This Week at 148Apps: May 4-8, 2015
A-MAY-ZING Reviews at 148Apps
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.
Beast Quest
Kind of like a simplified version of Monster Hunter with a hint of Zelda thrown in, Beast Quest couldn’t be less like Miniclip’s other games. While it’s clearly best suited for mobile play, and offers a fair few in-app purchases, this is a somewhat more involved experience than the simple endless runners they often provide us with. You’re an adventurer in a fairly pleasant world. Unfortunately, there’s an evil wizard around so it’s down to you to eventually defeat him, while freeing the magical Beasts of Avantia along the way. Beast Quest is an open-ended adventure game, so a lot of the time you won’t be focusing on this lofty aim. Instead, you’ll be pursuing simple quests such as ‘kill x number of wolves’ or ‘find x number of chests’. This can be a little samey but a trickle feeding process of experience and gold acquisition means you’ll be scratching that same itch that MMOs serve so well. --Jennifer Allen
Jelly Reef
In a curious twist, Jelly Reef manages to be both relaxing and surprisingly tough. Maybe it’s the fact that most games set underwater tend to feel quite serene that ensures that this is a relaxing yet challenging experience. As a roguelike of sorts it could do with a little more depth (no pun intended) [Editor's Note: I bet.], but Jelly Reef is still really quite entertaining. You’re attempting to guide jellyfish from one end of a world to the other. Each world is broken up into various stages with you able to choose which segments to negotiate. It’s all laid out as a hexagonal grid, with you able to take different paths to explore. Levels are procedurally generated, meaning every time is going to be different. --Jennifer Allen
Lifetile
Lifetile is an easy to use solution for those of us who want to create digital photo albums to share with friends and family. Potentially, it’ll take you seconds to set things up.A simple matter of entering details such as a name and description, before uploading your images and videos, Lifetile won’t take long to get down to work. You can include location details, as well as document, and links. Tagging content is possible too, although expect it to be a little awkward given its slow addition methods. Everyhing can then be posted publically, or shared with specific loved ones. It all feels kind of like a keepsake box of digital memories.--Jennifer Allen
Grim Fandango Remastered
When people speak of classic adventure games, common examples include the likes of Monkey Island, Sam & Max, and Grim Fandango. Once upon a time it was a rather popular genre on PC, and nobody did it better (arguably, but not really) than LucasArts. It’s been great to see so many classics getting somewhat modern sequels or the occasional remaster, and Grim Fandango is certainly no exception. The thing is, Grim Fandango Remastered isn’t technically new. It’s been available on PC and various Sony consoles for a little while now. But now it’s on iOS so pretty much all of your bases are covered. --Rob Rich
Halo: Spartan Strike
Okay, so I was admittedly a little let down by Halo: Spartan Assault. Thankfully, Halo: Spartan Strike does an excellent job of making up for that initial disappointment. It’s “more of the same,” in a way, but it’s also noticeably better. Functionally, Spartan Strike is about the same as its predecessor. It’s an isometric shooter, set in the Halo universe, and tells a sort of side-story that occurs on the periphery of the console games. It’s still twin-stick Halo, basically. The difference is that Spartan Strike has the benefit of being a sequel (i.e. refinement). --Rob Rich
Lifeline...
I feel like we’re probably going to see more games like Lifeline in the near future. By which I mean games that pace their story and content out in measured increments of time, and are meant to cater to Apple Watch users’ tendency to glance at their devices for a few seconds at a time.This is actually a pretty clever approach. It’s just unfortunate that Lifeline didn’t push things a bit farther. --Rob Rich
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
Marvel Future Fight
It’s a Marvel world, and I suspect we all just live in it. MARVEL Future Fight might be proof.MARVEL Future Fight is part attrition beat-em up, part RPG, and all action. The basic concept is to assemble heroes from the expansive stable of MARVEL characters, good and bad, and to use the resultant collective to prevent destruction. More specifically, Nick Fury calls up for help from the future, letting the whole crew know about collapsing dimensions and such. Scary stuff.--Tre Lawrence
Blaze for Twitter
Blaze for Twitter is a new-ish option that brings a new way to consume and produce tweets. AS there can never be too many options, we were happy to take a look.The intro sequence is humble, inviting the user to add a Twitter account. After tokenization and such, one gets an idea of the customization options available, as well as a look a the user interface. It has a clean default look, with definite lines and bold coloring. The layout option which pops up at the beginning gives one a large say with regards to tweaking the exterior. Off the bat, it is possible to adjust the way Blaze handles images, going from full all the way down to thumbnails. After that, the background color — light or dark — can be selected; there is also a theme option, which allows the user to select from several colors.--Tre Lawrence
All this, plus AppSpy teaches the particulars of doppleganger creation, and we share our top five apps for getting the most out of your gym experience.