must-have game is Minigore, an ultra-cute shooter featuring a small square man called John Gore. The game is set in a forest arena inhabited by the sweetest looking bad-guys you’ll ever blow to bits. The perfectly implemented dual-controls hark back to old school arena shooters like Robotron and Smash TV and, when you’re not frantically racing round the forest avoiding getting eaten, you’ll also notice that the artwork is positively delicious.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

For its latest title, EA has brought Bioware’s Mass Effect to iPhone. This installment builds on the story from the original critically acclaimed console game.

Set in the same universe as the original console game, Mass Effect Galaxy features a rich story peppered with action-packed gunplay.

As you’d expect with a game set in the Mass Effect universe, the game is driven by a strong plot, leading you from one shoot out to the next. Imagine an episode of 24 set in outer-space featuring feuding alien races, with you as an intergalactic Jack Bauer.

Talk First, Shoot Later

The story is compelling, but the conversation branching — being able to guide your character through interactive dialogue scenes — seems like smoke and mirrors. More often than not it seems thst there’s a predetermined outcome to a conversation and that there’s nothing that can be done to change it.

Setting dialogue navigation aside though, the artwork and animation is impeccable. Instead of going for hi-res 3D motion graphic sequences, we’re treated to a cartoony take on the Mass Effect universe. Indeed it was so effective that I was left hankering for a Mass Effect Saturday morning cartoon.

Tilt ‘n’ Tote

The combat sequences, slotted in between each dialogue segment, are played from a birds-eye view. The controls are a great twist on an established genre: your mercenary fires automatically, it’s up to you to tilt the iPhone, moving him to a more strategic area of the map.

Unfortunately, on my iPhone 3G, the combat sequences suffer from slowdown. At times, the game is rendered unplayable to the point that I rebooted the iPhone several times throughout the game. Plus, the game suffers from an occasional bug whereby a combat sequence begins but you’re unable to control the main character. It’s a horrid bug and, for EA and BioWare, unexpected and improper.

There are also long loading times between combat rooms. Its frustrating enough to have to wait a minute or more to play through a 30 second sequence, it’s worse still that EA has seen fit to place advertisements on the loading screens. It’s a real drag to be advertised to in a premium app, especially when the advertising breaks up the story and ruins what little immersion the game has to offer.

Summing Up: Rotten Apple Award

EA needs to up its game on iPhone. It may be the big boy on console and PC, but young upstarts like ngMoco, Chillingo and BulkyPix are making better games — games that are fun and stable.

Gamers who are familiar with Mass Effect would be forgiven for expecting more from the iPhone iteration. The game’s bugs are a major disappointment and, while it may be an interesting play for avid followers of the franchise, this is one to avoid for everyone else.

Though no gaming platform has a shortage of “simulator” tycoon style games, few have enough engaging gameplay to really stand out among the crowd. Now Boarding, a tycoon style game revolving around routing passengers at an airport, is one of these little treasures and a great game to help you relax and escape from the real world.

The basic gist is that you are the owner of an airline and its home terminal, in charge of the amount and placement of seats, stores, and snacks (among other unlockable treasures). Your mission is simple. Ferry passengers from your airport to others. As your business grows, you can take on other destinations, more passengers and larger aircraft to handle the traffic.

The game is laid out as five “episodes” spanning various regions across the northern hemisphere. Individual cities within each episode have their own unique characteristics, such as Orlando being busier during the summer (due to its amusement parks). Strategy is essential as you grow your fleet of aircraft and choose which destinations to expand your airline service to next.

With unique graphics and an engaging soundtrack, gameplay is very upbeat and fun. Don’t be surprised to waste huge amounts of time as you play to unlock awards and achievements.

Inside your terminal, you are responsible for staffing appropriate positions (ticketing, gate attendant, customer service, docking) in addition to expanding your airline fleet, all while keeping within your budget. As traffic to your airline grows, you will be able to expand to offer more unique methods of transportation, including a helicopter, a 36 seat plane and a private jet.

As your airline business grows, so does the difficulty of keeping happy the hundreds of passengers that move throughout your terminal. As the pressure mounts and more passengers pile into your terminal than you can handle, they will start to get angry. When they have a melt down, the game is over.

Now Boarding started as a Flash-based game and, due to its nature, does require a pretty beefy system for decent gameplay. Users will need to have at least a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo or 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor or faster to play. On older Macs, performance may degrade as you progress higher into the game as your airline plays host to an increasing number of passengers. The game is built around the Adobe Air platform, so in addition to being compatible with Windows and Linux, it also runs just like any other standalone application, complete with its own icon.

Now Boarding is a great game that starts off simple and easy, but quickly scales in terms of difficulty and challenges. A demo version of Now Boarding is available at its website here. The full version costs $14.99. If you’ve had a chance to play, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Years ago I discovered a little futuristic hovercraft racing game on the PlayStation called Wipeout. The concept was simple, and in many ways it was pretty much the same gameplay as Mario Kart or Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart. What set it apart was that there were no cartoon graphics, and no toy weapons, just stunning futuristic graphics, unique craft handling (being hovercrafts) and the most important element: speed. These crafts could go really fast.

So as an avid fan of the Wipeout series, when I found out about Phaze I immediately had to try it. Phaze is pretty much a Wipeout clone for the iPhone. There’s nothing new added, it just takes the concept and translates it. This suits me fine. The question is how good the implementation is. Does it capture the magic that got me hooked to Wipeout all those years ago?

Game Mechanics

The basic game mechanics are simple and combine the following components: race track, hovercraft, weapons and three laps. As you fly your craft around with other computer opponents, the aim is to finish first, second or third. As you race around the track you can fly over special markers that will either give you an instant speed boost or drop a weapon into your slot. There are various weapons such as bombs you drop behind you, or missiles or rockets to launch at an opponent ahead of you. You can also pick up speed boosts to use at your strategic time, or shield top-ups.

You control your craft by turning your phone in the desired direction and adjust your speed by tilting the phone up or down. There are 10 different crafts to be unlocked over the game, requiring you to finish the game in Championship mode on various levels of difficulty. Of course, each craft handles differently and has a unique combination of power (speed), shield (take more damage) and agility (ease to control).

If you hit the side of the tracks, you slow down and take damage to your shield. Bumping into other opponents, or being hit with weapons, also damages your shield. When your shield is gone, you blow up. It’s not over; a new ship will get brought into play — but you suffer a significant time loss as this occurs. You can’t afford to blow up unless you’ve got a very strong lead on the pack.

There are 16 tracks, with most also requiring you to complete the game in Championship mode to unlock them. These are available in four difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. Once you’ve unlocked a track, it can then be played in Single Race mode.

What’s Great

I’m always very skeptical of accelerometer controls, but these handle impressively. They’re well tuned, and the sensitivity can also be adjusted manually in the options, although I found I didn’t need to touch them at all. I handed my iPhone to some friends who were also skeptical and they agreed — I had a hard time getting my phone back.

On my iPhone 3G the graphics and animations are very smooth and most importantly, that sense of speed is realized strongly — which is an absolutely crucial element to this type of game. One slight wrong move doesn’t just give you damage to your shields, but really slows you down. You feel it, along with the horrible metal grinding sound that provides great audible feedback.

The game autosaves when you exit it, even in mid-race, and allows you to have quick games while passing time without worrying about wasting any progress made. This isn’t absolutely stable, however. I received an SMS during game play and instead of saving my position and exiting cleanly, the game crashed — I lost several levels from my progress. This only happened once, however, and didn’t take me too long to catch up, so I suspect it was an anomaly.

What’s Missing

The biggest element missing from this game is an on-screen map overlay so that you can see where you are on the track, and more importantly, where the other players are. Knowing how far ahead or behind you are provides a crucial tactical advantage in these kind of games. Without it, you can feel like you are miles ahead and then with one small bump to the side of the track you get overtaken by three crafts without realizing they were even on your tail.

While you can choose to have the in-game music and sound effects or turn them off to keep listening to whatever you were playing on your iPhone, I’d prefer in-game sound effects with my music. Ideally they will update the game to support the 3.0 OS’s ability to select a personal playlist from the iPod.

While the graphics are smooth and look great, the tracks all have the same general look, except for the backgrounds for the level. A little more visual variety here would be nice. Additionally, a ‘mirror’ track mode would instantly turn the 16 provided tracks into 32 with little effort. You can also notice on some parts of tracks the clipping that occurs so only the next few segments of track is drawn. No doubt this is for speed, but it does look funny.

Summing Up

The issues with this game are minor, but for me, if addressed, would take this game from a Silver rating to a Gold. Ultimately, the comparison has to come back to Wipeout. The truth is that it doesn’t feel like a cheap Wipeout rip-off. It could be an official part of the family. It brings back those warm fuzzy feelings I had playing too much Wipeout on my PlayStation years ago, and has provided much enjoyment. For the small price, I think any other Wipeout fan would find the same.

Doom Resurrection is aptly named, the archetypal shooter having risen from the grave for the iPhone and iPod touch. The thing is, though, when the dead return, they never come back the same.

You know the story: future, Mars, research facility, teleportation experiments, hell unleashed. Mayhem ensues as you, the sole surviving marine, attempt to thwart the evil and escape, killing anything that moves along the way.

The game itself is clearly derived from Doom 3, the 2004 re-imagining of the PC franchise. Remade again for a handheld experience, Doom Resurrection is visually stunning. The textures, the models and the lighting all are superb, as are the sound effects. Doom Resurrection made me forget I was playing a game on a phone or a media player. The detailed graphics are something I would expect to see on a PlayStation Portable, and yet the frame rates are fluid on my iPhone 3G.

Controls

However, unlike the PSP, the lack of physical controls on Apple’s devices has condensed Doom Resurrection, too. At 80MB and eight levels of play, there is still plenty of game, but it’s a different kind of play.

Accelerometer = Aim/Look

The biggest change is the control scheme with the accelerometer being used to look and aim by tilting the device. It’s a responsive, well-designed implementation, as is the solution for player-controlled movement: eliminating it. A “shooter on rails” has been the pejorative refrain from critics describing the lack of free roaming in Doom Resurrection. Instead, the player is moved along a set path through the levels, pausing for combat and story exposition, the latter playing out in IM chat bubbles — voiceovers, please!

Doom Resurrection User Interface

The UI is built around the core of the Doom franchise: shooting things. Up to three weapons can be cycled through, most of which need reloading. Ammunition, as well as health packs, are scattered and hidden on the levels. Touching them on the screen picks them up, but since movement is guided, they can be easily missed.

Shake Move

Besides shooting, there are three other actions the player can take during the game. On the first few levels, fat zombies will attempt to grapple and bite. Shaking the device pushes them off.

Dodge Move

Dodging missile attacks like fireballs is accomplished by using the special move button located on the bottom, opposite the fire button. Timing is everything, and it’s best to learn early. Dodging is used throughout the game, as is cover.

Uncovered

Some enemies will stand off and shoot at you. In that situation, by toggling cover you can hide behind objects and avoid damage.

Under Cover

Whether behind cover or not, a yellow hexagon will appear as enemies fire. That shrinking hexagon represents enemy accuracy, and when it turns red you’ll start taking damage if you are out in the open.

Overall, the control scheme is great for a multitouch device. The question then becomes whether the game itself is worth playing, not to mention paying $9.99.

Gameplay

Three most important rules for Doom Resurrection: headshot, headshot, headshot.

Play begins with acclimation to the control scheme and introducing the story that continues throughout the game. While some exposition can be skipped, other dialogue has to be tapped through, annoyingly even on replay. The story and dialogue could be better, too. One character, a little plot device robot that follows you, makes sounds in lieu of speech. Does a game that’s based upon blowing bodies apart with a shotgun really need a cutsie R2-D2 knockoff?

You see this? This is my BOOMSTICK!

The repetition of the storytelling is a small annoyance; a larger one is the repetition of the killing. Sadly, there is no random spawning of monsters. The game is exactly the same, regardless of difficulty setting, and that would be the third disappointment. The four levels of difficulty are based upon how much damage attacks inflict. One other complaint would be that only a single saved game is allowed. Still, the complaints on play are small, and the praise deservedly big.

I said stay down! Bad dog! Here, have a chainsaw chew toy.

The first time through, around three hours at moderate difficulty, was a riot. The lack of roaming was never missed, the near-constant combat keeping me fully engaged. It’s not just point and shoot, either.

Two-headed monkey demons, meet the chaingun, chaingun, demon monkeys.

Nicely migrated from the franchise is the need to match weapon to foe. There are eight seven weapons: assault rife, shotgun, double-barrel shotgun, chainsaw, chaingun, plasma rifle, and, of course, the BFG. In my opinion, the assault rifle is a concession to the casual gamer, what with an infinite ammo supply, but the rest require judicious use of supplies.

Attention, monsters, there’s a blue light special on aisle nine, the plasma gun.

The best firing solution is short bursts when possible. If not, switching weapons often takes less time than reloading. Frantically reloading while an unspeakable evil charges down a hallway is another hallmark of Doom. Resist the Pavlovian urge to reload after every kill, as there is often an immediate follow-up attack.

BFG: good times, good times

Of course, bosses require an entirely different approach: biggest weapon to smallest, full auto, keep shooting. The exception is the BFG. That weapon requires holding the fire button down as long as possible, releasing a correspondingly large plasma discharge. I love the BFG, and I love Doom Resurrection.

Summing Up: Gold Award

Doom Resurrection is bloody fun, if you swing that way. For those that do, but worry over a “rails” ride, Doom Resurrection is “rails” like a roller coaster. For those wary of repetitious play, the replay value is in the perfect level as scored at the end. New features will diversify play with future updates like leaderboards, downloadable content and cooperative multiplayer, but even without new play, Doom Resurrection is golden.

Scoring a Level

Doom Resurrection is the best game to date for the iPhone and iPod touch. Seriously, it is, and if $9.99 seems like a lot, it’s really not, not for a game that can compete with content on dedicated handhelds like the PSP. The big brains at id Software have done it by creating the next evolutionary leap in casual gaming, and it has teeth like razor blades.

Rolando 2 is the sequel to Rolando, a game which proved that the iPhone can compete with Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS in the handheld console wars.

Just over a year after opening, the App Store is coming into its own. Indeed, there’s the dodgy dirge of novelty joke apps, but at the other end of the spectrum, we’re seeing publishers like ngmoco producing smart and fun apps.

Ngmoco is the publisher that picked up the original Rolando, reviewed here back in December, and pushed it in to the realms of essential iPhone titles. Rolando 2 is ngmoco’s latest release. The game features tilting puzzle platforming action with music from Mr. Scruff, and includes Plus+ network integration for achievement and score tracking.

Tap ‘n’ Tilt

Setting the scene for the game’s exotic island adventure, the opening sequence sees a deadly disease threatening the Kingdom of Rolando’s inhabitants. It’s up to the crew of the HMS Plunderful, joined by Rolando’s dozy royalty, to travel to a distant land in search of the cure.

Alongside setting up the game’s story, the playable opening sequence also acts as a handy tutorial. You play The Finger, able to control various Rolando characters and tweak elements of the environment.

Just like the original, the controls are ingeniously simple: tap an individual Rolando, or drag a box around several, then just tilt your iPhone to get them rolling. A quick swipe upwards triggers a jump, and certain yellow objects dotted around the environment can be tapped, dragged and twisted in various ways.

Rolling in New Features

Levels are a blend of platforming and puzzling — avoiding the bad guys and ensuring safe passage to the exit for the jaunty little Rolandos. Just like the original Rolando, most maps are centered around block pushing, button triggering and door opening.

Rolando 2 builds on the original, though, introducing new features and twists every few levels. This litany of loveliness takes the game from a simple platforming adventure into the realm of a multicolor spectacle.

There are the bomb trees, carrying, as nature apparently intended, a range of different bombs, including rolling sticky bombs and, less destructive but no less useful, water bombs — great for growing giant plants from tiny shrubs.

There’s the neanderthal-esque native, Rolando, who, after eating a hot chili, inflates and begins floating through the level. And there’s the Boom Finger which transforms your own finger into a digit of destruction, allowing you to off enemies and forge new paths through the levels.

If there’s one drawback to the game’s seemingly constant inventiveness, it’s that it occasionally feels a tad overwhelming — there are so many ideas crammed in, it obscures the purity of the game’s fundamentally fun tilt ‘n’ roll controls.

Ears & Eyes

On music and artwork duties, both Mr. Scruff and Mikko Walamies have returned. Walamies is behind the game’s charming characters, and he’s done so much with so little, injecting humor and character into a cast of, essentially, rolling ball faces.

The game exceeds expectations in the artwork department, too: Rolando 2 is now in 3-D, from the game’s Super Mario World-style game hub, to each individually crafted level.

Pie-eating, tea-drinking, funk-spinning Manchester DJ Mr. Scruff also features in Rolando 2. Not only do his gorgeous grooves accompany each level, he’s even got his own Music Shack where you’re able to take a leisurely roll through the soundtrack.

Diamonds & Disappointments

The iPhone’s connectivity isn’t forgotten, either. Ngmoco has integrated Plus+, a network connecting iPhone gamers with each other. You’re able to share scores, issue challenges to other players, and track in-game achievements.

There are a few issues, though. A sound is missing here and there, and certain game objects intrude on the gameplay, but it’s so incredibly infrequent.

My concern is that the constant barrage of new ideas and gameplay twists means that the game, like its petite, rotund heroes do so frequently, will become lost in a confusing jungle filled with shiny, new playthings.

I’ve heaped on praise and extolled its many magnificent moments, and yet it must be noted that there’s room, albeit a very tiny bit of room, for improvement.

Summing Up: Golden Apple Award

Rolando 2 is a wonderful game. What’s more, it exploits the iPhone as a gaming platform so effectively. It makes use of the iPhone’s user interface, never falling back on virtual control-pad buttons. There’s connectivity with Plus+ and even music from Scruff.

The characters look good enough to consume as, I imagine, some of the island’s native tribe members would do so, given half the chance. And the gameplay is fundamentally fun and consistently inventive.

All that sounds too analytical, though. It’s a convoluted way of trying to say it’s really a very good game. A more effective way of summing it up would be to give Rolando 2 TheAppleBlog’s coveted Golden Apple Award, so that’s what I’ve done.

All that’s left to say is that Rolando 2 is the new benchmark for iPhone gaming and, as such, I highly recommend that you download it.

I think I may have achieved a grasp of Gameloft’s concept design strategy for their iPhone catalog. It seems to have something to do with being “inspired” by titles and franchises that are already wildly successful. You can’t help but see the similarity between Hero of Sparta and God of War (even syntactically). Likewise, with Rise of Lost Empires ($4.99, iTunes link), their new real-time strategy game for the platform, which resembles a certain other title in which humans and orcs do battle strategically.

Don’t get me wrong, Gameloft’s “inspiration” strategy is not something I’m against. It has resulted in some very fun games to date, and Rise of Lost Empires is, hopefully, just one more opportunity for them to get iPhone gaming right with yet another lovely homage. If the original dev studios aren’t bringing the platform any love, I’d rather Gameloft did than no one at all.

RTS On a Phone?

Once upon a time, I was a devout real-time strategy fan; Warcraft, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, and so on. I like that they’re generally easy to grasp, but become very challenging very quickly. I also like building and resource management, which is something very few other types of games offer.

But on a phone? A touchscreen phone, no less? I used to play Warfare, Inc. on my Palm pilot back in the day, and the iPhone port was fairly successful, but in general, good RTS games require a depth which doesn’t seem to fit with the iPhone’s casual vibe.

Surprisingly, I found Rise of Lost Empire’s controls to be very intuitive and easy to use. Whether or not depth of play is sacrificed on the portable platform is another story.

Graphics & Audio

Rise of Lost Empire doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look amazing, either. The isometric perspective works very well for buildings and structures, but characters and sprites look a little generic and lazy, in my opinion. It all adds up to give the game sort of a retro/RTS traditionalist vibe, which is not a bad thing.

Audio is pretty good. Characters even have recorded vocal snippets for when you click on them, order them to do things, etc. I really appreciate that opposing factions have different death cries so that I can keep track of what’s going on, even if I’m not watching the action at the moment.

What surprised me about the game’s graphics was that even though I’m playing this on a 3GS, occasionally there is actual lag when the action gets intense. It only happens when there’s an inordinately large number of sprites sharing the screen at the same time, but considering how fast the game boots and loads, it still came as quite a shock.

Gameplay

Gameplay is where Rise really falls for me, and unfortunately it’s the most important category of all. I give credit to Gameloft for trying to find the right balance between gameplay depth and ease-of-use, given the platform, but I find that they don’t quite find the right mix. In fact, they may miss the mark on both counts.

The game takes resource gathering out of the equation, having revenue come in automatically from your home castle, and any farms you build. It takes the problem of commanding grunts or peons off your hands, but that’s an integral part of the RTS experience, and as a result Rise feels more like a shallow RPG (thanks to Hero leveling).

Finally, the difficulty seems manageable enough, but level design leads to massive gaps in how achievable a particular goal is. Castle defense against waves of enemies seems unmanageable, while simple attack-and-destroy missions require little more than a quick trigger on your hero’s “Heal” ability and a small group of tightly clustered soldiers.

Verdict

Lag issues and questionable difficulty scaling mar an otherwise nicely put-together iPhone RTS in Rise of Lost Empires. In other words, unless you have a really bad RTS itch, and you need to scratch it with an iPhone offering while you wait for Starcraft II to come out, you might want to skip this particular Gameloft offering. Try out the free version (iTunes link) before you go coughing up any cash, at least.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been completely engrossed in following Plants vs. Zombies. For those who haven’t heard, this isn’t about the Supreme Court case, but about the latest game from PopCap, makers of the infamous Bejeweled and Zuma games.

Planets? And Zombies? Do those even mix?

You may have seen the cute viral video that has been making its way around the net. Plants vs. Zombies is a combination of a tower-style defense game and its own unique take on an action strategy game. As one can surmise, the plot involves zombies taking over your home in a quest to eat your brains. (Sounds like a great movie plot, doesn’t it?)

Similar to tower games, zombies come toward your house in waves, with each zombie having its own strengths and weaknesses. Some wear road cones or metal cans on their heads. Some pole vault over your defenses. Some even do a little moonwalk, while others drive giant “zombinis.” Your defenses are your trusty collection of plants, ranging from those that shoot peas, to mushrooms that explode when zombies get near.

Gameplay

The graphics and gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies are simple and fun, and really help to give the game a high degree of replay value. Unlike most tower defense games, each plant takes on a personality of its own, adding even more fun to this uniquely clever, little game. With 49 plants and upgrades and 26 different types of zombies, the game quickly moves from a simple defense strategy to more complex levels requiring higher degrees of strategy. As you progress through the game, you unlock more defenses and upgrades, including cute plants such as melon-pults and cob-cannons.

The main game is a series of 50 levels played out across five different areas (your yard during the day, your yard at night, your backyard and pool, your backyard and pool at night with fog, and your roof). Mixed in with this are 10 extra survival levels, 18 extra puzzle games, and 20 extra mini-games, based on other popular games, like slot machines, Bejeweled, bowling, and one even inspired by Portal. I was really impressed by the diversity of all the mini-games and puzzles included, as they really kept me in the spirit of the game while not letting me get bored of fighting wave after wave of zombies.

As you progress through the game, unlocking more plants and collecting coins, you can use your winnings to buy items from your neighbor, Crazy Dave, to assist you in the game, or purchase plants and accessories for an included Zen garden. The Zen garden, much like you would imagine, provides a relaxing, safe haven from the zombies where you can grow plants. Watch them grow and dance before your eyes, and before you know it, you can sell them for a profit or just keep a nice Zen garden full of cute plants.

Final Thoughts

Plants vs. Zombies is available on the Mac and PC platforms and sells for $19.95. You can download a free trial version here. At the time of this release, it is not available for the iPhone, but based on PopCap’s commitment to porting its other games to the iPhone, it is likely just a matter of time. This game is great for casual play or long term, if you wish. Your progress is saved between sessions, making it easy to kick some zombies for five minutes and come back and finish them off later. But good luck putting this game down. It’s pretty addicting.

For even more fun, type “mustache” or “future” during gameplay for a good laugh.

Mixing neon visuals and techno music with top-down shooting action and inertia-based movement, circuit_strike.one pushes the limits of Apple hardware, and possibly the patience of the casual gamer.

Setting

The player is pilot of a virtual ship that hacks network nodes, in a stylized metaphor for a computer network. A mission is completed by destroying a shield generator protecting the data core, then by destroying the data core itself. Against the player are enemies rendered as wireframe polyhedrons, attacking by ramming and/or shooting the player’s ship.

Player firing laser and missing badly

An animation sequence follows loading, complete with an ancient modem sounding over a phone line, which is a nice touch. There’s a lot of that in circuit_strike.one. Die, and you are mocked in l33t speak. Attacking enemies pulse to the bass of the background music. The graphics are lavish: transparent overlays, trailing, lens flares, a visual experience designed as much to impress as to kill with distraction, as if the game wasn’t good at that already.

Controls

Basic control scheme

Everything about circuit_strike.one is deceptively easy to understand. The zoomed playing field is a wraparound with the shielded data core located in the center. You rotate the ship using the thumb-control on the left. Fire button is on the right. Tapping accelerates the ship, while swiping downward brakes. Braking is crucial because movement is inertia-based, though a ship in motion will not remain in motion forever. It feels not so much like flying through space, as sliding across ice, but the learning curve is steep. Here are a few tips.

• Don’t move. Seriously, that’s the most important advice for beginners. New players should practice turning the ship and firing at enemies before ever using thrusters.
• Tap, then swipe. That’s the way to learn moving and stopping the ship.
• Chasing powerups is a good way to learn basic movement.
• Intermediate movement begins with thrusting forward, spinning the ship and shooting back along the flight path.
• Learning to circle enemies by rotating the ship and thrusting, while strafing, too, is an advanced technique (at least for me).

Two enemies, ship, green Ghost Data

Gameplay

The main form of enemy attack is ramming the player’s ship. Enemies differ in that some are fast, some slow, some take multiple shots to kill, some split into more enemies or swarm, and at least one shoots back. One other common characteristic is that destroyed enemies leave behind Ghost Data, and Ghost Data means Bullet Time.

Bullet Time, 1.83 seconds left

By shaking the device, the player can induce a kind of slow-motion mode of play. While the player’s ship speed remains constant, enemies are perceptibly slow. In addition, the player’s ship becomes temporarily invulnerable, and that’s an invaluable feature for completing the level.

Top left, Shield Generator, bottom left, Turret, center, Imminent Death

Shield generators are defended by stationary turrets which track the player’s ship and shoot projectiles. While taking out the turret is not required to destroy the shield generator, it’s a good idea. However, it’s also a good idea to do so without using Bullet Time.

Data Core, top left, overlaid by timer, 4.04 seconds left

Once all the shield generators are destroyed, the data core, which is located in the center of the playing field, is vulnerable. It will take several seconds of constant fire before the data core is destroyed and the level completed. This is the best use of Bullet Time, as it also slows the self-destruct timer. Advancing to the next level means more enemies, more shield generators, and less time to destroy the Data Core. That’s circuit_strike.one, and that’s why I hate it.

Summing Up: Silver Rating

I hate circuit_strike.one, and that’s the highest compliment that I can pay any game. It’s the kind of hate that brings me back again and again to try to beat it — not play it. That is the difference between “hardcore” and “casual” gaming for me, and that’s why circuit_strike.one may not be for everyone. There’s also the occasional freezing glitch during play, most likely from my iPhone 3G receiving a beat down rendering the visuals. I contacted the developer, and an update will be forthcoming. It addresses memory overhead and allows the player to reduce visuals and other CPU-intensive settings.

At 99 cents, it’s not about the money, but your time. Whether or not you want to make the kind of investment required to play circuit_strike.one comes down to how much of a challenge you are looking for. I strongly recommend finding out.

One of the great things about gaming on the iPhone is the mindless entertainment it provides on my long commute. When that mindless entertainment actually forces me to use my brain, it’s a bonus.

At its core, Bookworm is a simple game. You have a grid of randomly-placed letters from which you form words that at least three letters long. After you use the tiles, remaining ones are shifted down and new letters appear at the top. The goal is to earn as many points as possible. You earn more points for longer words. If you create a lot of short or common words like “the,” burning tiles will appear. A burning tile is bad news. If that little fireball hits the bottom of the screen, the game is over.

While you can’t move the tiles around, if there’s a section you can’t make any words from, you can shake the iPhone to redistribute the letters. Doing so, however, increases the likelihood burning tiles will make their unwelcome appearance. It’s an “in case of emergency” feature to try and salvage a game gone bad.

There are ways you can increase your score other than using big words. Occasionally, you’ll get a flashing tile on the screen; using that tile earns you extra points. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, Bookworm displays a bonus word. If you create that word, you’ll see a nice increase in points. You also earn a bonus if you make all the words in a category — if you make hammer, a screen will pop up with all the other words in the tools category, for example.

As you earn points and gain levels, the tile distribution increases the challenge and you’ll also see more burning tiles appear. This is one of the more aggravating parts of the game. It’s a real bear to form words when one quadrant of your grid is seemingly made up entirely of the letters “y” and “t.” My other frustration is that the dictionary can be lacking. While I don’t expect it to contain certain four-letter words I’m fond of using, there were a few times it refused to accept words I know existed.

In addition to the Classic Game mode I’ve just told you about, there’s a mode called Timed Game. If the Classic Game has the pace of a leisurely walk through a park, the Timed Game feels like you’re blasting through security while trying to catch a plane. Burning tiles will form at set intervals and if they reach the bottom, like in Classic, it’s the end of the game. I didn’t like this mode at all. My brain kept freezing trying to form words. I much preferred the slower pace of the regular game.

Bookworm is $4.99 on the App Store, and I found it well worth the price. It’s my current game of choice when I’m in line behind someone writing a check for 69 cents and they forgot their Ralph’s card.

A genie, a load of balls, and an ancient labyrinth come together to create a frustrating, but fun, puzzler.

One of the big boys in the movie biz, Warner Bros., has been solidly churning out iPhone apps for the past few months. Most of these apps have been global franchises, though, including Terminator Salvation, Watchmen and — the double whammy of brand-names — LEGO Batman.

Without a movie, cartoon series, or line of toys, Stuck Genie is an entirely original game. Containing 73 puzzles, the game challenges you to complete each one and earn the highest score.

You Look Like You’re Stuck

It’s immediately clear that the game is worthy of the Warner Bros. name. It’s bright and colorful, instantly pleasing to the eye and, although it’s not an established brand, the game has an artwork style that is very much its own.

The attention to detail, especially important from such a big publisher, pervades almost every aspect of the game. Even the name-entry screen is fun, finding you spinning an alphabet wheel, and dragging letters around to spell your name.

Musically, the game features a chill-out soundtrack pinched straight from the beaches of Ibiza. It’s absolutely out of character for a puzzle game — especially one featuring a mischievous cartoon genie.

And yet it works: When the puzzles get tougher, the mellow background music makes it feel more like you’re chillaxing, as opposed to seriously flexing your cognitive problem-solving muscles.

Control Your Inner Genie

Before jumping into the first level proper, there’s a tutorial section. The tutorial explains the basics: By tapping and dragging, you control an orange ball moving through a labyrinth.

Your aim, in each level, is to collect the other balls dotted around the maze. The mazes are incredibly simple, and collecting the balls is achieved simply by colliding with them.

The real challenge is that the balls stick to your orange ball as you collect them; your shape grows and changes with each added ball. Maneuvering through the maze becomes tougher as you collect each ball, and forward planning is key to solving each puzzle.

Misadventures in the Maze

My sojourn through the freaky genie’s labyrinth hit a major roadblock, though. Closing the app to take a break, due to a tough level, I returned hours later to be sent back to the start of level one.

Apparently, Stuck Genie features no auto-save functionality. This means that to save, you have to exit the game by first pausing it and then clicking exit (which instigates a save). Simply tapping the iPhone’s Home button will exit, but it won’t save.

Furthermore, after working my way back to the tough level I’d been stuck on, I discovered that there’s no rest or rewind button. This is an all but essential feature for this genre of puzzle game.

To reset the level, you have to open the menu and select rewind; it doesn’t ruin the game, but it’s an oversight nonetheless. Far more preferable would be, say, tapping the genie to use a magical time-reversing crystal, or even just a plain old rewind/reset button.

Summing Up

There’s something about the cartoony yet ornate artwork, which, when melded with the Café del Mar-esque chill-out soundtrack make for a very mellow but challenging puzzler.

This mellow vibe is immensely important in Stuck Genie’s case, because some of the puzzles had me literally roaring with frustration — the good kind of frustration, though, when you know you’re being beat by a devious puzzle and you’ve just got to solve it.

Despite being so much fun from the off, the difficulty curve was unexpectedly steep. Nevertheless, fans of challenging puzzlers should download Stuck Genie and get stuck in immediately.

I was not terribly impressed with The Sims 3 for iPhone, but as I said in my review, it did whet my appetite for the Mac desktop version of the game. So much so that I went out yesterday afternoon to pick it up. Best Buy was all out of the collector’s edition, but I wasn’t committed to the idea of carrying around a Plumbob USB drive anyway, so I picked up the regular copy for $49.95 and got to playing god.

And play it I did. I played for nine straight hours yesterday, and another few today, eating in a hurried frenzy only when my Sim was sleeping. All for you…a truly selfless act. Here’s what I found as a result of my living-by-proxy marathon.

Graphics

The Sims 3 definitely looks better than its predecessors. Objects and sims are more detailed, textures are smoother, and animations are better looking. The real difference with regards to graphics, however, doesn’t have to do with any landmark improvements in the basics (there aren’t any astounding changes), but rather with the way the world as a whole is set up.

Nice, interactive vistas

The Sims experience has always been primarily compartmentalized, with your house being one location, and social settings and the houses of others being entirely different, closed-off modules. In The Sims 3, the walls between modules are largely taken down. If you zoom out, and pan, you can see and interact with your neighbors’ houses, parks, and community buildings, and even the ocean.

Clicking on objects that you can see results in actions being made available, without ever having to exit out to a town map. The town map is still available, though, in case you want more simple navigation across greater distances.

Visually, the open world makes The Sims 3 look and feel much more like the life simulator it’s meant to be, and it’s one of the biggest reasons to upgrade from The Sims 2, in my opinion.

My test machine was an iMac with 4GBs of RAM running an ATI Radeon 2600HD graphics card. The game should run fine any any computer using the new NVIDIA cards, too.

Sound

Simish is back in full force, and it sounds just as silly as ever. They seem to say “zune” a lot more frequently than most other words, so either that’s the sim version of “the” or Microsoft’s done some very keen product placement.

Sweatin' to the oldies

Music is well done again in The Sims 3, with a decent variety of tracks available for your stereo systems, and some genuinely pleasant sounds coming from your sim’s guitar if you build up their Music ability.

Other ambient sounds are all fine, although it does seem at times like the game is far too quiet considering everything that’s going on. I suppose finding a nice balance between too noisy and too quietly for a life simulator like this would be quite the challenge, and it’s the type of game that you like to have something else on while playing anyway.

Gameplay

Let’s take a look at a few different aspects of gameplay within the new Sims.

Work

As in real life, I generally prefer to keep my options open and succeed as a Sims freelancer by selling paintings, working as a writer, and, new in Sims 3, selling the fish that I catch. The last one is not one that I actually do in real life, in case you were wondering. No good fishing spots in Toronto, is the problem.

For the sake of this review, I decided to pursue a career in rock stardom to see what sticking to the more conventional professional pursuits available in the game was like.

As in previous games, in order to earn promotions in your chosen field, you have to build up your skills and keep your mood elevated. Depending on what you do, you also might have to strive to get along well with your co-workers, and in The Sims 3, you actually know which fellow sim is your boss, and you can butter them up.

I found career building not quite as challenging as in previous versions, which is good because other aspects of the game are now much more rich and deserving of attention. Also, I tend to forget that your sims now have a limited lifespan (since Sims 2), so the pacing is actually entirely appropriate. Currently, I’m a pop star, but I’m approaching retirement age, so I’m not sure I’ll reach the top of my career ladder.

This is where I rock sold out crowds

Work is much more interesting than in past games because you can influence your performance by changing how you are working. A context menu attached to the task in the upper right-hand corner of the screen lets you choose between a variety of different ways of working, including working hard and slacking off, which affect your mood and job performance. This is a huge improvement over the hours of doing nothing in previous versions.

Play

There’s so much for your sims to do in their spare time in this game that it hardly feels like they have any. As mentioned above, you can go fishing, and check out various other activities in town. You can also grow your own food by gardening, and paint as in prior installments.

Frankly, I didn’t find time to do much in town, though the options are numerous. In-town activities also include random events like sales, concerts (both performing and attending), and chess competitions. I actually ended up trying to find mood modifying cheats so that I could enjoy them all, but no such luck.

Life in General

Overall, the experience is just far more rich and detailed than in previous versions. They’ve taken out some things that were annoying, and added some that are much more fun, so it doesn’t feel too cluttered. That said, I think trying to further detail day-to-day affairs would really hamper my enjoyment of the franchise. As it is, it feels like too much to do, too little time, which is exactly the opposite of the iPhone version.

Me playing a computer game in the computer game I'm playing

Verdict

If you like the previous Sims games, you definitely won’t be disappointed with Sims 3. Some things have been taken out, but better things have been added, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience overall. This is a must-have for Mac gamers.

It arrived shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the same day as the release of the desktop version, and I was all over it. “Pumped” would probably be the best way to describe me at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning as my iPhone was syncing with my Mac mini and the Sims 3 ($9.99, iTunes link) was being installed.

I only briefly tested the game last night, but today, I spent many an hour becoming well acquainted with EA’s latest offering for Apple’s mobile platform. So much so that I was tempted to run out and buy The Sims 3 right away. In some circles, they call that a “starter drug.”

But does The Sims 3 for iPhone hold up as a game in its own right? After playing for several hours, and looking at all aspects of the stripped-down portable version, I think I can finally answer that question.

Graphics

The Sims 2 was quite the graphics pig by Mac standards. I remember being able to run it on my black polycarbonate MacBook, but just barely, and it definitely wasn’t a pleasurable experience. Sims 3 for iPhone acknowledges the limits of the platform, but still gives you a look and feel that is true to The Sims franchise.

One of the limitations of the portable version is a significantly reduced character customization engine. People generally look similar, but at the resolution the game is rendered at, it isn’t that big of a deal. You can still get a character to more or less resemble yourself, so long as you’re fairly average-looking.

There are some clipping issues in the game where there shouldn’t be, and the isometric perspective and camera controls sometimes make it annoying to perform certain actions and interact with other Sims. Some graphics (the fish, specifically) are just re-colored to cut corners, which I find a little sloppy in a game of this caliber. By and large, though, graphics issues are minor and not cause for serious complaint.

Sound

Music is typically Sims-ish (light, whimsical), but is only really active when you change locations/activities. It fades out pretty quickly, and then you’re left with absolute silence (no sound effects, either). Buying a stereo allows you to play Sim-ish music, and hear that now-familiar nonsense language, but it quickly becomes grating, in my opinion. Sound is definitely not this game’s strongest suit.

Control

Generally, controls work the way you’d expect them to on a touch-sensitive Apple device. You tap things you want to interact with, which brings up a menu of options from which to select. Some menus have sub-menus, and some are can be scrolled through in order to access more options (took me a little while to figure this out). But they’re relatively simple, which is a smart move considering the platform.

Camera controls are also fairly straightforward. Slide your finger around the screen to pan the camera, and use a visual slider on the right-hand side of the display to zoom in and out. To rotate the view, you touch with two fingers and move your fingers clockwise or counter-clockwise accordingly. Pinch-zooming seems like it would’ve been a perfect fit, but it’s possible developers decided against it due to interference with camera rotation.

Mini-game controls leave something to be desired. While cooking, you have to tap on boiling pots to select and raise them, then shake your iPhone to cool down the pot you’re holding. The game is incredibly easy, but such fidgety controls and odd positioning make it a little frustrating at times.

Gameplay

Your main task in The Sims 3 is to keep your Sim happy, hale, and hearty. This goal is a lot easier to achieve than it is in the desktop version, having presumably been tuned down to accommodate the more casual mobile platform of the iPhone and iPod touch.

To give you an idea of how easy it is, by the end of the first weekend (I started my job at City Hall on a Thursday), I was Vice President, romantically involved with my boss, and friends with everyone in town. Shortly after that, I married another woman, and upgraded my house. At no point did my satisfaction meter dip below “Very Happy.”

There are some interesting new elements for veteran players thanks to mini-games like cooking, repairing things and fishing. I’ve described the cooking game above. To repair an object, for example, you have to swap out broken parts for good ones on a circuit board before the timer runs out.

Fishing, for me, is probably one of my favorite aspects of the game. To do it, you buy a Fishing Kit at the hobby shop, visit the lake in the middle of town, and tap on a Fishing Spot action icon. You can catch a few different kinds of fish, all of which carry a different value at the town’s store. I quickly mastered the fishing skill, and it then became a very profitable hobby. Much more profitable than my day job as Vice President, in fact. Fishing bought me an upgraded house, a big-screen TV and a fancy new bed, all in one day.

Verdict

Depending on what you’re expecting, you might want to pass on The Sims 3 for the iPhone. It starts out as a fun, addictive little game, but it quickly becomes boring and repetitive. And the speed with which you accomplish goals results in little satisfaction when you do well. EA may have wanted to dial down the difficulty to accommodate casual players, but even the most casual of players will find this far too easy, I fear.

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost. It’s still a Sims game, and as such, I’ll probably keep going back to it just to accumulate enough cash to buy all the nicest furniture available. Also, the demo at the initial iPhone 3.0 event and some in-game clues (the Pawn Shop, for instance, which isn’t yet open for business), leads me to believe that EA has much more planned for The Sims 3.0 following the release of 3.0.

For now, save your money for something more important. Like The Sims 3 for Mac.

A bag of metal balls, a rockabilly soundtrack, exploding pegs: Rockchinko is the pachinko machine from hell.

Harking back to the old American parlor game Corinthian Bagatelle, pachinko has captured the imagination, and yen, of Japan. While the game may not have invaded Western casinos, there’s a steady stream of pachinko apps arriving for the iPhone.

Rockchinko gives pachinko an injection of rock ‘n’ roll, featuring physics-defying tilting, plectrum powerups and tons of guitars across more than 40 levels.

Pinball Wizard

Breaking away from the seedy glitz and smokey fog of traditional pachinko parlors, Rockchinko restyles pachinko’s dated look for the rock generation — installing a twisted metal board coated in a neon glow.

The design can be a little inconsistent at times though, one moment shiny metal, the next pixellated skulls — it’s a messy milieu that floats between edgy and geeky.

Of course, there’s a rocking soundtrack too: Each stage is based on a different sub-genre, including blues, rockabilly and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll. Although none of the music seems to be directly licensed from well-known bands, à la Tap Tap Revenge, the music certainly captures the theme of the game.

Scales and Modes

There are three main game modes, two of which are initially locked and unavailable. To unlock the two game modes, you’ll have to complete Normal Mode — a feat that’ll only take a couple of hours at most for a new player.

Once Normal Mode has been beaten, Randomizer and Rock Mode are unlocked. Randomizer allows you to play through the array of stages on offer in Normal mode in a random order — it’s simple and effective, and revisiting even the early levels can still present a challenge to seasoned players.

The third game mode, Rockstar, contains a set list of brand-new stages to launch, tilt and turn through. The Rockstar stages blend together all the previous features and gameplay twists discovered in Normal Mode.

Everyone Can Play Guitar

The aim of each level is to destroy all the red pegs by bouncing your metal ball around the stage. The balls are fired from the funnel at the top of the screen, which can be adjusted by dragging side to side.

Tapping anywhere on the screen launches your shot and, once the ball is in play, the iPhone can be tilted, affecting the ball’s direction. With enough practice it’s possible to move the ball around the playing field, squeezing out each shot’s destructive potential.

There are obstacles, too, unlocked as you progress through Normal Mode. Windmills, moving platforms, and warp holes can prove formidable hindrances or useful tools, depending on your perspective. Also enhancing the puzzle aspect of the game is a range of effective powerups, from the tame Triple Ball to the impressive Flame Thrower and bombastic Mega Ball.

Destroying all but one red peg instantly throws the game into “Matrix”-esque slow-motion. The camera dramatically crash zooms on your ball and you’re given full control, even the ability to turn the iPhone upside down, sending your ball plummeting upwards and defying the laws of physics.

As your metal ball speeds across the screen, combusting any pegs it collides with, you’re thrown in to slow-mo for your coup de grâce. Oddly, this destructive slow-mo finale reminds me of Burn Out (the hyper-destructive crash and burn driving game) as it’s so exciting, needlessly dramatic, and satisfying.

Summing Up

Even with the levels I couldn’t beat on first try, I knew I could adjust my strategy, come back and keep advancing through the game. And that’s where Rockchinko introduces depth. You’ll need to be strategic, planning out your shots and tilts before hand, for each stage.

There’s still work that needs to be done, though. It needs more stages, online scoring, and some kind of competitive element. Plus the load times are abominable. However, the main game is executed almost perfectly. It’s incredibly satisfying, so much fun, and has consistently left me wanting more after every session.

All of the thrills, adrenaline and drama of ping pong arrives on the iPhone, courtesy of Skyworks.

I’ve tried many sports — rugby, basketball, hockey, even lacrosse — and discovered that physical exertion is not my bag. I much prefer my Macbook Pro and a bowl of edamame for company any day. As a sport, ping pong is special though: it’s high-speed, it’s intense, it’s got a silly name, and it requires very little movement on my part.

Skyworks Ping Pong aims to capture the energy of the real thing, but requires even less physical exertion. The game features a single-player International tournament mode, polished graphics, online scoring and even single-device multiplayer.

Eye of the Tiger

World Cup Ping Pong has been given a dynamic, sporty design with each game playing out on a 3D table. For such a simple game, it’s incredibly polished. Yet, this polish is more akin to a a high-class video poker game than an iPhone app and, as such, the game feels somewhat lacking in character.

This feeling of emptiness, like there’s something missing, could also be attributed in part to the sound, or lack of. The menu and option screens are eerily silent, save for a few chirps on pressing buttons. In-game, there are two cheap ‘n generic dance tunes to choose from — worse still, they get repetitive quickly.

Aside from the gameplay, the classic ping pong sound is one of the most important components of a great ping pong game: that percussive smack of the ball being slapped across the table with a paddle. World Cup Ping Pong gets it exactly right, and, paired with the rhythm of the ball bouncing back and forth, makes for satisfying matches.

Bat & Ball

There are several different game modes to choose from. Players looking for a traditional competition experience will want to jump straight in to Tournament Mode. There’s a choice of teams, including the USA, Russia, Finland and Germany, and a choice of paddles, too.

Arcade Mode provides a more immediate entry point for jumping in to World Cup Ping Pong. With half the table propped up, Forrest Gump-style, you bash away at various targets, attempting to rack up a high score.

Totally unexpected was the Head to Head gameplay mode — with a birds-eye view of the table, you and a friend can both play simultaneously on one iPhone. It was an absolute treat, utterly at odds with Practice Mode. This final game-type had very little use: no lesson, no guidance, just a dry run of Tournament Mode.

Bat In Hand

Once you’ve selected either a Tournament or Arcade Mode, it’s time to choose your paddle. There are three to choose from, not only differing in color but also impacting your technique, in terms of energy and spin. Once you’ve made your choice and have a tight grip of your paddle, it’s time to start a match.

There are absolutely no buttons to learn and, as such, the controls are incredibly simple. Dragging your finger around the screen controls your paddle; serving is as simple as quickly swiping up. The major issue with this control method is that your finger may occasionally obscure the on-screen action.

Once you’ve grasped the basics, the game begins to have a little more depth. Mastering spinning the ball means matches become much more fun. However, the opponents occasionally feel a little too tough, and rallies become repetitive chores, devoid of the drama and pace of real ping pong.

At the end of a game, you’re invited to submit your score online to the global score board. Unfortunately, you’ll have to register and log-in first. Forced registration to access in-game features are loathsome — frequently a thinly veiled excuse to harvest e-mail addresses and rarely genuinely needed. In the case of World Cup Ping Pong, it’s not clear just why I have to register simply to submit my high-score online.

Summing Up

While World Cup Ping Pong isn’t necessarily awful, it just didn’t blow me away, either. The game is missing character and depth, the graphics and music lack charm, and the gameplay, while effective, just didn’t leave me wanting more.

This game certainly isn’t an outstanding pick from the App Store’s Game section; it’s just a fun little time-waster. Fans of the sport won’t find any depth relating to the real thing, but those looking for a quick-to-learn time-waster will certainly glean a little pleasure from this game.