Halloween is upon us, which means spooky costumes, a sickening amount of candy, and frighteningly good updates to your favorite games.
We at 148Appshavescoured the App Store to give you this list of top 10 absolute best updates on offer this Halloween.
:: SAMEY GAME :: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »The Simpsons: Tapped Out, by Electronic Arts, is back in action. Super-heroic action!
Heroes and villains have invaded Springfield and once again you must save the town from certain destruction. You'll meet classic Simpsons characters as their alter-egos, and fight against the forces of evil. The update comes with new characters, buildings, decorations, and more.
As always, you can download the super sized update for The Simpsons: Tapped Out for free on the App Store.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »How does Santa get into so much trouble every year? In The Simpsons: Tapped Out, by Electronic Arts, someone's going to have to save Christmas.
In the game's new holiday update, you'll be tasked with collecting presents and helping the elves in exchange for prizes. The update also includes new characters, buildings, decorations, and more.
You can download The Simpsons: Tapped Out for free right now.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »After Homer accidentally caused a meltdown that wiped out Springfield, it was up to you to rebuild it.
Now The Simpsons Tapped Out, by EA Games, asks us to prepare for battle with their new Clash of Clones update. You can raise up your army of nerds led by a barbaric Homer to raid your neighbors' castles. Just make sure you don't neglect your own defenses.
You can download The Simpsons Tapped Out for free on the App Store.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »Ghosts have made their way to Springfield in the latest Halloween themed update for The Simpsons: Tapped Out. This brings even more spooky things to the town, which includes ghosts and gremlins, new characters like Count Burns, new buildings, rides, and decorations, and new quests that feature the ghosts or spirits past. If the Simpsons is your thing, make sure to check out its scary new update!
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »Get ready, Springfield: Krusty the Clown is back, and he's reopening his theme park.
The new Krustyland update for The Simpsons: Tapped Out adds even more content for players to unlock and tasks for them to complete. The park is theirs to rebuild as they see fit, so long as they're okay with not getting paid (because Krusty is cheap). They can attract new customers by raising the new Krust-O-Meter, hire mascots like Itchy & Scratchy to entertain them all, build more than 40 different amusement park rides like the Tooth Chipper, and take on a whole host of new quests.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out Krustyland update is live and awaiting your remodeling skills right now.
Touch Arcade reports that EA is making more money through its workings in the App Store than it is through any other service, including its own Origin service.
EA pointed out that The Simpson: Tapped Out, Real Racing 3, and The Sims FreePlay are all bringing in buckets of cash, all three of which are free-to-play titles. The Simpsons: Tapped Out actually had its biggest quarter yet while Real Racing 3 continues to average around 2 million active users a day.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »Summertime is upon us and so is a hot new update for The Simpsons: Tapped Out. New buildings, characters, quests, and waterfront properties are now available in this summery update.
Players will also notice that the land has been expanded, with over 30 new plots of land, including areas that are next to the water for great waterfront properties. As for the characters, seaside entertainers have made their way to Springfield, including Sea Captain and Handsome Pete. Players can check out Sea Captain's quest to find his place on dry land or out at sea.
Now go enjoy your summer in Springfield!
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »The Simpsons: Tapped Out has been updated with new locations and a familiar face, says Pocket Gamer. Agnes Skinner is now available in the game with a quest that revolves around her and her son, Seymour. She is also tasked with winning at bingo and taunting the elderly. Also, with the update, is an increased level cap of 29, new buildings, and more.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »The latest update for The Simpsons: Tapped Out lets snakes loose in Springfield, leaving it to the player to eliminate them all. By giving these snakes a beating, players can win up to ten exclusive-content prizes that are available for a limited-time only. New buildings, characters and quests are also available, including Ninja Homer and Miss Springfield. Doh!
Need to know the latest and greatest apps each and every week? Look no further than 148Apps. Our reviewers comb through the vast numbers of new apps out there, find the good ones, and write about them in depth. 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. Want to see what we've been up to this week? Take a look below for a sampling of our latest reviews. And if you want more, be sure to hit our Reviews Archive.
Creating an iOS app isn’t just a matter of typing in code and seeing what happens. Well, it can be but it’s not recommended. Instead, it’s far wiser to create mock ups and design the general look of the app, checking it all works and makes sense. This is where AppCooker comes into its own. It’s an app that allows users to work on app mock ups, their app’s icon and even the marketing side of things, all within this one tool. It might appear expensive at first glance, but it should prove hugely helpful to designers. AppCooker could have been intimidating to use but I found it didn’t take too long to figure out. Creating a new project is quite simple with options dictating what format the app will be on (either iPhone or iPad), followed by an easy to use mockup creator. A series of wireframes and widgets make it possible to set up the basics, before linking each screen together to, hopefully, form a fully fledged app design. Being so visual and informative, it’s simple to look through and work out if something is missing or whether everything works ergonomically. --Jennifer Allen
The team over at Zen Studios has made a living taking our favorite characters and worlds, shaking them up a bit, and finding a way to squeeze them onto the player’s platform of choice. Despite their steady support of iOS through DLC for Zen Pinball, the team hasn’t released a new app on the platform in over a year. Can they channel their collective efforts to start off Star Wars Pinball on the right foot, or are they looking a little rusty this time around? Matching up LucasFilm (and now Disney’s) coveted Star Wars universe with pinball seems like a match made in nerd heaven. The lush back story, compelling characters and intriguing locales all seem custom fit for the world of the steel ball. Face it, swapping out flippers with lightsabers in battle just makes sense. Now if only they could find a way to get Yoda to shut the heck up. --Blake Grundman
It’s not often that I can become so enthralled with such a slow paced game that offers very simple techniques with its gameplay. However, NightSky provides beautiful visuals, blissful gameplay and an overall peaceful time while going through each area of the game. NightSky sets a mood and that’s exactly how this title wins with its physics-based puzzle gameplay. It starts with a short story of a boy who finds a glowing sphere on a beach and ends up taking it home with him where he begins having strange dreams of the sphere in many peculiar places. This is where the gameplay takes place, as players control the sphere by easily swiping or tapping the screen throughout many of these unique surroundings that are full of obstacles. The light ambient soundtrack makes for an even more calming experience. --Andrew Stevens
Part of a continuing trend of photography apps that aim to subtly change the appearance of a photo, rather than turn things too garish, Repix is a simple yet useful tool. Repix uses a brush style interface, requiring users to brush their finger along an image to add the desired effect. It immediately empowers the user, ensuring they don’t have to rely upon an entire filter doing what they wish it to do. Nine brushes are available in this free package, with more purchasable via the in-app store. Impressively, these add on brushes can be previewed before purchasing. A useful feature that more artistic apps should offer. The bundled in brushes are a suitable bunch to start out with, too, including tools for adding charcoal coloring, a flare effect as well as adding a cartoon or poster style to the image. Painting with one’s finger means it’s easy to implement, as well as undo through a comprehensive undo button, as well as an eraser brush. --Jennifer Allen
Tizzy Driving Adventure is a charming universal driving simulator for young app users. I do love role-playing apps in general, as they can foster a great deal of creativity in children. Tizzy Driving Adventure is the digital equivalent to the driving toy that kids love where one can pretend to drive while turning an attached steering wheel. Here, too, after choosing from a boy or girl character, the user while driving and steering has the point-of-view of looking out the front window and onto the street. --Amy Solomon
Dandelion is an interactive universal app with a wonderful sense of style, developed as an app with a message about bullying. There is a lot that I enjoy about this app, recently chosen as an application of special interest in the books category by iTunes. The most striking element of this app is the sense of style, shown not quite in black and white, as more of a sepia-tone look is included, adding the slightly warmer shades of subtle desaturated browns – an interesting choice – which allows areas of the screen to pop softly, adding a vintage, almost timeless look to this app that is also quite modern-looking as seen on the screen of one’s device. --Amy Solomon
I am pleased to see that a new Dr Panda role-playing app is now available, Dr. Panda’s Supermarket, a universal app that allows children to explore ten shopping mini-games from both the point-of-view of the shopper as well as store workers. We love the various role-playing games by Dr. Panda, as they are bright and fun as well as including a cast of re-occurring animals and their families as we have tended to them in a hospital, served the adults in a restaurant app, taken care of these characters’ animal children at daycare, grown fruits and vegetables for them at a farm, and now help these characters shop in a supermarket. --Amy Solomon
The Simpsons is a national institution. It embodies everything so wrong — and right — with our family units. Long before South Park, The Simpsons made us gasp in horror and rueful self-recognition. Thus, for anyone who grew up in that era, The Simpsons Tapped Out should be a welcome trip to yesteryear. Homer is definitely Homeric in this game. Inexplicably, he is still the safety inspector at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, and, as we all came to expect, his incompetence (and apparent love of goofing around on a tablet) finally destroyed Springfield. My job was to manage this construction simulation game and rebuild Springfield, as well as find the other eponymous members of the Simpson clan. --Tre Lawrence
While many of us are not privileged enough to have a smart home that operates with more autonomy than an average car, the future certainly is here as cost decreases and standardization has increased. As costs come down and a newer generation starts purchasing homes for the first time these products will see a large spike in sales, and suddenly there will be a battle for footing in this burgeoning industry. We have seen this in products like the Nest thermostat and different “smart” refrigerators which put the smart home appliance in the collective conscious of the general public. While the idea of a refrigerator or oven with Twitter capabilities is fundamentally absurd, the general idea of having a fridge that communicates with the consumer is not. Security systems have been doing this for a while now; giving their customers the ability to lock and arm their houses by means of a smartphone. I think that it is the dream of many homeowners to be able to monitor their home from anywhere on the globe. The goal is summed up in the image of an exhausted worker leaving a late shift and on the way home he turns on his lights, preheats the oven, turns up the temperature, and even starts playing a favorite album over his stereo system. Theoretically, this is all possible and incredibly desirable...So, enter Prizm... --Joseph Bertolini
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »The Simpsons Tapped Out has added new items to help with your rebuilding process of Springfield. The new items that are available in the latest update include buildings, decorations, quests and a new character, making things just a bit more fun and providing some staying power for current players.
Features from the App Store
• New Buildings – Finally Chief Wiggum can stop loitering in the streets and get settled at the Wiggum House. If you’re hungry after the move, enjoy some chemically complicated cuisine at El Chemistri. After dinner, spend time viewing your city from a higher vantage point than you ever thought possible on the Escalator to Nowhere - just watch out for that last step. Once that’s done, build the Popsicle Stick Skyscraper.
• New Character – Have Ralph eat crayon sandwiches or play wiggle puppy.
• New Decorations – Patrol your town with a new police car or spruce up your backyard with a swing set and tetherball.
• New Quests – Springfield is in the middle of a health crisis; join Lisa as she tries to fight the fat. Will she succeed or will Springfield be crowned America’s Fattest City?
Not all games can be winners, and not all the games we review on 148Apps will receive high marks. But the amazing thing about the App Store and mobile game development in general is that there’s always a second (or even a third) chance. Content updates allow developers to address complaints or perceived issues fairly quickly and have the potential to completely turn a game around.
Which is why we’ve decided to take a look at some previously reviewed titles that didn’t go over so well the first time. Each one has been tweaked at least once since we wrote about it and we wanted to see how they might hold up now. Have they been significantly improved or are they only marginally better? Were major issues resolved or are they still dragging the entire experience down?
Lets take a look and see, then.
I like weird stuff like Puzzle Planets, but even I found it to be tough to play, originally. Thankfully, the game-breaking problems that kept Bonnie from enjoying it at launch have been addressed. And it’s all the better for it.
In my time spent building several alien worlds, I’ve never once had it crash on me, and being able to enjoy an iOS game uninterrupted is pretty important. More than that, however, the lag also seems to have disappeared, which makes it much easier to simply enjoy the game itself. All the planet rotating, pinching to form mountains, reverse-pinching to create fissures, and tapping to create volcanoes, as well as spinning the planet around in order to soak up water and distribute it to the barren land masses to create life all perform smoothly and create a kind of zen-like trance after a few rounds. I’ll certainly admit that it would be nice to have more than 15 planets to mess around with, possibly with some distinct characteristics rather than everything looking like “Earth 2.0,” but that doesn’t keep the somewhat simple time-based puzzles from being fun (and looking great) while they last.
Now this is a game I did check out as soon as it was released onto the App Store. And, just like Rob T. (yes, we have a lot of Robs here), I thought it was a colossal disappointment. Nothing but a simplified Creative Mode with an extremely limited block selection. To call it a mere shadow of its older brother on PC would be a massive understatement. However, Mojang made good on its promise of constant updates, and the game has seen a slew of improvements ever since.
To be fair, this still isn’t a 1:1, pocket-sized version of the PC game. Heck, it’s still technically alpha status at the moment. Even so, this month’s update has brought it much closer. New blocks have made it in, sand and gravel are finally affected by gravity, armor can be crafted now, baby animals will appear, and so on. As I’ve said, it’s not PC Minecraft on iOS, but it’s certainly close enough to make me happy. Heck, in some ways I actually prefer it to the original because I can play it anywhere at any time, and it utilizes a much friendlier crafting system that does away with tile placement and simply shows what can be made outright. If it weren’t for the absence of a few features I’d even call it the best version to own. Even so, it’s a fantastic companion to the indie juggernaut Notch started to build all those years ago.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out is another game that I myself didn’t play around with until recently. It’s also a bit more complicated of a comparison than the other three games on this list in that virtually none of the issues mentioned in Brad’s review have been addressed. Instead, the real difference is having another perspective.
First I’d like to say that I 100% respect Brad’s opinion on the matter and can totally see where he’s coming from. This game takes time to play. Lots and lots of time. More so than the average freemium title, it seems. However, I don’t necessarily view that as a “bad” thing. The very nature of many free-to-play games makes them ideal for playing in small increments, and that’s no different here. Sure we have to wait 24 hours while Lisa does all of her homework for the week but when factoring in all the other characters that can be acquired and given tasks to complete it doesn’t seem so bad. I’d consider it ideal, actually, since it means I can fiddle with my own personal Springfield, go off and do whatever my day demands, then check back in on occasion. I can’t claim that the game has been “improved” at all in the past year, but I don’t personally think it really needed to be. It’s Springfield in my pocket, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for.
Based on what I’ve read in Ray’s review, I’m willing to chalk this one up to a fairly drastic difference of opinion. Again, I wholly respect Ray’s views and opinions but mine are almost a complete 180 from his.
It’s true that Static Quest: The Delivery is incredibly basic in its “tap either side of the screen” mechanics. However those same mechanics are what make it ideal for quick mobile play sessions. It’s super easy to start up a game for a minute then put it down just as quickly, and with all the various weapons to unlock and upgrade there’s always something to strive for. I’m also rather fond of the retro pixel visuals (as per usual) but I found the special costumes associated with each weapon to be the real treat. I can totally get behind a game that makes the main character look like Ezio from Assassin’s Creed 2 (and up) when he uses a dagger, or like Robin Hood when he equips a bow and arrow. The fact that it’s actually quite fun to play doesn’t hurt, either.
:: SOULLESS CASH-IN :: Read Review »
The folks (Electronic Arts) behind The Simpsons: Tapped Out must have love on their minds, as they've just updated their free, universal app with new stuff for Valentine's Day. Decorate Springfield with limited-time decorations, collect Hearts from around town, and send Valentines greetings to your friends.
• New Buildings – Pick up some love handles a la mode at Phineas Q. Butterfat’s, capitalize on insecure relationships at Howard’s Flowers, and even lose some golf balls at Sir Putt-A-Lots.
• New Characters – Send Shauna around searching for young love, get Homer and Marge to snuggle in the Golf Castle, and send Valentines with Lisa.
• New Decorations – Sweeten up your Springfield with rose bushes, cherub topiaries, and the “I Choo-Choo-Choose You Train.”
• New Quests – Join Bart on his quest for love. Will Bart and Shauna enjoy a blossoming romance, or will Bart be left sulking in his room?
• New Event – Visit your friends’ towns, send Valentine’s Day cards, and generate limited-time Heart currency.
Image: Tapped Out Tips
