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Which of these 5 games do you think should be crowned the 148Apps game of the week

Posted by Harry Slater on September 20th, 2018

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You know what time it is, right? It's time for you, our esteemed and charming readership, to choose which of the five games below deserves to be crowned our game of the week. It's a pretty good week as well, so we expect that every single vote is going to count. It'd be a shame if you didn't cast yours.

But how do you vote? Well, there are a number of ways. You can leave a comment on this article, send us a tweet using the hashtag #148GOW, or leave us a comment on our Facebook page. What could be simpler than that?

Make sure you check back next week to see which of these awesome games has won the most coveted award in mobile gaming. And if you want your choice to win, make sure you let your friends know as well.

It's time to choose which of these 5 mobile games is going to be the 148Apps game of the week - July 12th

Posted by Harry Slater on July 12th, 2018

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Well, it's Thursday again. Time moves pretty fast, right? Or slow. Whatever time does, Thursday is when we announce which 5 iOS games are up for our game of the week award. And I tell you what, we've got some right crackers for you this week.

If you want to get involved, leave a comment at the bottom of the article, post on our Facebook page, or send out a tweet using the hashtag #148GOW. It really couldn't be simpler. We'll be announcing the winner next week, so make sure you keep your eyes on 148Apps to see if the game you backed has won.

Check out Royal Mumble, a terrible Clash Royale-themed podcast out right now

Posted by Glen Fox on April 5th, 2016
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our rating: starstarstarstarstar :: ROYALLY FUN :: Read Review »

If you have a passing interest in mobile games, you're likely playing Clash Royale. Like, right now. Gah, you just let that Hog Rider smash your tower because you were too busy reading this! Amateur.

Anyway, why not supplement that insane interest in Clash Royale in a manner that's more palatable while playing. Or, in other words, listen to Royal Mumble, our brand new podcast that's dedicated to your favourite new toilet game instead.

Royal Mumble is brought to you by the most despicable cast of characters Pocket Gamer and 148Apps has to offer. That's Glen Fox, Editor of 148Apps, and Alex Rennie, one of those annoying salesmen who pester you with constant calls and email follow-ups.

He does have an amusing Mancunian accent that's reminiscent of Karl Pilkington though. Worth tuning in for that alone.

The 148Apps Podcast episode two: The balance patch

Posted by Glen Fox on March 24th, 2016
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Our rating: starstarstarstarstar :: ROYALLY FUN :: Read Review »

The 148Apps podcast is back and this time we discuss the March balance patch, what it could mean for your builds, and poor Alex's losing streak. That's what happens when you talk the big talk, Alex.

In other news, even Simon, our editor, doesn't want to listen to this podcast and has left in the bits we asked him to edit out. We pride ourselves on that.

Enjoy!

148Apps is hiring!

Posted by Glen Fox on January 7th, 2016

148Apps is looking to hire a freelance writer to contribute up to four pieces of content a week. This will primarily be guides, reviews, and features.

If you have experience writing about mobile games and apps, are incredibly organised, enthusiastic, and can produce near flawless copy - we want to hear from you.

To apply, send an email over to [email protected] with the subject '148Apps freelance' and a brief summary of your experience so far with at least two examples of any relevant published work.

This Week at 148Apps: September 21-30, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on October 1st, 2015

Leap Into Fall With 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.


Kubiko

Kubiko is a fun little game. It’s slightly reminiscent of logic puzzles used to test your intelligence, but that’s not a bad thing at all. Across 40 different puzzles, you’ll find yourself having to piece back together various creatures and objects by rotating groups of pixels to turn the work into a recognizable shape.It’s simply done. While you’re restricted in terms of how many moves you must do this in, there’s no timer or anything particularly stressful going on. Instead, the worst that happens is you run out of moves and the stage immediately restarts. That relaxing nature immediately makes Kubiko more endearing. It’s so easy to just dip in and work towards solving something, any time you have a few minutes spare.--Jennifer Allen


Timecrest

Rob was right when he said we’d see more games like Lifeline. One such game is Timecrest - a tale of time traveling wizards who are trying to save their world. It’s a kind of adventure game book app with you having to make multiple decisions to see how things work out, with different endings encouraging you to try out different paths. There’s an almighty catch though, that soon puts you off.That catch is time. Timecrest is a free game that is utterly littered with timers. As the story unfolds you regularly find yourself having to wait. A few lines, maybe a whole paragraph or two, of story are provided to you, along with a couple of choices as to what to do next. Hit one of those choices and invariably you’re left having to wait to see how things pan out.--Jennifer Allen


Hotel Transylvania 2

If there’s one thing that Hotel Transylvania 2 offers, it’s an abundance of cute but spooky characters - much like the film the game is based around. Unfortunately, while the creatures might seem imaginative the actual game is fairly tired. It’s your usual run-of-the-mill settlement building game, only with a hotel instead. Starting out, you’re gradually introduced to all the elements of Hotel Transylvania 2. That mostly involves placing buildings down exactly where the game wants you to place them. It soon opens up a little though. You then find yourself completing various quests offered by the characters within Hotel Transylvania 2. These sound quite quirky, such as playing a guitar or video game, in order to lure someone in. Unfortunately, all you do to enact this is press the relevant button and leave the character to it. --Jennifer Allen


Lifeline 2

The launch of the first Lifeline… coincided with the release of the Apple Watch. There were a couple of hangups but it was a decent enough take on what I’m starting to refer to as the “timed adventure game genre.” Now we’ve got a sequel with Lifeline 2. It’s ditched the sci-fi in favor of a more modern fantasy setting, and it feels like it might be a bit longer in terms of the amount of story, but some of the hangups are still there.
For the unfamiliar, Lifeline 2 (and games like it) is a sort of choose-your-own adventure with a real time twist where the protagonist will go silent for minutes to hours at a time while they’re performing various tasks. In this instance you share a connection with a woman named Arika (pronounced kind of like “Erica) as she sets out to gather magical items to help her on her quest for revenge against whoever (or whatever) murdered her parents. She’ll fill you in on the details of her current situation, then you get to pick from one of two responses that could lead to a different line of dialog or even change the outcome of the story. --Rob Rich


Call of Champions

Call of Champions, by Spacetime Studios, is a distilled multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) that's reminiscent to Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm in that your team of 3 champions must cross a battlefield to destroy the enemy's base. Each match is timed so you only get 5 minutes to score, and capturing your enemy's base is no easy task. Each team has four towers guarding their base, as well as a wall as their last line of defense. You'll need to guide an orb along a path between the two bases to disable those towers and bring down the wall before you can attack the base proper. All along the way your enemy will be attacking and trying to steal away the orb. If either side fails to destroy the other's base, then the winner will be decided by whomever destroyed the most towers. --Jessica Fisher


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


Downton Abbey

Yep, it’s Downton Abbey. Enough said.The game starts in such a way that series fans should find familiar: clan cornerstone Carson eagerly welcomes an agent to the Earl of Grantham’s residence. Early on, the idea is to solve stuff by finding stuff in “plain” site.Completing sessions (by finding items) earns one valuable XP and items. There is also an upgrade/crafting element which comes into play and adds some complexity to an otherwise simple game.When it’s all said and done, it is, at its core, a constructed hidden object game. The core competency sought is the ability to pick out selected items from a series of still images, and to do so as quickly as possible with as few helpers as possible. The artwork utilized reflects the time period adequately — at least, in my mind it did — and the scrolling feature that allows for more hidden objects allows the game to feel a bit more mysterious.--Tre Lawrence


The Lost Treasure

It all starts out with a cryptic letter from Uncle Henry, letting the player know that after studying the map that he (the player) found; Uncle Henry’s recommended course of action is to go on and find the pirates hidden treasure both suspect the map points to.With this modest beginning, our adventure is launched, and one gets to be immersed in the digital caper known as The Lost Treasure.
Right from the onset, the game is fairly easy to navigate. It uses still images to advance the gameplay, and the imagery does reflect the jungle environment one expects from the opening letter. The perspective is first person, and to move around, one simply touches the screen intuitively in the rough direction one wants to go; in this way, one can move from scene to scene, or get a closer look at an area within the scene. Thus, this also how ones investigates objects, which makes up a pretty big part of the game.--Tre Lawrence


Door Kickers

As a child of the 80s, I grew up loving some of the iconic shows of the time. The cop shows were the best; CHiPs was a staple, and for me T.J. Hooker — and not Star Trek — was my first introduction to William Shatner. One show I loved was from the preceding decade, and I got to enjoy it via reruns: S.W.A.T. From the opening score to the credits to the uniforms to, well everything, the show defined cool. Yep, the cops that “regular” cops called when stuff got tough.Boyhood fantasies aside, there’s plenty of room for special tactics sims for mobile devices, and Door Kickers, one of the more notable PC ports, has made its way to Android.The game is a full-fledged planning and action adventures. There isn’t much back story, no; this one gets right down to it.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides, and even more reviews than we can share here.

This Week at 148Apps: September 7-11, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on September 14th, 2015

Slide Into September With 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.


Zen Brush2

Zen Brush 2 takes what worked so well for the original app and improves upon it. It’s not like regular drawing software, lacking the variety of a more powerful artistry app, but it’s really quite delightful for evoking a particular theme.That theme is through the use of an East Asian ink brush. Looking a little like a more artistic interpretation of calligraphy, you can use your finger to sweep across the screen, drawing lines from a number of different brush strokes. If you hold your finger to the screen for a time, you can see the ink pool where your finger is resting, ensuring it feels more tactile than most drawing apps.--Jennifer Allen


Legendary Warriors

Looking really rather gorgeous, Legendary Warriors will catch your attention quite quickly. In reality, it’s a fairly hands-off experience that means it’s not going to be for everyone, but it’ll certainly stick in your mind through its beauty. An RPG of sorts, you’re helping a party of characters go from place to place, taking out monsters in their wake, and getting stronger too. How this is conducted is fairly hands-off though. You hit the ‘go’ button to send your character to battle then your only interaction is through activating a special skill as and when it becomes available. When that happens, the game stutters a bit, adding insult to injury. --Jennifer Allen


Dead Synchronicity

Dead Synchronicity is dark. Really, really dark. Set in a world that has been mostly wiped out by a mysterious thing called The Great Wave, leading to martial law and some terrible suffering, it’s a bleak existence. You’re a man suffering from amnesia, but unlike other games you’re not here to liberate the world - you just want to survive. This is done through exploring the land and solving various puzzles. At times, it’s a little sick, suck as when you’re mutilating a corpse in order to set the man up in the case of a murder. It’s consistently well written though, and really quite enticing. This doesn’t feel like a by the numbers tale, instead sticking in your memory for a while to come. --Jennifer Allen


Chrono Space

The reasons why are unimportant. All you need to know is that some badguys are gunning for you and the only way you can fend them off is by creating, placing, and upgrading defensive towers - in space. But despite the familiar setup, Chrono Space (to its benefit) does things a little differently.There are no paths or anything to worry about here; since you’re in space enemies can approach from any direction. Fortunately they’ll stop to attack your towers, so while you can’t block them in you can at least delay them. Unfortunately you never really get a proper heads-up about which section of the screen they might be attacking from but it ultimately doesn’t put you at much of a disadvantage because the game is pretty brutal either way. --Rob Rich


Power Ping Pong

Once upon a time, I used to play table tennis for a team. I was supposedly pretty good at it and nearly participated in a few tournaments. I was young though, and therefore foolish, and gave up because, well, I don’t know. While real table tennis doesn’t offer special moves or power-ups, Power Ping Pong does bring back some fun memories. It’s table tennis with a Kung Fu style twist. Throughout the arcade mode, you take on various competitors, showing them just what you’ve got, with an option to delve into a survival mode or multiplayer. Controls are simple to pick up but require some mastering. They mostly involve performing gestures, such as a sweep upwards at speed invoking a fast hit, with the opposite providing more of a kind of lob. Side swipes can also prove useful at the right time. It takes some practice but it's reasonably rewarding, much like the real sport. --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


Speedy Ninja

Speedy Ninja packs a lot.On the surface, it’s an endless runner. The main job is to get our hero — a sassy, excitable ninja with just a hint of stickman sensibilities — to go as far as possible. Running occurs in an intuitive left-to-right fashion, and once a run commences, the ninja moves forward continuously… until an obstacle of some sort says otherwise.The obstacles will be somewhat familiar to ninja aficionados, and have a touch of the fantastic: bamboo stakes, spinning blades, homing spears and more. To navigate these, there is a handy jump button that allows one to vault and double-vault such run enders.--Tre Lawrence


TYLT FLYP-DUO Reversible USB Cable

We are a mobile society.Or, to be fair, we are getting there. In any case, some thing seem to be becoming more commonplace, such as households with multiple mobile devices, and households with devices from multiple platforms.Hey, I should know… this one has units from all major platforms, and then some.
Still, now, with the joy of multiple devices comes the challenge of keeping them charged. Since Apple uses proprietary cables, it does add an extra cable to be carried when an iDevice. Since I like to be prepared, it pays to have a lightning cable, and even if not for me, I do get a weird sense of accomplishment when I can provide a cable to a needy friend or colleague.Ah, enter the TYLT FLYP-DUO Reversible USB Cable.--Tre Lawrence


Stick Squad 4-Sniper's Eye

If truth be told, I am not the biggest fan of sniper games. Call me a wuss, but there is just something so… well… final about them. Yes, some find it silly, but talking about it frees me.I think…But then there’s Stick Squad 4 – Sniper’s Eye, the fourth installment in Stick Squad series. It’s the sequel to the sequel to the original sequel, and looks to bring the best of stick figures and sniping to handheld gaming.For folks vested in this particular gaming series, the general look will be familiar. One gets the expected stick figures, and they’re moving, relaxing and otherwise living in the lfe. the motions are mostly natural looking, and the visuals work well, even if perspective takes a weird turn a time or two. The gameplay is presented in first person format, through a scope for vision. Moving said scope is a matter of holding/dragging it around till one gets a target in one’s sights. There is a simple shooting button, and it is very reactive.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides, and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: August 31-September 4, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on September 8th, 2015

Slide Into September With 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.


I Am Bread

The world of gaming means you can inhabit the lives of so much. You can become a hero saving the universe, a soldier at war, an orc exploring a new world, or you can be a slice of bread. You read me right - bread. The latest in a string of quirky simulations (hi there, Goat Simulator), I am Bread has you inhabit the soul of a slice of bread as it desperately makes its way from the rest of the loaf to the toaster. Because toast is the best use of bread, obviously! It’s obtuse a lot of the time but the novelty value makes it worth checking out if you’ve got money to spare. Each level is a day of the week, starting out with a psychiatrist’s report into the actions of a man convinced that his loaf of bread is alive. Then you find yourself on your perilous mission to get to the toaster. --Jennifer Allen


Tiny Empire

Angry Birds 2 disappointed you a little, right? Fun but too full of freemium stuff to really keep you fully happy, yes? Tiny Empire is almost an antidote to that. It’s not as finely tuned, but being an entirely premium experience with just the one price ensures that you can simply enjoy the game rather than feel gouged for money. The first thing you’ll notice and love (if you’re my age) is the visual style. Tiny Empire looks like a 16-bit game that wouldn’t be out of place on the Sega Genesis or SNES. The map layout for choosing each level also looks just like a JRPG from days gone by. This is distinctly appealing and immediately puts Tiny Empire on the right footing. --Jennifer Allen


Fitness Avatar

Strength exercises are an unsurprisingly perfect way to get stronger and fitter. They’re also the ideal way to completely wreck your back and other vital limbs, all through performing such activities incorrectly. While you can get a trainer or spotter to assist you, that’s not always convenient. Instead, I’d suggest giving Fitness Avatar a shot.The app works by offering you advice on how to perform a particular move, before then filming you as you complete one repetition so you can see exactly what you’re doing rightly or wrongly. You’re restricted to squats, deadliest, and bench presses, but as these are three popular moves and ones that demand you perform them correctly, this is a pretty good starting point. In each case, a brief intro is provided along with a description of why you should take advantage of such a movement. Then you can go to work. Fitness Avatar will keep an eye on how your back is adjusting and whether you’re putting too much pressure on your knees or other joints. You can then watch it back and see how you did. --Jennifer Allen


Top Camera 2

Top Camera 2 is the kind of app that’s going to fit on your phone quite nicely. Besides being very useful and small in size, it looks stylish, matching the general aesthetic tone of iOS.In that mere 8mb of size, Top Camera 2 packs in comprehensive photo and video modes, a selection of filters, and plenty of adjustment options. In each case, it’s simple to use too. Taking a photo or video for instance can take mere seconds, with sliding bars allowing you to adjust the focus or exposure, while another sliding panel gives you options such as HDR, slow shutter, or time lapse. It’s all intuitive and takes seconds to figure out. --Jennifer Allen


Sage Solitaire

Solitaire is all well and good, but all too often it’s kind of samey. Sage Solitaire takes that concept, throws in some Poker elements and soon proves to be pretty compelling.Across three different modes, the format is roughly the same. A three by three grid of cards are offered to you and you have to make hands from them. These hands can be many thing from Poker such as pairs, three of a kind, a full house, and so on. Two pairs aren’t allowed though, which is a little annoying. One of the game modes also allows you to make hands of 15. --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


Walking Dead: Road to Survival

Here’s to Walking Dead: Road to Survival. It’s based on the original The Walking Dead comics, it definitely pays homage with the grim feeling and apocalyptic look, with stills and gritty transitions.One major part of the game is the building and crafting. The home compound serves as an enclave of sorts which protects the untainted inhabitants against the undead and other human enemies. Part of the game involves learning how to craft, using materials made on site. One can upgrade and add more resources like farms and living quarters, some upgrades depend on the level of other units. Thus, a bit of strategy is involved to grow.A good portion of this combat segment has to do with turn-based action. It usually consists of the player’s crew facing (or surrounded by) a set of zombies or other human opponents.--Tre Lawrence


ZAGG Auto-Fit Folio 10 Keyboard

Bottom line? If I am going to use a tablet, I might as well get the accessories and peripherals that will make it work for me. I like the comfort of being able to use one as a laptop at least some of the time, so a portfolio-type of accessory is just what the doctor ordered.One problem: not all tablets get the same treatment from accessory makers — which is somewhat understandable. What happens if you get a hardware piece that doesn’t have an iPad-like stable of third-party accessories to choose from? What if you have multiple devices with slightly different dimensions?--Tre Lawrence


FRAMED

Every now and then, one comes across an atypical game.FRAMED is just that. It is an interesting comic-puzzle hybrid that manages to surprise every step of the way.It’s about time it got to Android.In this one, the game gets to the going quickly. To understand if to play it; it feels like an animated comic book of you will, with paneled cards sewing the action together. A scene starts, and then is replaced by another scene, which is basically a continuation of the prior screen. It pops off so quickly that the storyline, which involves a person on the run-type deal, becomes a sideshow… in a great way.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides, and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: August 24-28, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on September 1st, 2015

The Apps of August With 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.


Lara Croft GO

When you start playing Lara Croft GO, you’ll feel this urge to go quickly. After all, it’s Lara Croft. You’ve spent years rushing through tombs with her, right? That’s probably the worst thing you could do while playing Lara Croft GO. It’s a turn-based puzzle game where you need to carefully plan each move and, often, many moves ahead. It works remarkably well. Each level offers a grid based layout. You swipe to move Lara around, with her automatically climbing up things as and when an opportunity arises. In turn, if there are moving obstacles such as a circular saw, they move every time that she moves. The trick here is timing and planning ahead in a way that means you don’t get trapped or killed. Early levels introduce this concept relatively gradually, but you’ll soon find yourself having to scout ahead with a level before truly committing to something. --Jennifer Allen


PAC-MAN 256

PAC-MAN 256 isn’t anything like other Pac-Man games. From the makers of Crossy Road, it’s an endless take on the usual Pac-Man format. Instead of running around a maze you’re running upwards, collecting dots, munching up power pellets, and dodging ghosts. It’s a format that works but could do with offering you some more reasons to keep on playing.Dispensing with virtual buttons, PAC-MAN 256’s control scheme is centered around swipes. At first, this might seem a little inaccurate but it soon proves quite straight forward and feeling a lot more natural than a virtual d-pad. As you progress, the maze grows in front of you, keeping you on your toes. Ghosts are easy enough to spot but you have to plan ahead in order to dodge their trajectory. Each type has their own personality too, meaning that some might follow a set path, while others home in on you, making things much trickier. --Jennifer Allen


Galactic Keep

Galactic Keep is easily one of the strangest role-playing games I've played in a long time, mainly due to its strange art style, deep sense of exploration, and unapologetic dedication to the experience of tabletop gaming. As it was developed over the course of six years, Galactic Keep is a labor of love that's both profoundly fun and interesting despite sporting its fair share of peculiarities and flaws. Playing Galactic Keep is closest to what it's like to play a Dungeons & Dragons campaign but with more dice, one character, and a completely unfamiliar set of rules and lore. At the outset, everything is overwhelming to the point that it would be off-putting if it weren't all so intriguing and mysterious. Keeping that in mind, players can expect to die early and often in the game's current module. Over time though, they can upgrade their characters, find loot, and start wrapping their mind around everything. --Campbell Bird


Green Eggs and Ham - Read & Learn

The follow up to The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham - Read & Learn continues that charming trend, being immensely appealing to young and old. In no time, you’ll want to read through this with your child and odds are you're both going to enjoy that time a lot. As before, Green Eggs and Ham - Read & Learn offers up a mixture of reading, interaction, and simple gaming. Following the beloved story of Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, it’s a lovely tale full of rhymes and charm. You can choose to read via the highlighted narration or go at your own pace, ensuring it’s useful for kids of any age and reading ability. --Jennifer Allen


RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

It's been a while since I've experienced a management sim like RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, which recently emerged on the App Store as a "pay once and play" port of the PC original. This version is largely the same as it was in 2004, albeit with touch controls. This may stir up feelings of nostalgia for some, but that doesn't mean it isn't a bit clunky in its transition to iOS. Like every RollerCoaster Tycoon game, this is all about building and managing a profitable and fun amusement or theme park - whether that be from one of the 18 Career Mode scenarios or in the more free-form sandbox mode. This involves everything from hiring staff to setting the price of foodstuffs in the park and, of course, building roller coasters. All of this is largely handled via menus, but the main screen is almost always displaying the park and its attendees as they go from ride to ride. --Campbell Bird


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


Anomaly Defenders

And now, we get to Anomaly Defenders....About time…While the series got us going on “tower offense” as a gameplay constant, this one takes it back to more of a tower defense scenario. More pertinently, alien invaders are on the ropes in this one, and humans are the aggressors. Thus, the player takes on the job of saving the home planet of the aliens.Graphically, it is an interesting projection, clearly futuristic, with a Terminator feel to the dark landscapes. The view is top-down in nature, and the play area generally consists of stretches of land interspersed with defined roads on which enemy (human) attack vehicles travel. The animations sizzle, and it looks pretty good overall.--Tre Lawrence


Q*bert Rebooted Free

I first encountered Q*bert years ago; I rocked the heck out of that game on the trusty BlackBerry 8320. Tech eons later, I get to try it out again, this time on Android, presented as Q*bert Rebooted.Definitely worth a look.The game is dual-natured, in that the game presents two versions: the classic version, replete with retro graphics and true to the original gameplay. There is also the “rebooted” version, which is a slick, more modern refresh.--Tre Lawrence


Zipbuds SLIDE Earbuds

The more mobile I get, the more I appreciate a good set of headphones.As the kids get older, there’s only so much Taylor Swift I can listen to; the house sometimes feels like one crazy karaoke machine.So, retiring to the quietest part of the house can be quite rewarding. The pure joy of it makes me smile. Get me an e-book (or mind-bending game), some sweet tea and some headphones with which to listen to accompanying music, and that quiet spot becomes mine.Y’all feel me? That’s why cool stuff like the Zipbuds No-tangle Slide Earbuds are just what the doctor ordered.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides, and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: August 17-21, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on August 24th, 2015

The Apps of August With 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.


Tribe

I’m not going to question why you need to but we’ve all had those moments where we want to share a video in the most private of fashions, right? That sounds a little oxymoronic when you consider the open nature of Instagram and Vine but a solution is in sight. Tribe gives you the means in which to create and share videos, but with only 10 of your phone contacts. It works well, too. No videos are shared on a server and only the creator can choose to save or share them. Videos can only be five seconds long and silent, which may limit what you want to do with them, but it’s a pretty effective system. Your friends can simply tap on a video to let you know they appreciated it, and you can ‘whistle’ at them to request a video back. --Jennifer Allen


BattleLore: Command

The land of Terrinoth is in peril. Can you guide the Daqan forces to victory over the daemons of the Uthuk Y’llan? Fantasy Flight Games' Battlelore Command is based on the popular strategy board game. Here you'll be put in charge of the human forces of the Daqan - complete with calvary, melee, archers, golems, and even a few Roc-riding Ariel units. The game uses a hex grid, random powers, and predetermined sets of moves for you to choose from. The trick is that moves will become unavailable until you refresh them, so choosing your strategy wisely is mega-important. Just a heads-up: you won't win the tutorial level, and this is a omen for things to come. Due to those limitations on movement each turn the first few levels are surprisingly difficult. In order to succeed you have to pay careful attention to what each unit can do and which powers you have available on each turn. --Jessica Fisher


Loot & Legends

Loot & Legends is a free-to-play, turn-based strategy game that tries its darndest to capture the look and feel of playing a tabletop role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons while simultaneously creating its own, card-based loot system. Although it sounds a bit peculiar, Loot & Legends is largely successful in what it sets out to do, making it a pretty awesome package for strategically-minded, dungeon-crawling enthusiasts.For anyone familiar with age-old fantasy tropes, almost everything in Loot & Legends' structure and lore should be unsurprising. Players make a party consisting of a warrior, priest, and wizard, all of whom go on adventures battling goblins, kobolds, lizardmen, etc both for the greater good of the world and for loot to make them ever stronger against more difficult foes. --Campbell Bird


Monsters Ate My Metropolis

Monsters Ate My Metropolis is an exceptionally colorful and vibrant card game. Dispensing with too much focus on the cards, you’ll find yourself destroying cities with the help of lumbering kaiju. It’s a great concept for a game but its execution suffers from a few issues right now.Learning the game is fairly easy, although mastering it is another matter. You assemble a deck of cards then are dealt three each turn. You pick out which card to use based on its power and element, before unleashing it against your opponent and hoping for the best. You can boost how things go through completing a brief mini game that tends to involve you either tapping frantically or timing one tap just right. Each attack builds a meter which can eventually lead to you unleashing a mega attack on your enemy’s city.--Jennifer Allen


Age of Defenders

It’s been a while since I last played a tower defense game and Age of Defenders has reminded me of exactly why I enjoy the genre so much. It could do with offering a little more speed to proceedings, but other than that, it’s a solidly dependable release. There’s a story in there, one told through cutscenes and snippets of dialogue, but I’ll admit I didn’t pay huge attention to it, although there are a few moments of light humor to glean from the dialogue. It does provide convenient context for the tutorial though. Age of Defenders is split into two distinct forms of strategy gaming with a defensive side of things and an offensive side. --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


Stickman Tennis

Stickmen? Tennis? Nah, I don’t mind giving Stickman Tennis a shot. We are talking about a tennis sim with stickman, right?The gameplay utilizes a tennis court — of course — with a lengthwise view, much like one would watch a real tennis match on TV. The stickman populate the whole thing, from the players to the personnel to the spectators; the graphics are subdued, and the sound feels familiar.The game incorporates a bunch of virtual buttons — three for specific shots: lobs, slices, and strokes with topspin. In the training module, one learns that timing is of essence, and the power of a shot can be affected by how long one “holds” the button down. To the left, there is a directional joystick that the player can use to control the direction of the shot.--Tre Lawrence


Oddwings Escape

Oddwings Escape gives players the opportunity to take on the persona of birds looking to escape from a lab in which evil experiments are being performed upon them.Graphically, the game is a visual feast, with liberal use of colors that –at first — reflect a jungle-ish motif. The game consists of travel ways, and mostly boils down to a timed, rated race that requires the player to get from point A to Point B; there is a distance challenge to start it all up.--Tre Lawrence


Cartel Legend: Crime Overkill

If AL Pacino’s Scarface played a mobile game, he’d probably spend more than just a few minutes with Cartel Legend: Crime Overkill.Some of it might look familiar.The locations are enjoyably stereotypical for the type of game this is, from storied casinos to expansive mansions that would make even Tony Montana do a double take. On their own, the scenes look nice and visual perspective is adhered to fairly well. The player takes on the persona of a deadly assassin, and a major task is to get from the beginning point to an endpoint, designated by a green overlay.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: August 10-14, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on August 17th, 2015

Amped Up for August With 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.


Score! Hero

More like a kind of physics puzzle game than a regular soccer title, Score! Hero feels a little unfair at times with more than a dose of randomness thrown in. Odds are though, you’ll still be giving it a shot every now and then as it’s quite fun.You’re controlling the career of an up and coming soccer play. There are some light management style options with you able to customize your player before choosing teams to play for. Then you get thrown into the action. --Jennifer Allen


Direct Shot

Direct Shot is a simple yet effective app, enabling you to directly save photos and videos to your Dropbox account as you snap them. For those users who are always running out of space on their phone or iPad, it’s a real time saver.Setup is a breeze. You just log in to your Dropbox account, pick a folder to deposit your images, and away you go. you can switch between different folders, which is going to be particularly useful if you like to be organized and have plenty of subjects in mind. --Jennifer Allen


Apocalypse Meow: Save the Last Humans

"Don’t mess with cats" is the moral of Apocalypse Meow: Save the Last Humans - an arcade style shooter with a surprising amount of personality. It’s a more welcoming shooter than most, meaning even casual players can enjoy what’s here, but it’s still pretty taxing.You play your way through various levels, completing numerous missions in a bid to unlock new upgrades for your ship, as well as defeat the evil cats. Action is immensely simple. You use your finger to drag your ship around with firing done automatically. --Jennifer Allen


Animation Desk Cloud

Have you ever wanted to create cool animations but had no idea where to start? Animation Desk Cloud is a fairly good starting place, although do expect to have to practice to truly get the most from it. Requiring a quick sign up process to get the most from it, the app throws a text based overlay at you to explain what button performs what task. In reality, experimentation is the best way to understand things. Animation Desk Cloud is a little unwieldy at first, meaning poking around at what can be accomplished makes way more sense. Much like other art based apps, some of your success is going to be down to your ability to draw well. You can use various different brushes to create shapes and images, with your ability level and imagination the only real restriction. Coloring is easily changed around too. --Jennifer Allen


Zoombinis

It looks like a fairly cute puzzle game but Zoombinis is much more than that, actually offering up a series of logical and mathematical puzzles to tax your gray matter. It’s a remake of a 1990s puzzle game, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, but old and new players should quite appreciate it - even if it does look a little old fashioned. You’re helping a series of small blue creatures as they attempt to reach the safety of Zoombiniville. This involves completing 12 tricky puzzles. The unique twist to Zoombinis is that you choose how your creatures look and what accessories they possess, and that actually affects what unfolds. --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


Samsung S Action Bluetooth Mouse

I have a confession. I actually like using the iPad Mini.Oops.My second generation was originally procured for work, and it became an ever huger part of my process due to (then) superior WordPress app on iOS. Paired with a great keyboard combo, and one gets an effective makeshift netbook.One shortcoming, for my needs, is the inability to use a bluetooth mouse. When it’s all said and done, I like using bigger tablets like an aforementioned notebook — or more like a full-fledged computer — when the occasion calls for it, and reaching to touch the screen for navigation irks me more than I’d like to admit.--Tre Lawrence


Army Helicopter - Relief Cargo

Army Helicopter – Relief Cargo is a game that makes heroes out of players.It’s a simple game, really, so the lack of any pointers probably shouldn’t hurt it in the eyes of prospective players too much. The first scene runs right into it; one uses a truck to load a heavy duty chopper with gear, and there is a bit of skill required to direct the truck in there, what with virtual steering wheel, brakes, gas and gearbox. In addition, one has a time limit to contend with, so errors can be costly.The end game, at first, is to get the trucks in position. As this is the first level, it is easy enough. Next, one gets a bank of controls and a new task: get the helicopter from the home pad to a way point some distance away. This part is trickier, and the lack of instructions does jar a teeny bit, especially as this portion is timed as well, but it isn’t too hard to feel one’s way through it. If one makes it through in time, the next level is opened up, which is to offload the chopper. Quickly.--Tre Lawrence


Angry Birds 2

Angry Birds dropped on the mobile gaming scene and all but created a new genre of game. An entire generation of folks got lost in the infinite charm of bringing avian justice to wayward pigs.What followed the original is an entire stable of spin-offs and branded versions: Star Wars, Rio, Go! and more.Now, we get a “true” sequel to original blockbuster in Angry Birds 2. The pigs are just as insolent, the birds as, uh, angry and the game begs to be played.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: August 3-7, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on August 12th, 2015

Amped Up for August With 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.


Prune

Prune is a beautifully minimal puzzle game in which players prune trees. For those unfamiliar with tree pruning, this mainly just involves players trimming branches off of a tree so that it grows in a very specific way. Despite not being terribly long, Prune's gorgeous look and novel gameplay make it definitely worth checking out. Players encounter the same basic setup for each individual stage across any of Prune's five chapters: they must grow a tree in a certain way in order to get enough flowers to blossom and to move on to the next. This starts off easily enough to introduce the basic mechanics, but soon there will be instances where the constant slashing of branches becomes necessary to avoid obstacles like buzzsaws and more ominous red orbs that work as a sort of poison for trees. --Campbell Bird


Koi - Journey of Purity

My first glimpse of Koi - Journey of Purity came from the trailer, and I immediately picked up a Flower vibe from it. I wasn’t wrong, either.Each level in Koi has you swimming around fairly large, almost maze-like bodies of water while trying to help flowers bloom - and the way you do this is by finding like-colored fish and guiding them to the right buds. Of course things quickly get more complicated when you have to clear paths by playing Simon-like mini-games, or avoid very large and aggressive fish. It’s all very pretty and quite interesting, but it’s not perfect. --Rob Rich


Farming Simulator 2016

It wasn’t until recently that I managed to dip a toe into the Farming Simulator waters - the Playstation 4 version of Farming Simulator 2015, specifically - but pretty much as soon as I did I could tell why it was such a beloved (and obviously niche) series. The bug bit me pretty hard, to the point where I was pretty excited to check out Farming Simulator 2016 for iOS. You begin the game with a couple of fields (one ready to harvest and another ready to sow), a harvester, a tractor, a few important tools to attach to that tractor, and a little bit of money. It’s up to you to turn all of that into a sprawling farm with over a dozen fields, multiple vehicles, and a somewhat ridiculous profit margin. It basically boils down to collecting crops, planting new crops, and selling crops to buy better stuff. --Rob Rich


Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is an incredibly creepy, atmospheric, and downright terrifying game. Virtually every moment spent trying to survive each of its five nights (give or take a couple extras) is incredibly tense as you play cat-and-mouse with nightmarish renditions of the original cast - Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Freddy (plus one or two surprise guests). Problem is I’m actually talking about the PC version. The core of Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 is still the same on iOS. You’re still running back and forth between two bedroom doors, a closet, and a bed while trying to use your flashlight to drive away the horrific monsters that are stalking you. And you’ll still get grabbed if you don’t flashlight enough (or if you flashlight too soon). What’s disappointing is that the animations have been stripped down so much it’s practically like watching a slideshow. This doesn’t spoil the tension, but it does lessen it a fair bit. --Rob Rich


Angry Birds 2

It was inevitable that we’d see a true sequel to Angry Birds one day and, really, who could complain? There’s a reason why people love the franchise - it’s annoyingly compelling. There’s a lot of pressure on Angry Birds 2 to be just as great as the first time then and, well, it doesn’t quite do it. It’s still pretty great but some monetization decisions mean that you’re going to be quite frustrated at times. The key theme of Angry Birds 2 remains the same. You’re still flinging birds at structures containing pigs. I’ve forgotten by this point why the two sides hate each other so much but who really cares? This time round, each level is made up of multiple sections and structures, meaning it’s a meatier affair, as well as looks positively gorgeous. Also, you won’t be able to look up guides to figure things out, as each time you hit ‘retry’, the layout changes around. --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


K300 Premium 4K 3-Port HDMI Switch

Yep, it’s a wireless world.Nothing really beats the convenience of hooking up a mobile source to a bigger target and being able to stream and consume content. It’s just awesome.
I’m old school though, in that I still appreciate the fidelity of wired connections. No muss, no fuss. No need for wi-fi (as is necessary in some wireless connectivity set-ups). HDMI connections are especially noted; these are universal standards, and have the ability to provide input options for a veritable host of peripherals, from smartdevices to whole computers and everything in-between. And, if truth be told (and being the gadget collecting generation that we are), TV manufacturers, for instance, may need to start allocating most of the back panel space to more and more — and more — HDMI input space.--Tre Lawrence


Deadlock: Online

Folks play mobile games for a variety of reasons.Hang time with the friends. Bragging rights with family. Down time at school. Reviewing apps for a living (hello!).One thing is for sure, we all come upon those days when taking on a game like Deadlock: Online is needed by of stress relief, and maybe even profound enjoyment beyond that.It opens up easily enough, and feels like virtual battle of attrition; the player mans a combatant in an urban landscape, and the basic premise is to knock out your enemies and stay alive. To achieve this feel, the developer uses a top-down perspective. The control system is dual in nature, and, as noted, involved moving around and shooting enemy fighters.--Tre Lawrence


Bracketron Mi-T Grip Smartphone Mount

When it comes to mobile accessories, few names resonate like Bracketron; its Mi-T Grip Smartphone Mount is just the type of tool one would love to add to one’s accessory arsenal.The review unit that Bracketron sent highlights the product in retail form; getting it out of the packet unveils the two pieces that make up the mount: a ball joint fused with suction-sticky attachment surface, and then an adjustable clip that fits intuitively onto the ball joint with the help of a tightening screw. When the latter is snapped onto the former, one gets a homogeneous solution, made of hard plastic and coming in all black. It is almost diminutive and feels solidly built.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: July 27-31, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on August 3rd, 2015

Winding Down July With 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.


NINE

NINE is an appealing and convenient twist on the typical To-Do list format. Focused on providing visual reminders rather than text based ones, you simply snap a photo of something then tag it and you have an instant reminder to do or buy something. It’s a nice idea.Much of NINE’s convenience comes from its flexibility. Rather than being tied into dull lists reminding you of what you need to do, you can use it to remember things you want to buy come pay day, or simply as a visual list of things/people you love. Recipe ideas can be formulated through taking snaps of foo that inspires you. It’s all pretty varied in terms of what can be accomplished. --Jennifer Allen


To-Fu Fury

Somehow making an incredibly boring kind of food fun, To-Fu Fury isn’t the most original of physics puzzle games, but it is solidly dependable. You control a sentient piece of Tofu as he has to leap around various platforms, dodging spikes, collecting gems, and even fending off aggressive enemies. Each level is relatively brief but it’s quite challenging. You can drag the Tofu around, fling it across the screen in an Angry Birds style manner, or you can crawl along the ground with a pinch of two fingers. Various challenges arise, such as the need to carefully get around spikes, learn to ricochet off metal plates, and also negotiate tricky moving platforms. --Jennifer Allen


Baffles Classic Puzzles

Baffles Classic Puzzles reminds me a little of the puzzle books that my parents would give to me on a long journey to keep me busy. They’d be simple-looking logic puzzles but often they’d take a while to figure out. This game is just full of those, and that’s a good thing. Offering 76 puzzles in all, with a further 24 coming soon, there’s no shortage of challenge here. Each puzzle is offered to you with a description of what needs to be accomplished, along with some historical context, explaining the origins of the puzzle. Baffles Classic Puzzles takes its inspiration from many different eras, including ancient Rome and China. --Jennifer Allen


In Churning Seas

In Churning Seas is a physics-based puzzler in which players attempt to assemble randomly-shaped crags into an island that successfully persists above a constantly rising sea level. The difficulty in making high quality physics-based puzzle games is in balancing the inherent challenge of the mechanics and tools with the physics. In Churning Seas makes an interesting, though perhaps not entirely successful, attempt at striking this balance while providing a really excellent atmosphere and general aesthetic.Controlling In Churning Seas is easy enough. At the start of any game players have a randmoized base island to start from, a rising sea below, and random shapes appearing above for them to tap to drop into their desired place. The goal is to piece together enough shapes and have them hold together long enough to reach new heights. Along the way players may hit a specific height goal, which provides the benefit of locking the other pieces in place to create a more stable structure to continue building off of. In the event that players need some stability when a height goal is out of reach, they can double-tap a limited amount of blocks to lock them in place as well. --Campbell Bird


Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition

There’s a reasonable argument against the need for HD remakes as it is. Do we really need to return to so many old games, all for the sake of some shinier graphics? Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition really reinforces that concept by somehow disrupting some of the key visual and audio flourishes of the original. Throw in the fact that the game is often quite obtuse, and the past doesn’t seem so great any more. The foundations are pretty solid, at least. Ritualistic killings are occurring in New Orleans, and it’s down to struggling author, Gabriel Knight, to figure things out. True Detective fans are going to like this. At least they will until they realise that Gabriel is a fairly obnoxious womaniser. Arrogance is fair enough at times, but this character takes it too far. --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


inStream SeptimusB 7 Port USB Charging Station

As we like to say, more mobile devices, more problems… power problems to be specific. Even as batteries get better, there is always a need to keep our power units powered.Yeah, one can plug in a charging peripheral to every outlet at work or at home, but then, one needs to walk all over the place to retrieve them. It’s just better to have all of them in one place, especially for those of us with a healthy helping of OCD.And then, here comes the wordy inStream SeptimusB 7 Port USB Charging Station.Alrighty.--Tre Lawrence


Zero Punctuation: Hatfall

If one must know, Zero Punctuation: Hatfall is a story of loss and redemption. Sometimes, folks get really attached to headgear, and this game tells the tale of a dude driven mad by loss.Oh dear.At first glance, one might be a bit dazzled by the sharp yellow background; we don’t get a lot of colors, but that is okay, as the game works with the color contrasts within. Visually, it works.--Tre Lawrence


NU2S Smartphone

There are many reasons folks dabble into Android.Love of the OS, appreciation for the extended Google ecosystem… even a hyper anti-Apple sentiment get cited as reasons. Critically, one can enjoy the diversity of product as well as as apps availability across carriers.One element that increasingly becomes part of the device ownership narrative is price; the ability to get a device at just about any price point is, well, priceless. And, to be fair, we are not talking about just anything at any price; we expect quality, even when we pay what might be considered a good price for an Android smartphone. Now, obviously, the ability to have OEMs battle to bring the best devices to market at the lowest cost is a function of the Android landscape, but we’re not complaining.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: July 13-17, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on July 20th, 2015

July is Heating Up With 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.


Heroki

It’s the visuals of Heroki that will first catch your attention - it’s really quite gorgeous. Its palette is as attractive as many of Sega’s past console hits, immediately capturing the imagination. Fortunately, Heroki isn’t all looks either, being a fairly entertaining action adventure game. While the control methods are never quite perfect, no matter what you settle on, it’s still endearing stuff. Your aim is to save the world from the dastardly Dr N. Forchin. It’s the kind of story that’s been around as long as gaming, so I wouldn’t dwell on it too much. While owing much to platformers in terms of design, Heroki is more about flying than anything. --Jennifer Allen


Infection: Humanity's Last Gasp

Infection: Humanity’s Last Gasp is a digital port of a solitaire board game from Victory Point Games and designer John Gibson that puts you in charge of what is essentially the CDC and tasks you with stopping the end of the world. No pressure, right? I’ve been a pretty big fan of the physical game ever since I first got my hands on it last year. It’s a very brutal and surprisingly intense puzzle that will punish mistakes like spreading your proteins too thin or wasting all of your funding on lab equipment you never use in short order. It’s not so difficult if you have enough time to study the virus and prepare a vaccine, but you won’t have time. You never have enough time. Because the virus can and will spread, eventually wiping out all human life if you can’t stop it fast enough. --Rob Rich


Alphabear

Where so many word games are fun but a little soulless, Alphabear crams in plenty of personality thanks to its focus on teddy bears. It’s an unusual mixture of things, but it works really well for Alphabear. Throw in some varied rulesets and you’ve got a word game that’s going to keep you hooked for quite some time.It seems simple enough. You spell words from a selection of letter tiles on a grid. Each tile starts out with a number that gradually ticks down for each turn that you don’t use it. Once that number hits zero, the tile turns to stone and you can’t use it any more. It also blocks your bears because, oh yeah, bears grow bigger on this grid. For every time you use letters next to a bear, that animal grows a little bigger and so forth. The bigger the bear, the more points you earn. The more points, the more likely you are to gain a new bear with additional powers.--Jennifer Allen


This War of Mine

Due to hardware limitations that eventually gave way to time limitations, I was never able to dip more than a toe into This War of Mine’s murky waters. Just enough to know it’s not the sort of thing you play if you want to feel happy. That’s changed now that I can play it on the iPad.
I was right: it’s not happy. But it is impressive. Unlike most other war-themed games out there (on any platform), This War of Mine covers the horrors of mass conflict from the perspective of the civilians who spend their days cowering in abandoned houses - or get caught in the crossfire. It’s about as pleasant as “Grave of the Fireflies.” But that’s what makes it so compelling. --Rob Rich


FilterBaker

FilterBaker is a photo filtering app with a difference. Rather than offering a series of instant results, it gives you plenty of options to manipulate things exactly how you want them, before allowing you to save your own filter options. It’s pretty useful.Each step of the way is clearly laid out. You can apply a form of photo filter initially before adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation. You can then move onto more complex tweaks, such as the shadows and highlights, RGB color distribution, and sharpening. By the end, you can have completely transformed your picture. More importantly, it won’t look like you’ve put it through the same process as everyone else as FilterBaker is more individual.--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


MyScript Stylus

We’ve been working on write ups pertaining to smartpens, and looking at what they bring to the mobile productivity table. For the most part, we’ve found them to be great tools, but only as good as the add-ons that allow them to be harnessed by the platforms they are being used on.One of the names that continually cropped up during reviews and research was MyScript. MyScript is a name that should resonate with smartpen users; it powers a lot of the image recognition software that some smartpen device makers bundle with their products. The premise is fairly simple: one “writes” with a stylus (or finger) on compatible surfaces with compatible peripherals, and MyScript helps translate the script to formal text.--Tre Lawrence


TYLY RIBBN

As our use of mobile devices increases, so does the need to keep them powered. Portable chargers do the the trick, but one key concept is the ability to charge in vehicles.TYLT has established a name in the power accessory segment, and with good reason. The units it puts out tend to straddle the fence between form and function quite admirably; it’s nice to have a piece that looks good, and, well, works. We recently had an opportunity to review its RIBBN 4.8A Car Charger.We didn’t hesitate.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!

This Week at 148Apps: July 6-10, 2015

Posted by Chris Kirby on July 14th, 2015

July is Heating Up With 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.


Don't Starve: Pocket Edition

It didn’t take long to confirm the rumors of an iOS version of Don’t Starve, and it didn’t take long after that for the game to pop up on the App Store. But pop up it did, and now you can play the stylish and brutal survival game on your iPad. You start out in control of Wilson: a well-meaning inventor who gets in over his head and is tricked into creating a sort of inter-dimensional gateway that pulls him into another world. Now he’s trapped in a bizarre wilderness with nothing to show for it. What’s worse is he’ll probably die horribly if you can’t keep him sane, healthy, and (obviously) full. --Rob Rich


LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham

LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham is the latest LEGO game to come to iOS, and of course it has a quirky humor and easy to learn play style that mean fun for all ages. This time around, Brainiac (one of Superman’s super-intelligent villains) has decided to shrink the entire earth into a collectible plaything. So Batman, Robin, and a plethora of other Justice League characters join forces with their nemesis to fight the alien threat. There are 45 missions packed with puzzles and, despite what Batman might say, he needs some help to take down Brainiac. Good thing there are over 100 characters to play with and unlock like Black Canary, Solomon Grundy, Cyborg, and The Joker. Each character comes with different suits that provide them with powers, such as Robin's elite hacker Techno Suit for hacking computers. --Jessica Fisher


Fews

Consolidating your news, Fews is a handy app for when you want to quickly see what’s going on in the world.Loading it up, you’re immediately taken to a screen that offers all the news in your country. You can choose to divide things up according to news, sport, economy, technology, or lifestyle, or you can view everything at once. Filtering options are also available for news sources, meaning you can dodge certain outlets. You can also view things, depending on what’s trending around the world, as well as set up notifications for specific subjects, further enhancing your ability to keep on top of things. --Jennifer Allen


Formula Cartoon All-Stars

With its cart racing rather than ‘kart’ racing, Formula Cartoon All-Stars seems a little like it’s trying to be a top-down version of Mario Kart. While it doesn’t have that title’s level of depth, it’s still quite fun to play, assuming you don’t expect too much of it. Formula Cartoon All-Stars offers up two different game modes in the form of adventure and tournament. Tournament is a matter of racing in specific tracks, aiming for a faster time than anyone else, while adventure takes you through a kind of story mode, unlocking new tracks as you gain stars in earlier ones. Ultimately though, the idea is the same - outrace the competition. --Jennifer Allen


Stick Tennis Tour

It’s Wimbledon season, which means it’s the ideal time to lose yourself in a Tennis game. Stick Tennis Tour is a casual interpretation of the sport that'sreminiscent of its predecessor, Stick Tennis, but with a few extra features.This time around, you can create and customize your own character, before heading off on tour. An extensive training system, as well as a series of Challenges, which change frequently, ensure there’s always something for you to do. That’s considerable content for a game that’s free to download too, with in-app purchases that are far from obtrusive.--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


Deliveries Package Tracker

I love me some Google Now.It’s one of those anchor apps I use on a daily basis, almost without thinking. Multitasking, hands-free operations, news… you name it. Still, one of the key ways I rely on it is to track packages. This is key in this line of work; we get review items in and out almost every day, going and coming from literally all parts of the globe. Google Now is a (sometimes) seamless bridge between information and access. Since we handle expensive equipment and devices, it really helps to when what arrives where.--Tre Lawrence


TMNT: Rooftop Run

TMNT: ROOFTOP RUN brings us our favorite mutant amphibians… running. At the risk of name-dropping, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is worth having a look at in almost any form.After picking a particular turtle to unlock, one gets to start the game; it starts off as a sidescrolling platformer. The selected character runs from right or left, and, as to be expected, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome. A major one is makes sense, based on the location of this initial challenge (rooftops); there are gaps in the running area, and to navigate these, one has to tap to invoke a jump, while double-tapping creates a double jumping move that helps with greater height and distance.--Tre Lawrence


Xenowerk

Here’s to Pixelbite’s Xenowerks.Well, it feels a bit like hit game Space Marshals, that’s okay and very much allowed; sharing DNA with that game ensures that at the very least, we should get of sprinkling of good stuff. And we do, starting from the top-down nature of the view that allows the player to survey and control the action from “above.” The developer uses virtual light as an in-game tool quite effectively, and the overall sense of foreboding is well rendered. The sounds are also sufficiently creepy, seesawing from the eerie to the straight dangerous.--Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides and even more reviews than we can share here!