:: ADDICTIVELY FROGGER LIKE :: Read Review »Do you like Crossy Road? I mean do you really like Crossy Road? Well then you're in luck! Hipster Whale has opened up a Crossy Road store, so you can show off your fandom via official T-shirts.
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.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is a direct port of the latest title in the fantastically popular Ace Attorney series. For those unfamiliar with it, the these games are courtroom dramas with a twist of absurdist humor, mostly centered around Phoenix Wright and his rise to become a star defense attorney. By Dual Destinies, the seventh title in the series, Wright and his two protégés are taking on their most exciting and intense cases yet. Each lawyer has their own “special power” that gives them the edge in court and also serves to add unique gameplay mechanics. Since Dual Destinies is a port, given the difference in screen sizes, I was worried that there would be significant loss of video quality when it was scaled up to the iPad. To my surprise, all of the animation is HD. Each cutscene is like watching an anime, and in case you can’t get enough you can always replay them from the main menu. The voice acting and music is really well done and, as with the rest of the Phoenix Wright series, the localization is top-notch. --Jessica Fisher
Vinted is the app for vinted.com – a site that lets women post their old clothes for sale, trade, or giveaways and lets them get clothes from others at great, thrift store-ranged prices. I found it by accident, and now it’s turned into an incredible obsession. As someone who spends a lot of time browsing around thrift stores, Vinted is great for being able to do that even from bed. When I first signed up for my account, the service gave me a coupon for $10 toward anything I wanted (this coupon is given to all new users). This did NOT last long. I found dozens of tops, skirts, shoes, and all other things that were just perfect for me. In the time I’ve had it I’ve purchased 11 things, traded with one girl, and sold a few of my older/poorer fitting clothes. --Jade Walker
I’m an old hand at the Peter Molyneux hype train. I’ve seen the stories of how if you plant a seed in the Fable games, you can return later on to see a tree in its place. I remember when Black & White came out and it was meant to be the ultimate God game. It wasn’t. I’m forgiving, though. I buy every title and appreciate that, while all the promised goods won’t be there, hopefully there’ll be enough to entice me in. Godus is probably one of the most hyped iOS releases in recent times. Does it succeed at making you feel like a God? Not really. It’s quite attractive to look at and offers some much better touch-based controls than the average city/village building game, but it’s still exactly that – a typical civilization/city building simulation. --Jennifer Allen
It’s a little too simply done, but in terms of varied radio-based content NPR One does a good job of making it easy to listen to new stories that should hopefully prove to be interesting to you. After a brief sign up process (best circumvented by connecting your Facebook details), there’s nothing particularly awkward about NPR One. You can dive straight into listening to various news clips about all sorts of subjects from politics to entertainment news, with plenty of human interest stories that teach a lot. NPR One learns as you go along in terms of what interests you via you tapping on a button to say it was your sort of thing. That makes the suggestion side of the app increasingly useful and I found it easily recommending me stories that would appeal. --Jennifer Allen
Dragon Quest IV Chapters of the Chosen is a highly revered entry in the classic Dragon Quest series. Originally released in 1990 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (and then subsequently remade for the Playstation and Nintendo DS), this update for iOS features great localization, much of the previous remakes’ bonus content, and a control scheme that is well-suited to the platform. All of these features help make Dragon Quest IV still look and play great, even for being a 24 year old game. For those that are unfamiliar, Dragon Quest is one of the most popular RPG franchises in Japan. It is developed by Square Enix, who is also responsible for the Final Fantasy series, though there are quite a few differences between the two. The most distinct difference between them is that Dragon Quest tends to be more iterative on a single, specific vision from a dedicated team of designers whereas Final Fantasy is generally a completely new game and vision centering around a few loose concepts and systems. --Campbell Bird
Combining the need for speed with accuracy and good memory skills comes Rules!, a simple puzzle game that’s sure to test your intellectual abilities. Think Simon Says and you’re on the right track. Each level of Rules! requires you to follow a rule. Each rule is simple enough, such as tap on all the green tiles or select all of the animals. The tricky part comes in how these rules pile up. Each level adds a new rule, and you have to remember the earlier ones – up to 10 in all before the game resets. --Jennifer Allen
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:
Mobile gamers rarely get to experience truly innovating games. Most of the high-quality titles are simply good at copying others. The Room is an incredible exception to that fact, as it’s the most fun and unusual quest I’ve played in several years. The subject of The Room is a series of intricate and impossibly complex locked cabinets, containing clues about a mysterious discovery the player character needs to uncover. The game quite literally revolves around these lockers. The player needs to move the camera around the locker and try to unlock all of its locks, clasps and seals by a series of actions that might just make a person go crazy. The player needs to find keys, pick combinations, scout the locker for clues – and I’m not being sarcastic when I say that it’s damn easy to get lost around the cabinet. Screenshots don’t do justice to the crazy amount of elements each locker contains, and although there are hints, I got mildly frustrated several times, trying to solve the puzzles, or trying to find what the hell I was supposed to do next. It’s not that frustrating to complete, but it’s quite a challenge. --Tony Kuzmin
Bug Heroes 2 is a cool mix of tactical base building tactical shooter and cockroaches. What could go wrong? Bug Heroes 2 is about bugs at war. Every slug and ant must do their part. The player moves their two bug team around in real time using an invisible virtual stick and attacking is handled automatically. Depending on which bug is picked the player might blast away at distance or close in for some melee action. During combat grunt bugs like ants with rifles and siege engine grubs are constantly produced on both sides and go about attacking enemies automatically so the battlefield is always full of some matter of six legged carnage or another. The auto produced bugs really give the game a great feel as there is always fighting going on and watching armies of bugs clash is great fun. --Allan Curtis
GemHero makes a terrible first impression since it forces the player to create a “Winnerconnect” account. Facebook login is also available but forcing the player into creating an account before they even get to see the game is a bit much. Then a very silly story appears featuring a knight being turned into a duck and the king assuming that killing the warlock that did it might free him. This is where the player comes in. After this an ad dialogue appears. This is before gameplay even starts. After a short tutorial, the player is given a deck that is mostly comprised of angry sheep and sheep riders, which is kind of a letdown. --Allan Curtis
And finally, this week Pocket Gamer played a new Call of Duty, ran around as a goat in Germany, told you how to survive the horrors of the Construct Quarter in Hearthstone, and decided to buy a shiny Super Smash Bros. special edition 3DS. And it's all right here.
Using an interactive map, users can see precisely what's trending in their area and even browse through local boutiques to see what they offer. Users can search according to brand, piece or even occasion, resulting in the ability to save a compilation of things that interest.
Somewhat like a social networking tool, the user can even follow other fashion fans whose interests and loves most closely match theirs. They can even take photos of the different outfits and share likes and comments about them.
It's an ideal companion app for those keen to know what's popular near them at any given time.
As part of Luster's launch, there's also a competition. To enter, users must take a photo of a fashion find they love and tag it with the relevant store and #fw hashtag. The person whose photo has the most Lusts from other users on the app by February 27th, will win the item in their winning picture up to a value of $1000! Not too shabby at all.
2nd and 3rd place photos win items up to a value of $500. Full details are available on the Luster website.
Luster is out now and it's free to download.
iStain suggests what kind of agents to use to remove the stain, and adjusts accordingly whether the item is a white item of clothing or colored. It doesn't just cater for the easy stains either with the persistent and problematic stains covered, too.
The app is straight forward to use with it easy to browse stains according to whether they're food based, biological, chemical, glue or greasy based.
iStain has to be worth a download for the clumsy iOS device owner. It's out now priced at $0.99.
For those who do still need to tie a knot on a daily basis, why not check out Tie Assistant?
For only $0.99, the app teaches the user how to knot 15 different types of neckties. These include Kent, Four-in-Hand knot, Double Windsor, Half Windsor, Oriental, Pratt, Kelvin, Saint Andrew, Manhattan, Plattsburgh, Diagonal, Onassis, Atlantic, Baltus, Hannover and Cross knot. Each knot comes with a brief description of what it actually is, such as if it's symmetrical or considered a classic knot.
Besides teaching such skills in a simple manner through concise imagery, Tie Assistant also recommends knots depending on the situation.
It's an ideal way of learning how to tie a necktie and it has the extra benefit of educating users in different knots that they might not have tried before.
Tie Assistant is available now, priced at $0.99.
:: HIGHLY USEFUL
:: NEATApps aimed at helping save shoppers money seem to be all the rage at the moment. So Pacific Sunwear (or PacSun as many consumers may recognise it as) has chipped in with their own effort.
Finally, users can search and buy PacSun products right from their iPhone. They can also create and save outfits made up of PacSun products to see how different combinations would work as well as share them with friends.
PacSun, powered by Usablenet, is available now as a free download and is compatible with all iOS devices.
It is currently unknown if the closet has a 148 shirt limit. The good news is, 148Apps T-Shirts are now available through AppTees.com!
When AppTees invited us to get involved, we knew we had to get in on it. We created a couple simple designs to start. And will be looking to add some more in the future. Maybe we'll even run a contest around it. Who knows?
One big question remains. Just when technology finally be able to fulfill the demand for 148Apps thongs? Soon, we hope.
