This Week at 148Apps: April 20-24, 2015

The Apps of April

How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.

Lost Within

Survival horror seems to be enjoying a renaissance on iOS, and Lost Within is the latest of those examples. Is it scary? Not really. Even when you stick earphones in it probably won’t make you jump, but it is quite fun in an oddly unchallenging way You play a policeman who’s doing one last patrol of an abandoned asylum, before it’s torn down and demolished. Obviously, this all goes terribly wrong because, guess what? There are scary things afoot in there! It turns out some equally insane doctor performed awful tests on people there, and they’ve turned rather evil because of it. Lost Within is a survival horror game though, not an action game - meaning you’ll mostly be running away from things or hiding. Lockers are your main source of hidey holes, allowing you to be secreted away from scary things. Except it’s mostly mildly tense rather than scary. --Jennifer Allen

Crowntakers

Combining turn-based strategy, hexagonal game boards, and some Roguelike elements, Crowntakers somehow manages to not seem too similar to everything else out there. It’s often a little unforgiving but that doesn’t stop it from being quite enticing, too. You play a hero in medieval times as he seeks to save the land from evil and terror. Yeah, it’s not the most original of plots, but it’s sufficient in giving you a purpose. You move around by tapping on a direction and exploring a set route. At times, you’ll come across cottages or towers which can be explored, with the chance of finding items or gold to aid your quest. You can find inns in which you can recruit mercenaries to help you, too. --Jennifer Allen

Sorcery! 3

Remembered fondly (and sometimes not so fondly) as the trickiest installment of the four books, Sorcery! 3 also feels like the most impressive of the episodes we’ve seen so far on iOS. You can dive straight into it if you want, but I’d strongly recommend playing the previous two games as the sweeping narrative is worth exploring. This time around, you’re exploring the bad lands of Kakhabad, as you attempt to track down seven evil serpents that must be defeated. It’s about as easy as it sounds, so it’s fortunate that you have a few skills up your sleeve. As before, you can import your character from the previous book and you’d be very wise to do exactly that, providing your earlier character had some handy equipment with them. --Jennifer Allen

Wrassling

It’s becoming easier to enjoy simplistic games on iOS these days, mostly because there are quite a few really good ones out there. And Wrassling has definitely earned a spot on that list.You control your character with virtual buttons for left and right movement, jumping, and spinning your arm clockwise or counter-clockwise. The entire point of Wrassling is to stay in the ring as long as possible while also tossing other ‘wrasslers’ out. If you lose you simply try again, and your high score is determined by how many folks you can force out. However there’s a little more to it than that.--Rob Rich

Does Not Commute

The basic idea is to tap and hold on the right and left sides of the screen to steer a given vehicle left or right. You’re treated to a bizarre but quite intriguing snippet of a story that pertains to the person behind the wheel (and it only gets weirder as you progress), then it’s a matter of getting them to their intended destination.It starts out as a quick drive across the neighborhood, but every time you reach a given vehicles’ designated exit time will rewind and you’ll have to do the same for a new one. And because time has looped back you’re going to need to be mindful of all the other vehicles you’ve been controlling up to that point. In essence you’re creating a puzzle/gauntlet for yourself as you play. Thankfully if you mess up really bad you can rewind your current vehicle at the cost of one second off your total time. --Rob Rich

Sago Mini Tollbox

Kids love to make things. Not necessarily just through art projects, but also through more tactile DIY style tasks. Sago Mini Toolbox appreciates that, giving very young children a way in which they can piece together objects with simple in-game tools and watch what happens to their projects. It’s very cute and sure to spark youngsters’ imaginations. There are 15 projects in all, each not taking long to complete. Every move is quite intuitive such as forming a sawing motion to saw a piece of wood, or hammering a nail by tapping on it repeatedly. You can drill objects too, by pulling the drill in and out of a piece of wood, just like you would in real life. Sago Mini Toolbox does the hard work of moving between tasks, meaning your child can concentrate on the fun parts, rather than having to explore too deeply. The simple nature of performing such movements means they won’t be frustrated either, as it really does take very little time to learn. --Jennifer Allen

Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:

AndroidRundown

Zagg Pocket Wireless Keyboard

Out of the box, the unit presents a serious front; it looks stately, and has some heft to it, which helps with balance. It mimics a full keyboard closely, if on a smaller scale, with a row of number keys with standard shift options; it also manages to work in arrow buttons. The keyboard is mostly black with grey and blue lettering. Above the keyboard is an extra grey plate.The review package also contained a USB charging cable and documentation.It would be a shame to avoid mentioning the defining concept here; it incorporates an interesting quad-fold setup, such that when not in use, it can be stored or toted as a small accessory, occupying a relatively svelte 9 X 2.5 X 0.5 area, reminiscent of a tennis bracelet case. When opened up completely, it creates a keyboard with a built in devise stand.--Tre Lawrence

Beatdown!

You just might wanna give Noodlecake’s new joint Beatdown! a gander.It comes to us in familiar beat-em up style: side-scrolling action with baddies piling in, mostly from the right, but quite willing to bend that rule in their quest to demolish our lone protagonist.Our lone protagonist isn’t your regular psychotic rager pounding on folks for no reason; nah, this cat has backstory that brings to mind Enron-induced meltdowns and other sad situations: after several years of faithful service, our guy is let go. By email, no less.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus our round-up of notable Apple Watch games and apps. Click over to 148Apps for the latest news, reviews, and more!