Review: Minibash (iOS/Android)

By Jacob Williams 

Fighting games have become increasingly popular in recent years. Games such as Call of Duty and other shooters are booming with success. The graphics have gotten better and the options are numerous. But Minibash, new from Nabi Studios, simplifies that same style of play, bringing it onto your phone. 

With Minibash, you control your player in one-on-one fights. You can move your player from only 5 spots on the body, right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand, and waist. Press play and your player moves into that position as best it can. Hit pause so that you can readjust based on what your opponent is doing. Hit your opponent to lower his health. Whoever has the lower health at the end of very short rounds wins. The best way to win is to hit your opponent in the head, and, of course, protecting yours.

At the beginning, you are a white belt. By training, fighting, and winning, you can advance to higher and higher belts, and fight against better and better players. The game connects you to others over a server. Then you can play live multiplayer games. Play against others in short, pound-it-out game to advance to the finals and get credits towards new belts. 

You can also alter your character. You change the color your blood is, your torso color, hair style, and hair color. These all cost credits though, so you have to succeed before you can really change much on your character. But you can also morph your character. Morphing allows you to change the body parts of the player to be longer, shorter, wider, or shorter. But you have to keep the total mass below the amount you’ve achieved. Win more, get more mass. You can also change your starting position so that you start with one hand above your head, or one foot raised. This is one of the essential parts of the game, as most of your advantage is how you start.  

The game can be very hard at first. There’s no real instruction on how to play, because there are millions of ways you can play. That makes the game both difficult and challenging. The key is finding the method that works best for you. One tip of advice that I can provide is that there’s no need to let it play out for a long time. Hit pause as often as you can so that you recalculate where you want to go. Watch the red shadow behind you too, it shows you where you’ll go if you don’t change anything.  

The game never loses its challenge, since you’re playing against real people. As you get better, so will your opponents. And you can keep getting better, by learning the best ways to strike, the best starting position, and the best morph positions. 

It is a little bit hard to understand at first, but gets easier eventually. There are some small problems, for example your player can be hard to control, and doesn’t always do what you want him to.  

Overall, Minibash for iOS and Android is exciting, interesting, and has fantastic replay value.

Score: 8/10

Review: Coloropus (PC/Mac)

By Jacob Williams 

Recently, gaming has moved away from computers over to phones and TV-consoles. The games were smaller and easier to play on the go. But it's time to sit down and play again, with Coloropus, just released by Pigsels Media, for Windows and Mac.

Coloropus is an octopus living in the sea. When he meets Pinky, a girl octopus, he is immediately in love. Their first day together is perfect, and is going well, when Pinky is captured by an unknown creature. Play as Coloropus trying to get back his girl. 

The world Coloropus lives in is a beautiful ocean. Each scene was hand-drawn to create the idea of an underwater atmosphere. From peaceful and calm waters, to deep and dark labyrinths. All the scenes have different soundtracks as well, to correspond with the backgrounds. 

To move around through the sea, move the mouse to where you want to go and click and hold. As he moves, hints pop up and give you clues as to what to do. However, everything is in the form of cartoons in speech bubbles. There are no written or spoken words between the characters. This makes it hard at first, but adds to the challenge and is easier to understand later on. 

The challenge of the game is solving the puzzles blocking Coloropus from getting where he wants to go. Dots of color can change Coloropus from clear to blue to red. Certain combinations create the color needed to solve certain puzzles. It could be to vanquish a monster, blast down a rock in the way, or get past electric shocks. This is the biggest challenge of the game. 

There are other sea creatures. Crabs, fish, and evil monsters live in the ocean with Coloropus. Some are helpful in the quest. Others get in the way and can hurt Coloropus. If he is hurt enough, Coloropus will die.  

Depending how you’ve been playing the game, when Coloropus dies, he goes to heaven or hell. From there he must get his soul back to his body in order to return to the ocean and save Pinky. However, both places have obstacles and add to the challenge of the game. So don’t die unless you want to go through the challenge of getting back.  

The game automatically saves. When you come back to the game or return to the main menu, you don’t have much choice. You either erase the previous game, or continue it. 

Recently at the Flash GAMM Game Contest, Coloropus won “Future Hit” and “Most Steady Game”. 

The game isn’t perfect. There is some difficulty understanding the directions at first. However, the problem is solved by just playing the game more. Another problem is movement. When you click, Coloropus turns his head towards the mouse. This can make carrying objects and placing them where you want somewhat hard, but that is something that has to be dealt with. 

The game is connected to Twitter and Facebook, thus you can share achievements. The download is available at www.colorop.us, for Windows and Mac OS X. All in all, Coloropus is a fun game, but at times a thinker. The challenges and puzzles add to the fun of rescuing Coloropus’s lost lover.  

Score: 7/10 

Apple Marketing SVP Phil Schiller: "Instagram 'jumped the shark' when it went to Android"

By Jack Glenn

9to5Mac claims Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller told a fan that Instagram "jumped the shark" after it released an Android version. 

The Instagram account of Phil Schiller was recently deleted. A 9to5Mac reader noticed and asked why.

Schiller reportdedly replied: "It 'jumped the shark' when it went to Android" 

Another person was able to contact Schiller about his comment and received a clarifying response. 

"Instagram is a great app and community. That hasn't changed. 

But one of the things I really liked about Instagram was that it was a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs. 

Now that it has [grown] much larger the signal to noise ratio is different. 

That isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just not what I originally had fun with."

Instagram launched their Android app two weeks ago. The company was recently bought by Facebook for $1 billion. 

The Quietest Place on Earth

By Jacob Williams 

The 'anechoic chamber' at Orfield Laboratories.

The quietest place on Earth is not the bottom of the ocean or the top of a mountain. It isn’t even dark most of the time. The quietest place on Earth is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this city is an “anechoic chamber” made by Orfield Laboratories. Inside this room 99% of sound from outside is absorbed, and outside, 99% of sounds from inside are absorbed. Three foot thick fiberglass wedges and insulated walls create a room in which sound is trapped and blocked out. To the human ear, nothing gets in, and nothing gets out. 

Such a room can have many purposes. Its simplest purpose is to hear industrial sounds that wouldn’t normally be heard over even the air. Switches, dials, anything can be heard from inside this room. But there are others way the room is used. 

Entering the room can cause a human many struggles. The total loss of one sense in such a short time causes disorientation and sometimes hallucinations. Steven Orfield told the Daily Mail about the experience of losing the sense. He described the way that you start hearing the smallest of sounds.

“You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.” The lack of external sounds makes movement difficult. “If you’re in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair.” 

The power of this room is being used by NASA to train astronauts. After being place in a water tank in the room, some of them experience hallucinations. The body can’t find anything, so it starts to create sensations of its own. Nobody can go for more than 45 minutes with the lights out, either. The pure rigid silence can do things to your brain that are found nowhere else on the planet.

SpellTower Skyrockets Up the Charts, Following 3.0 Update

By Jacob Williams 

The new iPad inspired many apps to upgrade to retina display versions. Zach Gage’s SpellTower was no exception. Now ready for the new iPad, SpellTower 3.0 introduces new modes, options, and retina display support to the challenging, yet fun word game. 

Zach Gage: "I made SpellTower on my own, and although I've had a lot of critical acclaim for my previous titles, none of them have ever been very monetarily successful. SpellTower really broke that mold, but I never in a million years thought I'd see it on the first page of the app store."

SpellTower has also seen an unexpected rise in sales this week, jumping out of nowhere to the iPad's Top 10, sitting behind Angry Birds Space and Draw Something. The game is on sale, half-off, for 24 hours. 

The original games modes have another among their company in the new version of the game. Debate Mode, under Multiplayer, allows you to battle against other devices in Rush Mode. The bluetooth link connects iOS devices to the fastest game mode, making you speed up to beat your opponents. Other online options allow you to tweet your best word. GameCenter is also activated so that you can climb the leaderboards in all the modes. 

The options to the game have changed along with it. Now you can adjust sound and other volumes. You can also choose to put the game into night colors. Turn the letters black and blue rather than white to make it easier on you eyes when playing in the dark.  

The new retina display for the iPad enhances the image quality by giving you more pixels. The super high-resolution screen makes for the best gaming ever. Extra polish has been added to the game, so that even with your old iPad or an iPhone, you still get the best quality picture and response. 

When the Billion Apps on the App Store Aren’t Enough…

By Jacob Surovsky 

You get an appcessory.  Yes, this adorable pun really means something.  It’s an accessory that is only operate able by apps.   Let’s breakdown all the types of appcessories, shall we?

Useless, Expensive Fun

You can’t buy love, but you can now buy fun.  These appcessories have no good reason to be bought, except that all your friends will want one and you will feel special about yourself.  One of the best examples of this is from http://www.newpotatotech.com/ (New Potato Tech).  They made a little pinball machine and a slot machine that your iPod slides into.

So pretty.  But the truth is, they aren’t that good.  I own the pinball thing, and it only has one table (and not the one on the promo).  It’s glitchy and has never been updated.  The physics are okay, but overall it’s a bad game.  And the website is asking $35 for it.  So the useless fun category is very useless.

Remote Control Hazards and Noisemakers

These days, instead of using a reliable manual controller, we use our smartphones that don’t know the difference between fingertip, stylus, or butt pocket to control our remote control vehicles.  The list goes on and on for what you can drive with your iPhone.

A List of Remote Control Things You Can Drive With Your Phone:

1. Parrot AR Drone
   1. The AR stands for Augmented Reality.  They claim it’s like a flying video game.  It seems like a good idea…do crazy dogfights with your best friend controlling the $300 helicopter with your iPhone with animated missiles blowing up around your screen.  What could possibly go wrong? http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/
2. Desk Pets
   1. This company came out with three little remote control critters; Skitterbot, Tankbot, and Trekbot.  Each one could most likely be destroyed by a Chihuahua, but at only $20, you’ll get some fun out of them before Sparky chews their circuits out. http://www.mydeskpets.com/
3. Sphero
   1. Oh dear, the balls are out to get us.  You can now drive balls around with your iPhone.  It’s actually a pretty cool idea, like reinventing the wheel.  But then they added a golf game, and in all went down the hole (get it?).  But it’s a hefty $130 to have a light up ball of golf and fun.  http://www.gosphero.com/

Usefull Stuff

Sometimes, usefull stuff comes out of the mix.  Like a tool that measures the heat of your barbeque, or a tool to measure the pitch of your guitar.  It’s all out there, and it’s amazing what you can find.  But in the end, nothing beats reality.  S get away from your computer, pick up your IPad, and go paint a picture.  Or play golf with your sphero.  Or go for a run with your music playing on your iPod.  Go be free of the technological world.  Just don’t crash your Parrot AR Drone.

No Longer A Muggle…

By Jacob Surovsky 

An open letter to Harry Potter:

Right back out you.

You can now wear a hoodie that lights up and makes wizard noises.  It knows what spell your casting by your arm movements.  It’s kind of like a reverse Xbox Kinect.  You wear it, and it responds to you. Not it films you and only halfway responds to you.  And you can go make Dumbledore jealous for simply $120, at thinkgeek.com (let's hope they decide to make this one!).  Check it out: http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/looflirpa/ee07/?pfm=Carousel_WizardHoodie_1

Updated iPad, Updated Apps

By Jacob Williams

The new iPad has four times more pixels than the iPad 2.

All the apps in the App Store, before the release of the new iPad, fit the resolution of the iPad 2 or iPhone. With the release of a new iPad, upgrading to a 2048 x 1536 Retina Display, the apps needed an upgrade. Which is why all the ones that have been updated, are now organized in Apple’s “Great apps for the new iPad” section of the App Store. In it are some old favorites boosted to high resolution, and new apps that, while lacking the full Retina Display support, still great plays on the iPad. 

Flight Control Rocket HD 

Firemint has released a new version of their plane-landing game, but this time in space. Retina display optimized.  

Kindle

Most apps will get automatic Retina Display upgrades, but due to Amazon’s proprietary text rendering, they had to push out a new Kindle update, just in time. 

Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy 

Shown off by Namco at Apple’s keynote, this air combat game is ready for its App Store launch. 

Sketchbook Pro for iPad

Beautiful images await you on Sketchbook Pro for iPad, ready for the new iPad. 

Real Racing 2 HD

Real Racing is updated with the new iOS device, just as always, in a brilliant display of the new hardware. 

ABC Player 

Although HDTV isn’t broadcasted in a resolution as high as the new iPad, you’re sure to get as great a picture as possible on the new ABC Player. 

Evernote

On the most organized screen ever, comes the app that keeps your life organized. 

Mass Effect Infiltrator 

Mass Effect 3’s operatic heights aren’t quite reached by Infiltrator’s, but the all new resolution blows away all the other Mass Effects. 

Readability 

Turn any web page into a brilliant, full resolution beauty.  

Incredibooth 

Maximum resolution photos can be printed out with the iPad’s front-facing camera and the help of Incredibooth. 

Reeder for iPad 

Keep track of your read and unread on Reeder’s subtle paper texture with the Retina Display.  

Art Authority 

Not only does this museum-style app benefit from Retina Display assets, it's promising higher resolution artworks on all devices. 

StockTouch

Watch your stocks rise and fall with full resolution infographics. 

The Daily

Read the digital newspaper on the iPad’s new beautiful resolution.

The New York Times

The New York Times doesn’t fall behind the curve, and the new app updates it to the highest of resolutions. 

Twitter

Read tweets in the highest quality, and of course look at the best resolution photos that are tweeted too. 

Tweetbot for iPad

The top Twitter app wasn’t to be left out of the Retina Display upgrades. 

iA Writer

Make everything look the best it can by upgrading your text editor for the new iPad.

Apple: Demand for new iPad is 'off the charts', sold out of pre-orders

By Jack Glenn

Apple told USA Today that the initial batch of new iPads has sold out and that demand is "off the charts". 

"Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased," Apple said in a statement. "Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date."

Since Friday, U.S. pre-orders have been pushed past the March 16th launch day, with shipping estimates now at 2-3 weeks in all countries that are part of the first round of launches. 

The 3rd generation iPad can still be purchased on March 16th at Apple retail stores, but anticipate vast lines.

Waiting outside Apple’s Regent Street store in London today, Ali and Zohaib are the first to line up for the new iPad.

The new iPad was announced last week and features a Retina Display, 4G LTE, an A5X chip, 5MP Rear Camera, and 1080p video recording. 

Review: Box Cat (iOS)

By Jacob Williams

As games have become more and more advanced, graphics have become truly terrific, buttons almost non-existent, and movements have taken over the controls. But with this new game, came a style that's not entirely common in the App Store: retro. Box Cat, new from Wild Rooster, is one of these, a new game with an old style.

The “retro” style really isn’t very retro, in the sense of the word. There are no physical buttons (although, there are choices for physical input; with the iCade, for example), the graphics aren’t blurry, and there are still options to use the newest technologies. What makes the game “retro” is that it tries to give that feeling; not replicate it exactly.

Your hero isn’t an exact replica of a cat, he’s a box. His tail is a rectangle, and his feet are squares. Look out, he’s Box Cat!

Box Cat has a simple tutorial the first time you start playing. You control Box Cat, whose only goal is to cause mayhem on the streets. Move him across the screen to ram into the sides of cars and send them flying. Send them across the screen into other cars to get combo bonuses. Collect coins from birds flying down the side of the streets to get extras such as time, Super Cat, and invincibility. Charge up by pressing on Box Cat, then press again to charge across the screen at high speeds. Kill bosses and cause even more mayhem with the charge. 

To move, there are three settings: touch, tilt, and buttons. To change between the three, you go into options on the main screen. Touch allows you to swipe across the bottom of the screen to move your cat. This control method has seems to have the least amount of speed per swipe, but gives you more control. Tilt allows you to move your phone left or right to move Box Cat. You can change between High, Medium, and Low sensitivity depending on if you want the most speed or control. Last is buttons. The buttons are located in the bottom left corner of the screen. There’s a right button and a left button. They aren’t really buttons since it’s a touch screen, but pushing either one “down” moves Box Cat in that direction. 

There are also three modes of play: Adventure, Survival, and Rush Hour. In adventure, you complete levels to move onto different streets. Each level is complete after you’ve bashed a certain amount of cars, and then charged a boss. You also have to complete Objectives to unlock new cats such as Zombie Cat, Squirrel Cat, and my favorite, Mask Cat.

Survival mode tests your reflexes by sending in a mix of cars, bosses and regular. You can’t miss more than three, or the game is over. This might be the toughest mode, as the cars come almost individually, but you are ranked based on how many waves you pass, not cars you hit.  

The last mode is Rush Hour. This is the most fun for me, as it is really the name of the game, creating chaos and waling on cars. In Rush Hour, you get one minute and thirty seconds to hit as many cars as possible. They just keep coming, so combos are easiest here. Rack up as high a score as you can before the time runs out, and keep on the look out for coins.  

The game may not yet seem to give off much of a retro feel, but there are many ways in which it does. For example, just labeling them buttons, creates more of a feeling of a pressing on the phone than touching it. The graphic design also gives it a retro feel. Most of the lines are straight, itself a retro-like quality, but all the lines that are curved have been pixelated. Rather than using the tiny pixels on the screen to individually create a curve, large groups are made into pixels that move into a general curve. For example, Zombie Cat has bits and pieces taken out of his tail and body. All the cats have pointed ears. These are drawn with large pixels that create the sense of an older game.  

There were a few small difficulties, mostly in controlling Box Cat’s movements. Each mode had its own problems. Tilt mode moved very slowly on any sensitivity level but high. Moving fast is the key to hitting cars off the road, so this proposed a disadvantage in terms of control. Touch mode I found to be very slow as well. Swipes full across the screen moved Box Cat slowly to about the middle of the road. The tutorial only covered the other two methods of moving, so there was no way to really learn how to use Touch other than guesses. I found Buttons to be the best strategy. There was good control and speed was easy but I found that if I didn’t look at the buttons occasionally, and only at the cars, I would hit the wrong button or the much-too-large space in between the two.  

At first, reading the words was a little bit hard as well, but once you get used to it, it’s not a problem at all. The modes of play were all different, but as I said earlier, Rush Hour was the most fun, playing right into the strengths of Box Cat. Survival is very difficult, as the cars aren’t slow, but enough warning is given that it’s not impossible. Adventure mode is fun, but doesn’t have a plot, as you would expect out of an “adventure”. Also, you have to start over every time you lose, so it is more of a survival type mode as well. 

Despite the occasional flaw, I still found the game to be extrmely fun. You can keep unlocking new cats by completing fun objectives. The game uses Game Center to keep track of the leaderboards, so you can compete with friends. There’s always new things to do in Box Cat. At $1.99 in the App Store, this game is clearly a fantastic value.  

Rating: 7/10