148 Apps on Facebook 148 Apps on Twitter

Tag: Hard lines »

Ten Unfortunately Underrated Apps On The iOS App Store

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on July 12th, 2013

Hey, there are over a billion apps out there, you know? There are only a few featured each week by the App Store, only a tiny fraction make the top paid and free charts, and fewer still are included in Apple's Essentials collections.

What that means is that there are a ton of great apps and games out there that just don't get discovered. Let's remedy that, at least a little bit, with our choices for ten of the most underrated apps on the App Store.

Bird Zapper - Here's one of the more ridiculous match-three offerings out there, with a solidly pleasant presentations, control set, and game mechanics. If you're up for some wacky bird torture and like the zen-like state of mindful repetition, this one's for you.

Epic Win - You know what's boring? To-Do lists. Even worse? Completing them. Chores suck, but Epic Win turns them into a game, offering you experience points and level ups to keep you interested and motivated. I still rock this app on my iPhone.

Hard Lines - Take two time-honored video game genres, the dual stick arcade shooter and Snake, and mash them up. You'll get something like Hard Lines, one of the stickier games out there, one in which the resulting app is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Blocks Cometh - This retro-flavored platformer/jumper should have made a longer lasting splash, what with its look, sound, and solid controls. Regardless, it's a game that you should grab for your iOS device right now; it's that good.

Match Panic - Originally titled Critter Panic, this match three game has it all: pixelly artwork, retro chiptune soundtrack, and the addictive nature of time-based pattern matching. Get ready to bliss out with your iPhone and a set of headphones when you play this fantastic game.

Mint - Honestly, I don't know how I lived or did taxes before Mint, the mobile app version of the award-winning financial web service. I find it surprising, though, how few people know of the service or the app. I'm here to right that wrong, now, by recommending you give it a try.

CardMunch - This LinkedIn-sponsored business card scanning app is probably the best of the ones I've used, but I doubt you've even heard of it. Eclipsed by apps like Evernote Hello, CardMunch seems to do a better job recognizing funky card designs. It also connects right to LinkedIn, which makes a lot of sense for those of us that rely on that for business contacts.

Camera+ - Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time replacing Apple's built-in apps with third-party ones. Part of it is the inability to set other apps as default, and part of it is that Apple's apps work well, and simply. Camera+ is one of the exceptions, as it does so much more to take iPhone photography to the next level. Seriously, get this app.

Knights of Pen & Paper - If you're a closet Dungeons & Dragons fan, you'll already warm to the alliterative title of this smart, tongue-in-cheek homage to fantasy role playing of the analog sort. My kids and I pass the iPad back and forth with this game all the time, even to this day.

Rdio - Poor Rdio, it never gets much love. When I see streaming music mentioned in any type of press, it's always Pandora and Spotify that are mentioned. Rdio is a brilliant internet radio platform, organized more by album for us older music lovers. It's got a great catalog of both popular and more indie music, and just gets better each day. Give it a try for free and see if it works for your brain.

FIST OF AWESOME Will Let Players Punch A Dinosaur In The Face

Posted by Carter Dotson on July 25th, 2012

Nicoll Hunt, known on iOS for his work on Hard Lines, has gone solo for his next project: FIST OF AWESOME. Yes, the title is stylized that way, and while I personally generally resent those who feel it necessary to put their title in ALL CAPS, this is necessary. Why, because it's a game about a time-traveling lumberjack who travels through time and beats things up. Beat up alien-possessed deer in the present? Sure! Beat up possessed dinosaurs and cavemen in the past! Definitely! As well, Nicoll Hunt has seen fit to release not just an animated trailer for the game, but also animated screenshots, because what good is a volcano in the background if it isn't erupting? Click the image at left to see it animated.

FIST OF AWESOME is planned for release later this year, with a soundtrack by Brendan Ratliff, who did the music for Gun Runner on iOS. FIST OF AWESOME's main character was previously known as Jack Lumber, though this is changing due to Owlchemy Labs' own upcoming game starring a mighty lumberjack, Jack Lumber. Nicoll Hunt ran a contest to crowdsource the new name and now the protagonist is named Tim Burr. Get it? Like timber?

Favorite Fifty: 148Apps Best Games of 2011: 16 - 25

Posted by Carter Dotson on December 26th, 2011

In what was another fantastic year in the world of iOS apps & games, we are here to bring you the fifty titles that we, the staff of 148Apps, thought were the best of the year. Here are the gaming titles 16 - 25 in our Best Games of 2011:

25. SpellTower: Zach Gage's second iOS release is another smash, as SpellTower proved to be a fun take on the ever-popular word game genre. It comes with some special restrictions to force more creative word usage, and the requirement to make words out of nearby tiles, managing the tile stack as well as trying to form words causes the game to have a deeper dynamic than many word games have.

24. Hard Lines: I did not know it was possible for lines that are only one pixel wide to have character, but these lines shout out constant witticisms while they try to make them crash into each other. A variety of modes are featured throughout this Tron lightcycles and Snake hybrid, along with the ability to compete against friends' high scores. Nothing like a good old high score battle to get the blood pumping, and to develop a little bit of hatred between friends that keeps the relationship strong!

23. Mega Mall Story: Kairosoft put out a ton of their simulation games on iOS this year; any one of them probably deserved to be in this slot, but Mega Mall Story gets the nod by taking elements from tower-building titles, with that signature Kairosoft charm to make it an experience that 148Apps writer Rob Rich is on record as saying that it made him squee. He said he squeed on the inside, but I leave it to our audience to judge the accuracy of the claim themselves.

22. Mission Europa Collector's Edition: iOS games typically shoot for a smaller focus than the other systems do, going for short-term, repeatable experiences. Mission Europa throws that out the window, bringing an original, and expansive first-person shooter with RPG elements to the platform. In the vein of such titles like System Shock (and its more well-known modern spiritual successor BioShock), this iOS original is proud to be big in a small world.

21. Sonic CD - 2 years ago, a Sonic fan named Christian Whitehead pitched Sega on an idea for an iOS port of Sonic CD using a custom engine he designed for bringing retro games to new platforms. Two years later, the results are about as perfect as they could have possibly been, as the game has been redone in perfect fashion, with new tweaks and extras, including the ability to listen to either the American or Japanese soundtrack. It's about as perfect as it could possibly be, and one can only hope that more Sonic games are brought to iOS in similar fashion.

20. The Blocks Cometh: This game really grew on me after a while, once the initial control issues were resolved. The climbing gameplay with action elements really shines through - like Mega Man in the middle of a Tetris stack. The update later in the year adding a new Game Boy-inspired mode, new Arcade and Casual modes, along with a landscape control option helped seal this among one of the best titles of the year.

19. Junk Jack: The most important game of 2011 may be Minecraft; it showed how one indie studio could make a million-seller without any traditional publisher support. Its open-world crafting gameplay was also brought to iOS, but it was alternative interpretations on the platform that may have been stronger overall. Junk Jack brings its own pixel art style to the table with 2D gameplay, but with all the resource harvesting, crafting, and survival intact.

18. Anomaly Warzone Earth: I'm surprised, frankly, that more games like this haven't been made yet, by which I mean tower offense, controlling the invaders among the winding paths and entrenched turrets that are usually the player's job to lay down. The game wisely tweaks the concept enough to let it feel like it has its own strategy and planning that is truly unique to this kind of game. It would be hard to imagine that any other interpretation of tower offense would fare much better.


17. The Last Rocket: Shaun Inman, artist of the number one game in the "Sky is Falling" genre, The Incident, developed this little puzzle-platformer that was downright charming. Controlling an anthropomorphic rocket trying to escape from a factory, the levels were often challenging but required thought to complete properly. The 16-bit-esque design aesthetic only added to the game's charm.

16. Army of Darkness Defense: Here's a dirty little secret: I don't watch a lot of movies. Whenever a friend asks me if I've seen a certain movie, the answer is usually a resounding no. I haven't seen the Evil Dead trilogy at all. That didn't stop me from enjoying this game, which was a castle defense game mixed with side-scrolling action. The simple controls were perfect for mobile, the gameplay laid its hooks into me. I played it for hours on a plane ride in to Chicago, continuing to fight off the Deadite hordes with my boomstick. I was so compelled to write the review for the game that I actually wrote it on my phone while on a commuter train! Is that not motivation?

Come back on Wednesday to see the titles we ranked 15-6.

The Portable Podcast, Episode 92

Posted by Carter Dotson on July 6th, 2011

Now with more snarky one-liners!

On This Episode:

  • Carter and Brett Nolan discuss Tiny Tower, Street Fighter IV Volt, and whether sales impact people's game buying habits.
  • Carter and Andrew Smith of Spilt Milk Studio discuss Hard Lines, and what will be coming in future updates.

  • Who We Are:

  • Host: Carter Dotson
  • Guest: Brett Nolan, AppAddict.net
  • Guest: Andrew Smith, Spilt Milk Studio

  • Contact The Show: Email | Twitter

    Music:

  • "Beatnes7 (Theme to The Portable Podcast)" by The Eternal - Download on iTunes here:


  • "Nanocarp" by The Eternal

  • How to Listen:

  • Click Here to Subscribe in iTunes:
  • Click Here to Subscribe via RSS.

  • Listen on WRGT Radio every Friday at 4pm Central
  • Listen Here: [powerpress]
  • Apps Mentioned in this Episode:


    Hard Lines Review

    + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
    By Jennifer Allen on June 10th, 2011
    Our rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: AWESOME
    Hard Lines offers a hearty mix of Snake and Geometry Wars.
    Read The Full Review »

    Retro Gaming With A Twist Coming Soon With Hard Lines

    Posted by Jennifer Allen on May 31st, 2011

    Coming soon to the app store is Hard Lines - a game that appears to happily capture the spirit of Pac-Man, Snake and Geometry Wars all in one go.

    Like all the best arcade style games, Hard Lines is all about how long the player can last. Players must guide Lionel the line through the Geometry Wars style arena, ensuring that they don't collide with an enemy's tail (just like Snake).

    Gaining the best high score is the order of the day here with OpenFeint support allowing for global comparisons, and there will be 6 different gameplay modes providing some fresh but fast paced entertainment. Developers, Split Milk Studios, promise a good healthy dash of humor too so it'll be interesting to see how that works out in the full product.

    Hard Lines will be available on the App Store in the near future and we'll be sure to provide more information soon. For now, take a look at the screenshot gallery and trailer below.