Friday Five: May 7th, 2010

Once again, it's Friday. Phew. Aren't you all glad that the week is over? I'm certainly relieved to get a breather, and what better way to celebrate with a smattering of interesting app releases from the previous week?

Ninjatown: Trees of Doom
Do you like ninjas? Cute things? If so, Ninjatown: Trees of Doom should suit your tastes. It's a climbing game set in a vivid 2D world, filled with lush and vibrant artwork. You climb and fly and fling your way through the treetops in an attempt to impress the elder ninjas. This isn't the Ninjatown game from the DS, but the style is the same, the tempo is fast, and the production values are high. How high can you climb?

Flick Baseball Pro
Freeverse's Flick series is almost legendary. Flick Baseball is the latest entry in the series, and as the name suggests it's a 3D baseball simulation with an arcade feel. With a wide array of teams and plenty of fun action—pitching, batting, fielding balls—the game's got plenty to keep you occupied. You can play quick sessions or full seasons, making it great for pick-up-and-play. As always with the Flick games, the controls are simple. This one looks like a lot of fun.

Iron Man 2
Iron Man 2 is an official accompaniment to the movie in which you can suit up as either War Machine or Iron Man. Iron Man has speed and agility; War Machine has additional firepower. Both suits give you the ability to hover, fly, and run—and, naturally, beat up plenty of baddies. Most of the focus is on combat: in the ground or in the air, there are always bad guys to fight. The graphics look great, and iTunes user reviews report good controls as well. Looks like Gameloft's pulled off yet another top seller!

Iron Horse
Iron Horse is a simple railroad-themed reaction game in which you have to attach railway cars to moving trains. It starts easily, but as the game progresses your train speeds up and timing your taps becomes a delicate art. The simple premise makes it great for quick sessions. Iron Horse delivers gorgeous train designs along with the game itself, too; the trains used in the game are based on real-life machines. It looks like a lot of fun, which is no surprise; developers Garry Kitchen and David Crane have well-established pedigrees, including the Atari home version of "Donkey Kong" (Kitchen) and "A Boy and His Blob" (Crane).

StoryCorps
StoryCorps is a nonprofit project with a rather unique mission: to record the oral histories of everyday people. Since 2003, over 50,000 people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Their personal stories are recorded on a free CD for the participants, and a copy is added to the Library of Congress. The free iPhone app allows you to listen to recent clips and "selected favorites" from the StoryCorps archives. It's a rich trove of oral histories, and many have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition. Do yourself a favor...listen to a few. This app might be simple, but many of the audio clips are powerful nevertheless.