Tag: Valentine's Day »

Love—artificially manufactured and genuine—is in the air with Valentine’s Day coming up, but that’s no reason to stop gaming. Now you could just keep on logging in to your Genshin Impacts, Rocket Leagues, and posting your daily Wordle score, but you could also be playing some games that match this romantic time of year.

Luckily, there’s plenty of solid titles to let you do exactly that. Read on below for our top picks of fully vetted and endorsed mobile games that examine love, relationships, kissing, and more.

It's Valentine's Day! Did you get loads of cards and chocolates and other tacky, simple expressions of human affection? Did you send out tat because you find it almost impossible to express emotion unless there's a section dedicated to it at your local shop? Hahahaha it's all fun and games.

If you're stumped for what to do on this most momentous of date nights, don't fret, because we've got you covered. After all, what says 'I love you' better than a mobile game? Literally nothing, that's what. So here are the best games to play with your soul mate this evening.

The newest update to Popcap's super popular Plants vs. Zombies 2 is here, and it has brought with it a special holiday surprise. From now until February 14 you can join in on a special “Valenbrainz Hug-a-thon” event. The zombies will be donning their valentine's best to impress the... plants? Everything will be all lovey dovey; rose petals will be strewn about and your lawn mowers will be painted red.

Download Plants vs. Zombies 2 for free and get bitten by the love bug before time runs out.

In celebration of Valentines day on February 14, King is releasing it's first player challenge for Candy Crush Saga. You'll have to crush candies against opponents all over the world, but if you manage to decimate 1000 red candies you'll get a reward of 10 gold bars and a lollipop hammer. To help players achieve this, anyone who buys gold bars during the contest will also be granted unlimited lives for 24 hours. It is going to be a 'smashing good time' for fans of Candy Crush Saga.

"At King we’re always looking for new ways to entertain our players and continually add new content to our games,” said Sebastian Knutsson, Chief Creative Officer at King. "And this Valentine’s Day is no exception. For the first time we’ll be offering all the Candy Crush Saga players around the  world the chance to compete in a live in-game challenge. Players will have 24 hours to match 1000 red candies on any level and those that reach the target will receive some sweet in-game rewards."

You can download Candy Crush Saga for free on the App Store now, and the special event kicks off tomorrow, 2/14.

Grab this free, love-themed set of levels from hit game, Where's My Water?, from Disney and get your Valentine's Day fun with Swampy and the gang.

What's New in Version 1.1.0
- 12 exclusive heart-themed levels!
- Swampy and Perry need your love!
- New Valentine’s Day themes!
- Play for Free!
- Brand-new challenges!

With less than a week to go until Valentine's Day, it's the ideal time to think long and hard about what to buy a loved one. A more thoughtful idea, however, would be to make something personal for that special person in your life. It's sweet, considerate and often a lot cheaper and more original than buying something from a store. The App Store offers plenty of inspirational apps for those looking to try out some craft based alternative presents, and here are my four favorite apps to use.

Skrappy
Scrapbooking has been all the rage for quite a while now. It can get fiddly, expensive and messy, however, so why not use a virtual alternative? With Skrappy, users can create a personal scrapbook for their loved ones, encompassing images, audio and video clips before sharing the creation. It's simple yet fun to create such books with plenty of inspiration there, too. Why not create a book all about your first date together? Or a memorable holiday? Or even as part of a romantic proposal?

Craftgawker
Not quite sure where to begin but convinced you want to make something craft based for your partner? Craftgawker should be able to provide some great ideas. It's an app that's a photo gallery of inspiration. Users can search through the many thousands of ideas, before learning more via the tutorial connected to such photos. A voting system ensures that the ideas are all of a high quality and bound to get the creative juices flowing.

Wilton Cake Ideas & More
Everyone loves cake, right? All the more so when it's a cake made entirely for you. It's a nice and sweet (in every sense of the word) touch and can prove distinctly romantic. Wilton Cake Ideas & More helps users bake some delicious and amazing looking creations with hundreds of different designs, catering for every occasion and interest. It doesn't just include cakes either, with cookies and cupcakes also included. For a loved one with a sweet tooth, this could be the ideal thing to make Valentine's Day extra special.

Cards
For those not as creative as they'd like to be but with a few ideas still under their sleeve, Apple's own app Cards should make things a little easier. The app allows users to create their own cards and customize them exactly how they want, all through their iOS device, before getting a physical copy sent out to their beloved. It's simple, straight forward and still offers the personal touch for those that don't want to get their hands dirty with glue or glitter.

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

Heyzap, the social networking app that helps mobile gamers meet up, organize their games, and unlock badges, has compiled a list of their Top 10 Valentine’s Day-related games.

Six of the ten games on Heyzap’s list have iPhone versions (two are exclusively iOS games). The iPhone games include Tappily Ever After, princess rescuing game from Pocket Gems, Japan Life, the city building game that’s added new Valentine’s Day themed content for today, Tom’s Love Letters, the app that let’s users create Valentine’s Day cards with “Talking Tomcat,” Bakery Story: Valentine’s Day, the bakery builder with love-themed goodies, Dream Pethouse, Zynga’s new cute animal collection game, and M.A.S.H. Valentine, a Valentine’s Day themed version of the classic mash game.

Developers can allow their users to check in to Heyzap with their games by installing the Heyzap SDK. Heyzap is partners with more than 800 mobile developers on iOS and Android including Pocket Gems, popular creator of Tap Zoo, and Spacetime Studios, creators of mobile MMORPG Pocket Legends.

It's the season of love at the moment and Where's My Water? has embraced that idea with a new Valentine's Day themed update.

Since its initial launch in September last year, highly enjoyable physics-puzzler Where's My Water? has done a fantastic job of not only providing regular updates to its fans but also educating them along the way.

It's a more lighthearted update this time round, though. Swampy's present to his fans is the update 'Hearts and Crafts' which allows players to unlock a new level every day for the next 10 days starting February 14th.

Take a look at the screenshots below. Things are looking pretty darn cute this Valentine's Day with plenty of heart-themed levels ahead.

The Where's My Water? Valentine's Day update is available now for existing owners of the app. Anyone else who hasn't tried the game out yet (and why not?) can pick it up for $0.99.

We all show our love in different ways. Sega’s way is to put games on sale, and there are 5 titles on sale from February 11th to the 14th (that’s Valentine’s Day) in order to show their love for iOS gamers everywhere.

First up is Sonic CD, a meticulously-crafted remake of the Sega CD original, and what could be called a love letter to Sonic fans. It is on sale for $2.99 from its regular price of $4.99.

Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, a game that recalls the undying passion that fans of the original franchise have for the game. It is on sale for iPhone/iPod touch for $1.99 (was $3.99) and iPad for $2.99 (was $4.99).

Then there’s Super Monkey Ball 2 and the Sakura Edition, which iPad owners will be head over heels for because it’s a universal app, and it’s on sale for $0.99!

Finally, those who can’t get enough of classic Genesis games will be heartwarmed by these titles on sale for $0.99.

Even though Alwar's latest creation features some of the cutest tiny white bunnies in history, Robber Rabbits is anything but cuddly. These are masked thieves who the player must help shoplift delicious carrot flavored ice cream. The physics-based puzzle is set in Valentine's Day garb and is full of shooting experiments that puts the player in a tough position to obtain high-hanging carrot ice cream.

However, they have obstacles in their way such as swaying platforms that have to be hit to knock off the loot. The big problem is that the platforms are in the way of each other, which creates the puzzle portion. And the obstacles don't stop there. Broken light bulbs, blowing fans, and other interactive objects make sure that the game will be challenging. Available for both iPhone and iPad, Robber Rabbits features 96 unique puzzles, 3 unique weapons such as a popcap gun as well as the shooting physics to go along with the shot. The game is full of cuter than cute characters and graphics, original music and sound effects inspired by Valentine's Day and supports OpenFeint and Game Center. Alawar's other games are all on sell until the evening of Valentine's Day.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we've been focusing on the romantic aspects of the App store. Alongside reviewing Boy Loves Girl, the tale of a boy keen to woo the lady in his life, we had the opportunity to interview Dr Danny Pearce, Company Director for the game's British developer, Grubby Hands.

One particular question that's bound to be on everyone's mind was just why the name Grubby Hands?!

"Grubby Hands is a name that came from some subconscious activity when thinking about gaming. I think it's connected to the NES and SNES days when pad swapping was commonplace, like Mario or Street Fighter with friends," said Pearce. "I always had a problem with getting a sweaty pad handed to me from a friend with ‘grubby hands’. I had a ritual that involved a five second wipe with my t-shirt before every round. I guess that image stuck and resurfaced 20 years later." An experience that I'm sure all gamers can empathise with.

Moving onto just what a change of pace Boy Loves Girl is compared to David Haye's Knockout, Pearce explained just what hook Boy Loves Girl offers: "Boy Loves Girl follows a young boy's journey as he tries to impress a girl. I really wanted to make a game that was sweet and captures something truthful. Then the idea of a boy going to the end of the world for a girl and giving her the moon on a piece of string stuck and the game grew from there."

As Pearce explains, "It starts off as a pleasant experience. Everything is calm and relaxing, while the player gets used to the game and the controls. It then gets progressively more challenging as the girl gets more demanding, to the point that it really requires a lot of skill, mental attention and physical accuracy to complete," but fortunately that's not all we should expect from Boy Loves Girl, with Pearce promising Game Center to be integrated 'really soon.'

So, what's next for Grubby Hands? Dr Pearce was understandably guarded as to exact details but there are discussions in terms of "either a sequel or a huge update to a 'previous game' in the near future." Pearce also informed us that Grubby Hands is currently "prototyping something original and probably [our] most ambitious game yet." Don't get too excited yet, though, as he also went onto explain that it's "easily the biggest game we've attempted to make, so will probably take until the end of the year to complete."

On a final note, we thought it was only friendly to see just how the Grubby Hands guys are planning on spending Valentine's Day. "We'll start the day under a mild spring sun, listening to a calm stream, break the still to eat strawberries and cream and then proceed to whack the keyboard trying to finish off the next ‘Boy Loves Girl’ update!"

Given the cold and rainy spell that much of Britain is suffering from at the moment, here's hoping that the 14th brings with it plenty of sun for Grubby Hands!

Many thanks to Dr. Danny Pearce for taking the time to answer our questions.

Love is in the air and so is block-busting retro fun thanks to Breakout: Boost's Valentine's Day level pack that's just been released.

Priced at $0.99, the Valentine's Day pack adds 50 new romance-themed levels to the existing package, along with candy heart sayings and cute pictures to add that sweet touch. Alongside that is the addition of a Cupid's Arrow power up. This sets out to make breaking up bricks much quicker. For the competitive gamer, new leaderboards and an original set of achievements continues the romantic theme.

Here at 148apps, we rated Breakout: Boost and Breakout: Boost+ quite highly at launch so this themed pack is bound to extend the fun for fans. After all, what better way to celebrate the time of romance than through this arcade classic? Couples can compete via the leaderboards and singletons can focus on the achievements.

The Valentine's Day themed pack is available through Breakout: Boost and Breakout: Boost+, priced at $0.99.