BridgeBasher for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

BridgeBasher allows you to fulfill your inner dream of being a structural engineer - provided that dream also involves monkeys.

This game/simulation allows you to build a bridge of your own choosing on a grid of dots, then test the strength of your new creation by seeing how many heavy balls the bridge design can hold, how many monkeys can hang from the joints, or how many giant words can roll over its deck before the bridge collapses. It doesn't quite have enough physics to be a true simulation, and there isn't much in the way of gameplay. BridgeBasher might be for the biggest bridge fanatics only.

(iTunes link)

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CubeHead for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

CubeHead Return of the King, is a game in the traditional match-three style: a grid with different symbols need to be aligned in rows of three or more to be eliminated from the board, while the timer ticks. Clear a certain number of symbols/earn a certain number of points, and you move onto the next round.

The developer has done a good job of setting CubeHead apart with fun "characters" on the game board, and special blocks that add variety as the game goes on.

(iTunes link)

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Armored Warfare for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Sometimes a game looks great in the screenshots, only to be a disappointment when you start to actually play it. That's the case with Armored Warfare. In the game you select three military vehicles and take turns volleying munitions over a lovely 3D landscape at a human or computer competitor.

The controls are not clearly explained, and graphics glitches from time to time can make it difficult to figure out just where your shot will end up. Additionally, currently priced at $1.99, it is too expensive for a game for these types of bugs and no networked play options.

Maybe in a few updates it will be the caliber of games you would expect from the screenshots, but it's not there now.

(iTunes link)

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Bird Strike for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

How much fun can a game about a bird who can't fly be? Pretty entertaining, as it turns out. Bird Strike has you slinging a twitter-like bird off of an electric line, and into a world of rockets, umbrellas, and obstacles as you try to get him higher and higher, eventually reaching a UFO, of course!

The gameplay is similar to other apps but as is often the case with these apps, the polish, theming, and quirkiness sets this app apart. Every once in awhile, there's a game that combines great graphics, fun sound, and tilt control to form a wonderful iPhone game. Bird Strike is one of those games.

(iTunes link)

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We Rule for the iPhone and iPod Touch Video Review

Sometimes you have to admit you respect something, even if you hate the fact it exists. I think Farmville, and games like it might very well be the downfall of society. But they aren't going away anytime soon, so I might as well get used to this type of game.

In that spirit, today we take a look at We Rule. We Rule is a "free" app in which you create your own kingdom, starting with farming, then building houses, collecting taxes, landscaping the yard, and generally keep things in order (why do we love to do the tasks we hate in real life in video games?). If you're not familiar with this type of game, it takes a LONG time for things to happen. For example, if you plant green beans, they'll be ready to be harvested in about 23 hours. As in 23 hours here in the real world. Of course you can speed things along using "mojo" to instantly grow crops. And where do you find this mojo, you ask? While it's available in small quantities for completing tasks, the fastest way is to buy it at $9.95 for 75 doses of mojo. Can you play the game without it? Sure, but it will take you a long time to complete tasks compared to your friends if they are buying a bunch of mojo.

Cleverly, the game has push notifications to let you know when crops are ready to be harvested, etc.

It's a fine implementation of this type of game, and honestly I haven't delved deeply enough into Farmville to know what new features We Rule might bring to the table. It's free to try, but if you get sucked in, and find yourself tending crops when you should be completing a task at work or spending time with the family, don't blame me.

(iTunes link)

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