The newly formed Recharge Studios has launched their very first game, Dolphin Play, into the App Store. Though the game was initially slated to retail for $0.99, Recharge has decided to surprise us by taking a freemium approach and offering the app as a free download to customers. Hooray for free aquatic fun!

Dolphin Play is a relaxed aquarium simulation game where players can buy fish, take care of them and then eventually sell the matured critters to buy bigger and better fish. Along the way players can buy and train dolphins, which will quickly become the staple of your underwater world. It sounds a lot like undersea Farmville, and that’s a fair comparison though Dolphin Play features a lot fewer annoying Facebook messages asking you to help friends buy manure.

I got to spend a little time with Dolphin Play around launch and it seems like the sort of app which has a lot of potential for the casual crowd. While hardcore gamers are likely to shy away from what is essentially an aquarium management game, there is a whole subset of the gaming populace which will be more than happy to check in on their pretty fish once or twice a day, feed and take care of them and then go on about their day. Sure, you could tell those people to just go get real fish, but if Nintendogs can work on the DS then Dolphin Play can work on the iPhone.

We can also see this app scoring with kids, as we all know children for some reason love to do everyday tasks that seem menial to adults. It’s probably because they haven’t yet discovered that responsibility sucks and still believe they’re “helping.” Enjoy those years parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Also, the game’s leveling system gives players, especially kids, an incentive to keep taking care of their fish so they can get bigger and better options. It’s not incredibly deep, but there’s still a hook there (get it?) to keep you coming back for more.

At any rate, if you’re looking for a chill app for yourself or your kids that lets you sort of check in and out when you feel like and doesn’t require a huge time commitment then Dolphin Play is definitely an option. We’re going to be keeping an eye on this one and see if it manages to make waves (I promise I’ll stop now) in the App Store.

FREE!

Dolphin Play

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-12-17 :: Category: Games

If you enjoyed the chilled out fun of having a virtual pond on your iPhone screen, just imagine what it’ll be like on the iPad. The app developers with possibly the best company name on the App Store, The Blimp Pilots, have brought their award winning Koi Pond app to the iPad as Koi Pond HD.

Designed to take advantage of the iPad’s larger display and faster processor, Koi Pond HD now includes higher resolution graphics, custom koi and improved sounds. A great new feature adds the ability to customize your pond with the Pond Editor and save multiple themes to switch between as you wish. The Blimp Pilots are currently running a contest where users can submit their pond designs for the chance to see them featured on the App Store (more details here).

We’re glad to see this popular app make a move to the big(ger) screen and look forward to chilling out with the HD version.

$1.99

Koi Pond HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-05-21 :: Category: Entertainment

Freeverse today announced Flick Fishing for the iPhone. A lush 3D fishing game that utilizes the accelerometer in the iPhone and iPod Touch to act as a virtual fishing rod.

While there are already a few fishing games in the app store (iTunes Link), this fishing games utilizes rendered 3D graphics to a greater extent than we’ve seen thus far.

Here’s a video from Freeverse showing a beta build of the game:

The game will hopefully be out the first week of November. We like what we see and look forward to getting our hands on it and throwing out a line to two. Keep an eye on our new apps page, feed or twitter stream for release info.