Have you ever continued to do something you knew was probably not good for you?  I have.  Recently, in fact.

Mortal Skies is a perfect example.  I love this game- even though my hand gets so tired it starts to cramp up after a mission or two.  But I keep playing.  So the obvious questions are what is Mortal Skies and what makes it so good? 

The year is 1944 and it’s World War II. You’re a flyboy (or girl).  Your orders are to stop a hostile invasion force from taking over the world.  You up to the task?

Mortal Skies, from Erwin Jansen, is a shoot ‘em up that reminds me of the arcade game 1942 from Capcom that I used to play way back in the day.  Video game graphics have come a long way since 1984, though, and this one looks great. 

Mortal Skies consists of 7 levels, or missions, in which the player engages enemy planes, bombers, tanks, and choppers.  Through shooting and blowing thing up, players can earn extra planes and a open a bonus level based on their achievements.  At the end of each mission is an endboss that must be defeated in a one-on-however-many-they-choose-to-throw-at-you dogfight.  

Along the way, players can receive gun upgrades, reflective shields, increase health, unlock planes, and earn gold, bronze, and silver cups.       

I enjoyed playing Mortal Skies.  It’s a straightforward shooter game that requires a minimum of strategy.  Yes, the enemies you’re fighting have different abilities you must adapt to in order to beat them, but if you’ve acquired enough weapon upgrades, you can last a while in a straight-up dogfight.  If you haven’t the weapons, it’s nearly impossible to defeat the endbosses at the tail end of each mission.

That brings up another point: the game’s difficulty.  Players can control their plane using either touch controls or the accelerometer and can adjust the difficulty setting to make it easier.  However, it’s still very tough even on the easiest slider setting.  A pending update (1.1) will make it easier to play, however, and should also lighten the plane so it doesn’t drag to the degree it currently does.

I would definitely recommend Mortal Skies: the gameplay is solid, graphics are superb, and it’s quite a challenge.

But one of those nifty carpal tunnel hand casts is almost certainly in my future.

Mortal Skies

Version 1.0

Tested on iPod Touch 3.1.2

Right off the bat, if you have any interest in turn based strategy games, this review is worth your time. If not, read the review anyway, because everyone should be interested in turn based strategy games. When you read the title, GO! GO! Rangers!, the first thing to pop in your head might be the mid-ninety’s children’s television show, the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Well, that really has nothing to do with this game. When you see the graphics for the game, the first thing to pop in your head might be the mid-ninety’s video game/TV show franchise, Pokemon. Well, that is a bit closer to the truth. Kind of… Both of those were popular after I was out of their target age group, but that won’t stop me from enjoying this fun little game.

GO! GO! Rangers! is a game about battling a bunch of heroes against a big boss monster. All of the heroes have different abilities that change the course of the battle constantly. It is an extremely deep strategy game that requires a bit of homework on your part to figure everything out. Luckily, I’ve done a fair amount of your homework for you. (you’re welcome)

You play on a 3×4 grid and you move your ranger heroes around this board. There are basically two phases to the game, the tactical phase and the battle phase. During the tactical phase, you can move your heroes one square up, down, left or right that is not already occupied. Their position on this board determines which action ability they will use. Then comes the battle phase. This is just the execution of the heroes abilities followed by an attack from the boss monster. An interesting aspect is that the heroes will not preform their abilities if they moved during the tactical phase, only if they were stationary. You have to constantly weigh the pros and cons of moving heroes out of the monster’s attack range or being able to use their ability. Pretty fun stuff.

I’ll admit. What drew me to this app was the crazy ass Japanese to English translations. They are pretty much hilarious. They do make it hard to figure certain aspects of the game out, but worth it in my opinion. One thing I wanted to see in GO! GO! Rangers! was the ability to level up my heroes. I generally like to go back to old battles and level up my characters to make them stronger. You do get new heroes almost constantly, though, so that’s not really a problem either. If you think you might like to try GO! GO! Rangers! out, IMAGIO Co. has put out a lite version. Check it out and get your turn based strategy fix.

iTunes Link – GO! GO! Rangers!
Version 2.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3GS OS 3.1.2

Are you a moron?  No?  What about your friends?  Your brothers or sisters?  Boyfriend or girlfriend?  Kids?  Are you sure?  There is one way you can find out: Moronoid.

Bogdan Andresyuk’s Moronoid is part of the wave of games that tell you whether or not you’re stupid.  Or a moron.  Or not as smart as a fifth grader. 

This one, Moronoid, has a series of questions that test your ability to follow instructions, keep your wits about you, and think fast. If you miss one question- any one question- you fail and the game tells you that you’re a moron.  You must then start over from the very beginning.  If you answer all the questions without making a single mistake, you’ll be able to safely say you’re not a moron.

But I’m willing to bet you won’t be able to answer every single question correctly the first time around. I sure wasn’t.

Moronoid requires a knowledge of geography, counting, memory, spelling, and various other skills you’ve been using all your life.  As far as gameplay goes, it’s not bad at all; it’s fun, a great diversion, and highly addictive.  Once you get started, you’ll probably want to keep going until you’re able to get every single question right.  Be forewarned, though: it might take a little while.

And after you’ve mastered the game, have someone you know play it.  Feel free to give them a hard time while they’re playing.  Taunt them, tease them, laugh at them.  It’s fun that way, too. 

If I were to recommend any improvements to Moronoid, I would say that the game could use more questions.  A lot more.  And a randomizer so that questions aren’t always presented in the same order.  That would definitely keep players on their toes.

I’ll bet I know what you’re thinking: I can beat Moronoid.  I know I can.  There hasn’t been a game created yet that can beat me. 

Good luck.

Moronoid

Version 1.0

Tested on iPod Touch 3.1.2

Things have shifted for the better in the world of iPhone car racing games. Need for Speed Shift from EA Sports brings the exciting world of NFS to your Apple handheld, and soon to be released iPad. The feeling of the game is something that you have to experience for yourself on an iPhone [...]

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a full featured console game for the iPhone and iPod touch from Rockstar Games. Originally GTA Chinatown Wars was released for the PSP and Nintendo DS, and now it has been formatted and recreated to work on the iPhone. This game is really a full featured app with [...]

Voice Mark — If you and your iPhone 3G or 3GS get around a lot, you may find it’s sometimes hard to remember your impressions about each place you’ve visited. GeoGraffiti’s Voice Mark provides you with the ability create audio geotags of each location that interests you as well as listen to the audio geotags created by other users of this app.

For example, if you visit Joe’s Pub & Grille in El Dorito City, Michigan, and you think it’s a place other people might want to visit, you can create an audio message describing your visit there and share it through Twitter and other popular social net sites. If you’re traveling and want to know a bit about some of the local sights, you can listen to the Voice Marks left by other app users.

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In the days before Pandora, Sirius, and Napster, radio ruled the world.  If you didn’t own the album, CD, or cassette, the only way to hear your favorite tunes was the radio.  Your yearning for the latest from Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers or U2 could only be satisfied by a radio DJ.    

Sometimes you might flip on the radio and catch your favorite song halfway through.  That wasn’t so bad.  Sometimes you only caught the last few seconds of it.  That was bad.

Every now and then, if you were lucky- really lucky- you’d enter a kind of musical zone.  In the zone, you could flip on the radio, catch your favorite song as it was starting and listen to it all the way through.  If you were really in the zone, you could change stations after the song had ended and catch it again, right at the very beginning.

Good times.  I don’t miss them one bit.

Gianluca Falasca’s MyTtuner- The Ultimate Radio operates under the principle that somewhere on the world’s wide web, an internet station is playing a song or an artist you like.  With MyTtuner, you tell it who or what you want to hear (you can enter up to 6 choices) and when the app finds that song or artist, it will let you know (as long as you’re still in the app, of course).  Then, just tap your screen and enjoy on-demand music old school style, minus those pesky subscription fees.  If you really like a station, you can select it as a favorite and listen to it whenever you want.  Do you have favorite artists or groups?  Great!   Save them and the next time the app is opened, you can quickly search for their music.

MyTtuner will also generate a listing of every artist being played at the moment and  update every 60 seconds. 

Sweet, right?  Unfortunately, MyTtuner initially had some serious issues with stability; it crashed every time I used it, even after an update designed to eliminate them.  Each crash would erase my saved searches, my saved webcast stations, and music history.  As you can imagine, that was a pretty big disappointment, especially for an app with a .99 sale price. 

These past couple days though, it seems to be running better.  When it works, it’s great.  When it works, I start to think about terminating my Rhapsody subscription.  But when it doesn’t, it’s quite frustrating.

My only suggestion for improvement- beyond stability- would be MyTtuner’s appearance.  It’s a little dull and could benefit from a colorful makeover.

With a couple more updates and a bigger pool of internet stations to find the music and artists I like, I might just stop feeding my money to Rhapsody and use those monthly fees to buy more apps…

myTtuner

Version 1.1.1

Reviewed on iPod Touch 3.1.2

PlacePop, with their self-titled iPhone app, is another social networking tool at your fingertips. It uses your iPhone’s GPS to locate businesses, restaurants, bars, parks, etc. around you, which you can then Check-In at (you can also search for the location). Checking in at the same place multiple times earns you status: [...]

If you’ve been looking for an MMORPG on the iPhone, you may be interested in Anrufen Online. Originally released by WiSTONE Wireless Entertainment for the Symbian OS, there are currently 3 servers: English, Chinese and Russian, all of which are cross-platform. Combined with its in-game chat system, users on any device can easily [...]

In the spirit of the Game Show Network (GSN) hit show Catch-21, now in its third season, Catch-21 for iPhone and iPod Touch is blackjack mayhem in a race against the clock for high scores. Unlike the television game show, Catch-21 for iPhone leaves out cumbersome trivia questions and opponents and pits players against the clock to make as many 21s as possible. And best of all, it’s free.

Catch-21 features four playing columns and a full deck of cards. You have five minutes to make as many card combinations adding up to 21 as possible. Your points add up for each 21 combo you make, plus the quicker you get through the deck, the more time bonus points you get.

If you make a “five card Charlie,” or 5 cards that add up to 21 or less, you get an extra 100 points. Each of the two black jacks in the deck will clear any column regardless of total and score points, too. If you draw a card you don’t want, simply discard it with no penalty and keep the game moving.(…)
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Catch-21: A Free iPhone Card Game With No Catch |
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