Moxie 2 for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

I consider myself a decent Scrabble player, and a better-than-average Lingo/Boggle style wordsmith. (As an aside, most of us probably consider ourselves better than average.) To conquer Moxie 2 though, requires a whole other level of rapier word knowledge. The game presents a simple grid of fifteen spaces, configured as three different words. You draw letters from the right, and place them on the board. Getting started is the easy part. Once you've filled all three rows with words, you then must place the additional letters to create new words. For example, if one of your words was 'barn' and you pulled a 'y', you would then place it over the b to create 'yarn.' 

While it sounds as easy as UpWords, this is one tough, and if you're up to challenge, addictive word game. As you'll see in the video, I am not up to the challenge.

Take a look:

Moxie 2 in the App Store. Or try the free version.

Cupcakes! Holiday Edition for the iPhone and iPod Touch

I've always been more about eating cupcakes than making them. I know there are others who don't share that feeling: it's the mixing of ingredients, the patience of baking, and the precision of icing the cupcakes that make it all worthwhile. And for some kids, making the cupcakes can be as satisfying as eating them. For them, there's Cupcakes! Holiday Edition.

In Cupcakes! you bake, then more importantly, decorate cupcakes with an assortment of icings and even Jelly Belly Jelly beans. You can then "eat" your creations by tapping on them, or save them, or share with others on twitter/facebook, etc. As virtual cupcake creating apps go, this should have everything you need. The question is, do you need a virtual cupcake app?

Here's a look:

Cupcakes! Holiday Edition in the App Store.

Vizati for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Not every app tries to wow you with impressive graphics, cool music, and whip-fast gameplay. Every once in a while, it's time for a break from the hurried pace of most iPhone apps. Enter Vizati. Vizati presents a series of puzzle games, based on rotating the game board to move colored stones properly in a limited number of moves.

The game has a weak (and not really needed) story line for the characters watching you solve the puzzles, and nice painted backgrounds. Overall though, it is intended as a calmer, gentler app in which the goal isn't to fly through the puzzles, but rather to take a moment to breathe and enjoy the challenge at hand.

Here's a look:

Vizati in the App Store, or the lite version.

Zombie Highway for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

There are (un)officially about 16,000 games in the App Store that have something to do with zombies. I'm pleased to announce I've found my favorite - so far, at least. Zombie Highway puts you in control of a beat up car, trying to flee zombies and dodge vehicles strewn across the rickety road. Zombies leap and grab on to the car, in an attempt to flip it, presumably to then eat your brains. 

Your mission is to see how far you can go before the zombies inevitably win. You have several weapons to choose from, but the most effective zombie-killer is brute force: run the side of your car into the sides of the crashed cars to inflict the most damage on your unwanted passengers. There are a few tips and tricks to keep the zombies from getting to your car to begin with, but you'll have to watch the video to see those:

Zombie Highway in the App Store.

Rage HD Video Review

There's been quite a bit of buzz leading up to the release of Rage HD, primarily because of its use of id software's graphics rendering engine. The graphics do not disappoint. This is clearly a console-level game in terms of visual pop. Even on an iPhone 3GS, not only are the graphics great, but they are also smooth; something that can't be said of other apps we've tested.

As for the gameplay, while it's enjoyable, and intense right from the start, I personally prefer the tap-to-shoot action of something like Zombie Crisis. For fans of first-person shooters, Rage HD does not disappoint. It's really quite incredible that a game with this much polish is only $1.99. There are plenty of other games at that price point that should be ashamed of what they offer by comparison.

Here's a look:

Rage HD in the app store.