MoodAgent mixes up your listening experience by generating playlists based on your mood. Though it could still use some refinement, it’s a great, simple app with a sleek interface. Oh, and it’s free…so there’s reason not to try it!

Are you literate? Do you read long things online? If so, Instapaper Pro is a must-have. It allows you to download long articles and blog posts for on-the-go reading. Finesse, functionality, and overall awesomeness make it a true 5-star app.

Final Chapter of Puzzle Quest Hits the App Store, One Year Later!

iPhone gamers who’ve been trawling the App Store for a while might remember when the first chapter of Puzzle Quest made it debut. The popular match-3 / RPG mashup has been a huge hit on the DS and PSP, but the initial iPhone port was sloppy, overpriced, and almost impossible to play. Thankfully, those problems were addressed after the release, and the second chapter was added as a free update to Chapter 1. However, Puzzle Quest is a three-chapter game…and now, a year after the second chapter’s release, the full experience is finally available to play.

You can purchase the third chapter as an in-app purchase for $1.99 if you own the paid version, but I recommend you go with the lite if you don’t own Puzzle Quest yet. Not only can you get a feel for the game, but you can purchase all three chapters for a bargain $4.99 in-app. Yes, you’ll be stuck with “free” on the game’s icon…but it’ll save you two bucks!

Puzzle Quest is really a great title—despite its simplicity, the balance of light RPG elements like spells and attacks mixes very well with match-3 gameplay. Quests require you to “battle” certain monsters in match-3 face-offs, and if the plot is unimaginative, at least the game is addicting! If you’re a fan of Bejeweled and its ilk, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. Even if you don’t particularly love match-3’s, Puzzle Quest is still fun.

Puzzle Quest Free

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-02-18
Price: FREE

PuzzleQuest Chapter 1 and 2

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2008-12-23
Price: $4.99

Quizarium is an online trivia game from the makers of Charadium. It’s not perfect, but it’s still fun.

Eliminate: Co-op Released – Frag with Friends!

ngmoco’s new games have all been based off of the freemium play model. Whatever your opinions of freemium in other games, there’s denying that for Eliminate, it’s been a huge success; the online FPS has legions of dedicated fans. If you’ve tired of it in recent weeks, however, this might bring you back into the fold: ngmoco has released a new Eliminate app that adds a new and much-asked-for mode to the game. Cooperative play is here!

In the new co-op mode, two players team up to fight off the attacking bots. It includes a bunch of new loot to collect, so you can earn credits to upgrade your player’s armor and weaponry. It’s a lot of fun so far, and as a free update it’s even better. Eliminate fans, go grab the new app!

Eliminate: CO-OP

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2010-03-13
Price: FREE

Hills and Rivers Remain is a strangely named real-time strategy game with a high price tag and relative brevity. Despite this, it delivers a solid RTS experience that should provide hardcore genre fans with a much-appreciated challenge.

NewsAlert is a great way to isolate news about certain topics. It won’t be useful for everyone, but it does what it promises and it does it well.

Readdle Docs is a brilliant file viewer and document manager. It’s a very mature app with some impressive capabilities, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

GeeTasks is a bare-bones to-do app that draws on the Google Tasks service. You won’t find any frills here, but the ability to take my Google Tasks offline and have them waiting in my gmail inbox makes this simple app great for getting things done.

Fly, Kiwi, Fly! is a distance-based flying game that lets you take charge of a manic kiwi. Upgrades, achievements, and country divisions keep you playing, though the addiction factor peters out once those run out. Still, it’s a fun, bite-sized game.

Colorbind is a minimalist logic-first puzzle game and a real treat for the mind. Folding ribbons is quite the enjoyable challenge!

Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer Sneaks Into App Store…And It’s Free!

Back in early February, Ubisoft announced an upcoming, mysterious app store game…an online, multiplayer game based on Assassin’s Creed II. Early this morning, Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer made its appearance on the App Store. Most startling, however, was its promotional price: for the first 48 hours of its launch, Ubisoft is giving the game away for free.

Afterwards, of course, the game will be converted to a paid one, with a supposed price of $2.99. We can only assume that the giveaway is meant to boost the ranks of players, since this is an online-only game.

Here’s some snippets from our preview article:

Titled “Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer,” this iPhone-exclusive title will feature some sort of four-player assassin deathmatch. The screenshots show a top-down view and feature environments inspired by the cities featured in Assassin’s Creed II.

It’s all live, and will use a WiFi connection for matches. You’ll have six powerups at your disposal, but perhaps your most important tool will be your assassin’s stealth, as you can take advantage of your environments and hide within crowds of citizens. The teaser website also mentions a “notoriety” system, which will use a “dynamic ranking system” to place players on the leaderboards, as well as built-in achievements. You’ll be able to challenge friends to matches, but I hope that random matchups are also included.

Be sure to grab the game while it’s free. Hopefully we’ll have our own impressions up soon!

Assassin's Creed II: Multiplayer

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2010-03-01
Price: $2.99

Liquid Scale is a fun concept that works surprisingly well, but serious photo editing still doesn’t work on an iPhone. Still…it’s fun to mess around with.

The second Final Fantasy game brings more old-school goodness with it. While I recommend starting with the first title, this one is still a solid port of a classic game.

Final Fantasy has aged, but it’s still a classic. This nostalgic port of the PSP remake reminds us of what RPGs used to be like.

A sleek interface, tons of features, more information than I know what to do with…what more could you ask from a periodic table app? If you’re a chemistry student like me, EleMints is well worth the $5 investment.

With a two-player mode, amusing animations, and a decent word selection, Ultimate Hangman is a steal for a free app. I really wish it saved my high scores, but even now, it’s definitely worth a download.

More Physics-y Goodness: Angry Birds, Rafter, and Doodle Bomb Updates

Three games from relatively recent reviews have all received robust updates of late. Forgive me if these aren’t exactly “new,” but if you passed on these games in the past due to concerns about content, take note: now’s the time to try them again.

Angry Birds
Clickgamer’s Angry Birds won my heart with its quirky style and cheerful, bizarre art. One feature that was notably absent from the birds-in-a-slingshot game, however, was online high scores. The 1.2 update remedied that with Crystal integration, which brings leaderboards and achievements. It also included 42 new levels for an already-great game.

Angry Birds

Our Rating: :: GREAT :: Read Our Full Review >>

Category: Games / Family
Released: 2009-12-11
Price: $0.99

Paradise Quest is a solid match-3 with some strategy-requiring twists and an island theme. If you want a more challenging match-3 game, give it a try! Just be wary of a few issues.

Street Fighter IV for iPhone Announced

Yup, you read that headline right. Capcom has announced that Street Fighter IV is coming to the iPhone, and better yet, this won’t be some buggy port: IGN says that Capcom has spent months working on the iPhone version’s control scheme alone, and multiple configurations are said to be included. Also expect to see some familiar graphics, because visual assets will be drawn directly from current-generation games. While the characters will be scaled down, loss of detail should be minimal. This is the real deal, folks!

As for the fighters themselves, Capcom has yet to announce the entire roster. So far we know that Ryu and Ken will be present, as well as new fighters from Street Fighter IV and old favorites from past installments. Each character’s move set will also be complete, including their Ultra moves and all animations.

Good news comes as far as modes go, too: in addition to a training (”Dojo”) mode and tournament mode, Bluetooth-enabled multiplayer will also be included. Heck yes! Half the fun of Street Fighter has always come from pulverizing your friends, and it’s great to see it included here as well.

It definitely looks like Capcom is taking this release seriously, as they should. Street Fighter IV is much-loved and critically acclaimed, and Capcom can make the transition to the App Store successfully it’ll be a great showcase of the iPhone platform as well as the fighting series itself. Street Fighter IV is currently slated for a March release, and we’ll keep you updated in the coming weeks. Be sure to check out IGN’s gallery!

Riddim Ribbon is a decent first attempt, but falls flat in too many places.

Keeping your files synchronized has never been easier. I’m already a devoted fan of Dropbox—this useful app is just the icing on the cake.

Eco Punk is a wacky avoidance game that’s quickly become one of my favorites.

Final Fantasy Trailer, More Screenshots Posted

The hype machine started churning back in January when Square Enix announced iPhone ports of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. The announcement was an exciting one, certainly; it’s hard to get more classic than the original FF titles! Back then, we only had a few screenshots to salivate over, but now we have quite a few additional screenshots, a trailer…and a promise that they’re “coming soon.” Now you can feast your eyes on the live gameplay shown in the trailer while we wait anxiously for the actual games to hit the App Store. (Chocobos anyone?) Rest assured, we’ll be following these two titles closely.

“60 Mario and friends” Soars. What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Like most App Store addicts, I browse the Top 100 lists from time to time. The top 10 spots are usually filled with games like Doodle Jump, Pocket God, Bejeweled, and whatever other big-name apps have hit recently. That makes sense. I can even understand things like The Moron Test and SpinArt being popular. The whims of the masses are ever-changing, after all.

But what the heck is up with “60 Mario and friends”?

60 Mario and friends (the poor capitalization is not mine, thank you) from Isayonline is nothing more than a soundboard app—it plays sounds from old Nintendo games. Super Mario Bros, Mario 64, Street Fighter, Zelda, and Donkey Kong game sounds are all present. Now, I consider myself a Nintendo fan, and I love these games. But there’s something wrong with a simple soundboard app claiming the #2 spot on the top paid charts. First of all, this is a blatant case of copyright infringement. We’ve seen excellent, original games like EDGE and Stoneloops of Jurassica pulled from the App Store for supposed infringement, so how did 60 Mario and friends get through? It uses images of Nintendo’s characters and sounds from Nintendo games; it doesn’t get more obvious than this.

Secondly, the app has a two-star rating, and not because people are unsatisfied with the sounds—but because they thought they could have classic Nintendo games on their iPods and iPhones for a buck. Wait. What? The app is called “60 Mario and friends,” and it’s in the Games category, but it’s obvious if you read the description that it’s just a soundboard app. I suppose that literacy is too much to expect these days. If you can’t read a few sentences, I don’t think you should have the right to complain about losing a buck. Besides, Nintendo won’t be releasing their games on the App Store anytime soon, not when the iPhone/iPod family is starting to compete with the DS/DSi.

As I said, I’m a Nintendo fan through and through, and I’m hardly alone. 60 Mario and friends simply milks our nostalgia for some great games. But Isayonline is profiting from something that they didn’t create. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to grab some classic sound clips, but let’s not reward Isayonline for packaging stolen content—or Apple for letting it through.

60 Mario and friends : old games are back

Category: Entertainment / Action
Released: 2010-02-06
Price: $1.99

Mind Wall is a challenging puzzle game that strips away the eye candy and other superfluous elements in favor of highlighting the core gameplay. It’ll make you think, that’s for sure!

IMO: An Upcoming MMORPG from Com2uS

Com2uS is the developer behind many titles, but they are perhaps best known for Inotia and Inotia 2: A Wanderer of Luone. It was with excitement, therefore, that I opened a recent email containing a beta testing invite for their newest project…a “fully-featured MMORPG on the iPhone.”

Yes, that’s right: a real MMO, not that Epic Pet Wars or Zombies Live nonsense. The game is titled IMO: World of Magic, and the feature list includes guilds, a party system, a friends list, and chatting as well as the inclusion of three character classes, 50+ skills, and a trading shop. I grabbed the beta build early this week and have spent some time wandering through IMO’s thirty zones. The game is indeed much like a “real” MMORPG. You’ve got guilds, skills, and monsters to kill. The game world has a cute Maple Story-like vibe and lag wasn’t bad at all, though only the real launch will reveal Com2uS’s server’s capabilities. (Also note that I was on WiFi.)

The game so far has been a mixed bag. There are translation errors, the “pick up items” button seems superfluous, and chatting is hampered by both an absurdly short text limit and a clunky in-game keyboard. On the other hand, combat works quite well; you can play as a warrior, ranged fighter, or mage, and each class comes with its own unique talents. Teaming up with other random player to hunt piggies and moving bushes is fun, and the world itself is very cheerful. Even with its flaws, it’s an impressive title simply because we haven’t seen a “real” MMORPG on the App Store. I can see this being a great pick-up-and-play title: killing a few monsters in those five-minute breaks that populate our lives is both easy and fun.

Strangely, there isn’t much of a story. Fetch quests from the villagers sort of give you an objective, but they’re hardly exciting and there’s no quest log to keep track of things. For now, IMO is mostly a grind: kill monsters, level up, gain skills and items, and kill some more monsters. Grind-fests are typical of Korean RPGs, but they certainly aren’t my favorite feature, and there’s little else to do right now.

IMO has a ton of potential, and this beta build is very impressive, especially from a technical standpoint. I’m still worried about the lack of a narrative, though. Once the revised version hits the App Store, rest assured that we’ll be giving it a full review!

Rafter is a great physics puzzler. The only problem is its brevity, but it’s a great experience and well worth $0.99.

Slug Wars is a real-time strategy game that’s a bit too simple. With little need for strategy and not much variation, there just isn’t enough to hold my attention.

Vanquish is an action-packed RPG with a little bit too much action and not enough depth. Lack of autosave, a lackluster story, and repetitive levels are balanced against a truly fun and speedy combat system. While it remains stylish and fun, Vanquish still needs some work.