Galcon received multiplayer support. It’s no secret that I love this game, so I played the new online mode quite a lot. Setting it up was a breeze, although I wished the multiplayer setup menu were in game, rather then in the phone settings. Online games were pretty easy to find and played very quickly. All in all, it’s a great new feature.

Mote M, the best tower defense game for the iPhone, received major updates. When I last reviewed the game it was unfinished and lacking many features. All that’s been fixed and the game now feels pretty much done. There are 3 fields types available, flying units, full tower upgrades, unit health indicators and online scoring. I don’t think the online scoring mode should show you the tower layout, but other than that, great job!

Super Monkey Ball finally received suspend/resume support.

I found a flaw in Teensy Golf Solitaire that makes the Provisional Mode of gameplay sort of useless. Cards being placed in the “R” reserve slot can be played to the main golf hole no matter their value.

Thats it for now. I have a lot of games in my review queue, so keep you feed readers peeled for more in depth TiltGamer iPhone game reveiws.

Terry Peng, the developer of Tunnels, originally released his very simplistic, overly difficult top down scroller as a free iPhone game. Even with a price tag of zilch I scored the game a 1 of of 10. Other people in the iPhone gaming community, while not as harsh, gave Tunnels similar marks. The game just wasn’t fun or interesting in anyway.

So, why change a horrible game from free to paid? I’m not really sure, but, some have suggested the developer of Tunnels is attempting to exploit Apple’s “top games” algorithm. Apparently, at the iTunes App Store a game’s download statistics do no reset when the price of the game is changed. Since free games typically get more downloads then paid ones, a developer can release a game for free, get a whole bunch of downloads and then switch it to a paid game. Either way, Tunnels wasn’t fun with no price tag and it’s now exactly -2 fun at a a buck ninety-nine

My Tunnels Review can be read here.

Billy Frontier is an action arcade game from Pangea Software. According to the game’s description players take on the role of a space cowboy who is charged with ridding his town of Alien invaders. Billy Frontier is an iPhone port of an existing Mac OS game and retails for $5.99 in the iTune App Store. Currently Pangea is running a $2.99 “back to school” promotion on Billy Frontier.

Billy Frontier Gameplay

Billy Forntier is a collection of four mini games each of which can be played in the easy Town setting or the more difficult Swamp location. The four mini games all play very differently and consist of target practice, shootout, duel and stampede. Players can play the games in any order and frequency they desire which makes Billy Frontier more like a mini arcade and less like story driven game. The object of the Billy Frontier is to see how many of the mine games you can complete and how many coins you can collect with your three lives.

Target Practice is played in fixed position first person view. All sorts of objects fly into view and your job is to shoot them down by tapping on them. The bullets lag behind your taps just enough to give players the feeling of leading their target a bit. For a majority of the game the screen will wobble and shake which adds to the difficulty and gives a slight motion sick sensation. Target practice felt really smooth and definitely took some skill to hit targets reliably. Unfortunately, it’s also very repetitive and lacking in any sort of replay value. While it looks great, there’s just not enough to this mini game to make we want to play it anymore then a handful of times.

Dules is a cinimatic reflex game. In the lower middle of the game screen a pattern of circle and triangel shapes will display challenging players to repeat the patter using the two correspding side buttons. When you complete a pattern one light on your meter bar is lit up and another pattern is displayed. You goal is to complete enough patterns to light up the whole meter bar before your enemies shoot you down. As you repeate the patterns the game screen displays a very “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” type cinimatic with music to match. While the cinematic experience is well done, once you’ve played a duel, theres no real reason to play again. Sure, you can go for a higher score, but why?. There are a ton of game play features Pangea could’ve added to this type of game, but they didn’t. The actual buttons were a tad small, weren’t very “westerny” and seemed to lack some sensativity to tapping.

Stampede is a 3rd person racing type game that pits you against a herd of Kanga-Cows. Unlike most racing games, in Stampede your avatar runs towards you. You have two controls available in stampede. Tilting your iPhone will steer your cowboy left or right and tapping the screen will cause him to jump. As you run you can collect coins for points and peppers to get a burst of speed. You can die in stampede by being run over by the kanga-cows or hitting to many obstacles.

Stampede is yet another example of Billy Frontiers repetitive, boring, featureless and poorly thought out gameplay. I guess in Pangea’s world a stampede is exactly five animals cause that’s all you’ll see in this game. What’s worse is it’s very easy to stall yourself on an obstacle, let the cows run by you and then complete most of the level in solitude, you’ll need to pass the cows at the end or your cowboy will drop dead for no apparent reason. The course and obstacles don’t change in Stampede so, like all of Billy Frontier, one time through is enough. Again, there was a lot Pangea could have done with this type of game but instead it seems they did the bare minimum to make it playable.

Shootout is a pseudo 3rd person shooter. instead of being able to walk around the town shooting Aliens you are taken through scripted areas where your only options are turn and shoot. When you complete an area you tap a foward button to continue on. Game play in Shootout consists of shooting enemies by tapping on them and shooting boxes to replenish your health and ammo. There is a cool little boss encounter at the end of the game which can be easily reached if your good about collecting ammo and health.

It’s important to note that by default there is an option turned on to offset your targeting reticle. This means you will not shoot where you tap . . .sound like fun? It’s not. Of the four games, Shootout probably has the most replay value. Still, the enemies are always in the same spots, you always follow the same path and it’s relatively easy once you’ve figured out that boxes give you more ammo and health. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Pangea could have done a lot with this type of mini game, but they didn’t. Instead this “shootout” is much more like a shooting gallery.

Billy Frontier Graphics

The graphics in Billy Frontier are incredibly well done and stylized. The towns, props and characters are rendered in 3d and simply look amazing on the iPhone. The menu systems look pretty decent except for the horribly awful settings screen. Seriously, what’s up with this thing (see screenshot)? The whole game is styled like this cool spaghetti western and then they throw in this plain blue and white settings screen. It’s really wierd, almost like the game was rushed to the iTunes store with little detailed play testing.

Billy Frontier Sound

The sound in Billy Frontier is very good and matches the game perfectly. I actually left the menu screen music playing during this review. This is one part of the game that’s pretty top notch.

Billy Frontier Price

Pangea says the actual retail price of Billy Frontier is $5.99 even though it’s currently on promotion for half that. I think the promotion price is far more reasonable and would suggest Pangea spend a lot more time on the game play and features before ramping the price back up.

Billy Frontier Summary

Billy Frontier is a great looking and great sounding game. Unfortunately, it’s not a great playing game. All four mini games are incredibly repetitive and shallow. The whole game feels a little restrictive and parts of the production feel rushed. If you’re content with shallow gameplay, you can’t beat Billy Frontier’s setting and sound. If you’re like me and want substantially engaging gameplay, this is not the game for you.

Also. . .how is this guy a space cowboy?

Marple is a logic and deduction style puzzle game developed by Mikko Kankainen for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Marple is the iPhone version of an older PlamOS game, called Hercule, with slightly better graphics. Currently, Marple is retailing for $1.99 in the Apple iTunes App Store and features 100,000 puzzles, high score entry and several game settings.

Marple Gameplay

By all accounts, the Marple game board is a mess. The upper section of the game is filled with rows, columns, colored tiles, symbols, dice, numbers and letters. If that doesn’t cause you a little anxiety, wait, there’s more. The lower section of the game contains more of the symbols, dice, numbers and letters only this time they are arranged in a special “clue” language. It’s really very confusing to anyone who isn’t familiar with the how the game works.

Marple is not a game that anyone can just pick up and play. No. First you have to learn the game objective, then figure out how the game board works, then tackle the “clue” system before finally trying to figure out where and how to start. Marple does include in-game help, but it’s not entirely helpful. In order to understand Marple you really need to see pictures. Luckily, the game developer has them on his website.

Here’s my basic understanding of how the game works:

The game is divided into two sections. The top area contains four rows. Each row has five spots. In each of the five spots are a group of five tiles. The type of tiles found in each spot depend on which row you are looking at. The first row contains letters, the next row contains numbers, then comes the dice row finished up by the sybmols rows. Your job is to remove four tiles from each of the five spots so that each row has just one unique tile in each spot. Figuring out the order of the tiles (ie: which spot they go in) is where the challenge of Marple lies. This is where the lower part of the game board comes into play.

The lower part of the game board contains a set of clues. The clues tell you things about where the tiles go and come in four flavors. A clue with three different tiles tells you the middle tile in the clue is between the other two. Any tile followed by “…” followed by another tile tells you the tile on the left is somewhere to the left of the other tile in the clue. Clues where two tiles are separated by an up and down arrow tell you the tiles belong in the same column. Lastly, there is the “next to” clue which is shown in the form TileA-TileB-TileA. This clue says that TileA and TileB are next to each other but does not tell you wich tile comes first in the relationship. Marple players use these clues to begin deducing which tiles cannot exist in certain spots.

The first step in Marple is to begin removing tiles from spot you know they cannot be. To do this players simply tap on the tile group and then tap tiles they wish to remove from the group. For example, if you have a clue that says 5 is between Star and B, then you know 5 cannot be located in the far left or right columns. So, tap the left column and remove 5 and then tap the right column and remove 5. Repeat this process over and over, using varying amounts of logic until you have set the correct spot for each of the twenty tiles.

I liked the Marple game idea and enjoyed the logic side of things quite a bit but didn’t care for the way Marple was implemented on the iPhone.

Marple’s learning curve is moderately steep and doesn’t have enough in game support to be an enjoyable process. The screen is unnecessarily cramped. So much more could have been done with the clue area to make the clues bigger but take up less space. There isn’t a reliable undo option in Marple. Unfortunately, if you make a mistake you have to sort of manually retrace your steps (this is further complicated if you have “auto-deduce” turned on). The “Whoops” warning while helpful, is overwhelmingly annoying. Similarly, the “auto-deduce” option can be both helpful or harmful to your game. Luckily, you can turn these options off in the settings menu, but should you really have to? Both these options are really helpful, they’re just implemented in a way that can seriously bonk your game experience. My last little criticism of Marple is the vague icon only navigation menu.

Marple Graphics

There’s really not a lot to Marple’s graphics. The game alerts are all iPhone stock SDK stuff, the High Score screen is very plain and lists too many high scores. The menu icons are pretty average, if not vague.

Marple Sound

Marple does not include sounds.

Marple Price

Currently, Marple is retailing for $1.99. With some work on the game features, and help file two bucks would be a good price, considering the 100,000 included puzzles.

Marple Summary

Marple is an interesting logic and deduction game with a steep learning curve, frustrating features and a lack of polish and style. If you like puzzles and don’t mind reading through directions over and over, Marple may be worth a look. If you are easily frustrated or don’t have a lot of time to figure things out, steer clear of this game.

Gaia is the Greek goddess of the Earth, a hypothesis stating that the Earth’s ecosystem acts as a single organism and one heck of an iPhone puzzle game. Developed by David Breitigam of Quicksand Interactive, Gaia combines aspects of existing puzzle games with its own unique blend of features and mechanics. Gaia includes twenty hand illustrated game pieces, bonus levels, point multipliers, accelerometer control, resume support and one seriously ingenious high score entry. It’s currently selling for $2.99 in the Apple iTunes App Store.

Gaia Gameplay

Gaia is one of those games that immediately feels familiar only to reveal how different it really is over the course of several gaming sessions. In Gaia, a random pattern of Earth themed icons fills the game board creating clusters where three or more of the same icon are touching. Players tap these clusters in order to remove them from the board, score points and fill the level promotion meter. Sounds like every other swap and pop type puzzle game, right? Wrong! When the clusters of icons are removed holes are created. These holes are then filled by dropping in a new icons from one of the game board sides. Players control which side releases new icons by tilting the iPhone or iPod Touch. Even after filling the game board with new icons some holes may still exist. Players can fill these holes by tilting their iPhones in an attempt to slide pieces into the empty spaces. The only thing preventing your from sliding peices around is lack of holes and clusters which may block holes. The idea here it to strategically remove, slide and fill spaces with icons that will yeild the largest clusters. Remove clusters to fill the meter bar and progress to the next level. New levels introduce different icons, fewer initial clusters, the dreaded dead slots and the occasional bonus level. Your game ends when there are no available clusters to be removed.

The game play in Gaia is deceptively simply. When I first played the game I was like, “Is this it?” It took a few sessions for me to learn all the moves available in the game. Gaia really needs some sort of help screen or in game tutorial, not because the game is confusing, but because the game plays a lot like so many other games some people may assume that’s all it has to offer. That would be a real shame to, because once you figure out how to play Gaia, it’s really a relaxing puzzle game with a good amount of polish and replay value.

One of my favorite parts of Gaia is the high score entry. Instead of the standard name or initial entry, Gaia lets you tag your high score by drawing. If you obtain a high enough score to get into a medal slot a little box will appear where you can draw whatever you want. As if that weren’t cool enough, Gaia remembers how you drew your high score tag a replays the creation of each image when the medals screen is selected. While there is a limit to how complex your picture can be, Gaia’s high score entry is like a little game with in a game.

Gaia Graphics

Gaia’s main graphics include twenty hand illustrated icons. While, I applaud the original creations and love the way they tile when clustered, they are just a tad plain and a little dated looking. The menu system is also a little plain looking and lacks any textual description of the game, it’s icons or menus. I understand that Quicksand interactive wanted to build a language free game by only using icons and while that’s a cool idea, it does leave parts of the game and menus a little bit vague.

Gaia Sound

The sound effects in Gaia, while minimal, serve to create a relaxing game experience. A water sound plays upon starting a new level and each Earth icon plays one of a few complimentary notes. As you remove clusters from the game board you will build little random Gaia melodies that are quite pleasing. I actually started removing pieces from the game board on lower levels in an attempt to play a recognizable melody. Let’s just say, I’m still working on it.

Gaia Price

Gaia is currently priced at $2.99. It’s a rarity here on TiltGamer, but I’m going to say that’s the right price for this game. Great job David.

Gaia Summary

Gaia is puzzle therapy. It’s familiar game play mixed with original and iPhone specific mechanics effectively create one of the better puzzle experiences on the iPhone. This, combined with the in game features and high score drawing mini app make Gaia a must have for iPhone puzzle gamers.

Digg, for those who don’t know, is a mega popular social news website that allows anyone to submit and vote on internet content, a small portion of which is actual news. Submissions that receive the most votes (amongst other top secret metrics) are promoted to the front page. Diggerific …err Shovel is an app clone of Digg’s already capable iPhone compatible website.

Here’s my favorite iTunes non-game game comment:

Well played cm010, you made my day.

As the title suggests, Big Bang Sudoku is a Sudoku game for the iPhone and iPod Touch which promises a theoretical explosion of primordial number puzzling fun. Big Bang Sudoku comes with over 10,000 puzzles, a hint mode, pencil marks and player statistics. Developed by New York game studio Freeverse, Big Bang Sudoku is currently retailing for $4.99 at the iTunes App Store.

Big Bang Sudoku Gameplay

Given the thirty or so Sudoku games currently available for the iPhone it seems safe to assume everyone owning an iPhone probably knows what the game is. For those that don’t, here is my real quick description. Sudoku is a number puzzle game played on a nine column, nine row grid which is further divided into nine sections. Each row, column and section has exactly nine spots in which players will place a number from 1-9. The only rule in Sudoku is that each row, column and section may contain only one occurrence of each number.

A review of Sudoku really comes down to how well the developers implemented the existing game. In this case, Freeverse decided to tackle the super competitive Sudoku game category with an off beat spacey version of the popular game. So, how does it play?

In Big Bang Sudoku you enter numbers into the grid by selecting a number from a horizontal list and tapping the square you’d like to place the number in. A button below the horizontal number selector toggles the pencil marker which can be used for jotting in number notes. While I prefer a pop-up number selector, Big Bang’s method of entering numbers into the puzzle works just fine. Like most iPhone games, there is a lot of mistapping in Big Bang Sudoku. Clearing unintentional number placements is done by retapping the sqaure which works pretty well for those with smaller fingers.

Big Bang Sudoku comes with four different difficulty levels: easy, medium, hard and diabolical. According to their iTunes game description, there’s “Eons” of puzzles available. Apparently “Eons” is somewhere in the 10,000 range. If you play 10 puzzles a day, Big Bang Sudoku offers about 2.7 years worth of Soduko (more than enough to see you through your AT&T contract). I’m not saying you won’t see a duplicate puzzle, but the odds are definitely against it.

One thing I really liked about Big Bang Sudoku is that all game options are off by default. If you’d like, you can access the options menu from the main menu and turn on: show incorrect moves, show sun god, play sounds and show timer.

Playing through a Big Bang Sudoku puzzle feels a lot like every other iPhone Sudoku game out there. Meaning, the core game works as expected and provides a good Sudoku experience. With Soduko it’s really about the game environment and developer touches. I liked the row, column and section highlighting upon completion and the fireworks displayed when the puzzle had been solved were also nice.  I’m just not sure the sun god, space thing was the right choice for a Sudoku game.

Big Bang Sudoku Graphics

Big Bang Sudoku is a bit busy for a Sudoke game. The game board features orange’ish numbers on a two tone gray grid. This color combo can be hard to read for some people and in certain lighting conditions. I wasn’t a big fan of the “sun god” and found the moving background mildly annoying. For a lot of people, Sudoku is a game of peaceful concentration, unfortunately, Big Bang Sudoku does little to set this mood.

Big Bang Sudoku Sound

While I normally play Sudoku with no sound, I actually liked the sound effects in Big Bang Sudoku and left them on for a little while. When you place a number in a grid square the game plays one of several complimentary notes. If you play fast enough you can sometimes feel like you’re creating a little melody.

Big Bang Sudoku Price

Currently Big Bang Sudoku is selling for $4.99. I’m not sure there is quite enough Bang in this game to justify that price. For me, something in the $1.99 range would seem a lot more reasonable.

Big Bang Sudoku Summary

Big Bang Sudoku is not great, but it’s not terrible either. While this Soduko game has nice features and solid game play, it also suffers from a less then desirable color scheme and busy graphics. If the sun god, space setting really appeals to you then Big Bang Sudoko may be your game. However, if your looking for a super clean, peaceful experience I would suggest looking somewhere else.

To get to iPhone Restore Land you should reset your iPhone by holding down the home button and the power/sleep button at the same time.  As soon as the screen goes black release the buttons.  Before plugging your phone into your computer, start iTunes.  With iTunes started, hold down (and keep held) the home button. With the home button still held, plug your iPhone into the computer.  Keep holding down the home button until the iPhone screen gives you the connected to iTunes screen.  In a few seconds iTunes will alert you that you phone is in restore mode.  Follow the iTunes prompts to restore your phone.

Once you are done restoring your iPhone, iTunes should sync all your information and applications.  Applications you downloaded via your phone may not be available for sync in iTunes.  In order to get these applications you can simply re-download them via your iPhone (or possibly iTunes).  You will get a message stating that you have already paid for the application, hit OK to install.  The whole thing usually takes me about an hour and half (I have a lot of games) and while I wish it didn’t happen at all, the process has been pretty painless so far.

Moto Chaser Storyline

Wingnuts Moto Chaser has a very weird and disconnected story line which apparently involves some sort of evil troops who kidnap your cat and party with your girls. Seriously, it’s weird. At the start of each new level players are presented with an image chronicling the exploits of these futuristic looking evil doers. The story line is confusing, out of place, a tad cheesy and seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the game. My Recommendation would be to drop the whole “cat kidnapping” thing and replace the pre level graphics with a nice illustration or render of the current level.

Moto Chaser Gameplay

After starting up Moto Chaser players select one of the three riders, choose an unlocked track and head for the starting line. Controlling your rider is pretty basic. Press the on screen gas button to accelerate and tilt left and right to steer. While accelerating and slowing feels just about right, the tilt controls are a little twitchy and take some time to get used to.

As you race through the various levels you will encounter three of Moto Chasers major game elements: check points, speed power-ups and enemy riders. Passing through a checkpoint extends your available time and running through a speed power up gives you a point bonus and sudden burst of speed. Occasionally, you will pass by another rider at which point you can engage in some bike to bike combat. The enemy riders are sparse and the combat is sluggish and uninspired. Luckily, it’s such a small part of the game that it doesn’t cause any major problems.

Finishing a course before time runs out will unlock the next available level and display your score. The ten courses are all unique and well executed. Some feel like a stroll through the country, while others are fairly technical and challenging. The game has a difficulty setting which didn’t seem to effect my gameplay much. A few level checkpoints seemed to be poorly placed which yielded a slightly inconsistent challenge from level to level. The “Rumbles in The Jungle” course had one check point which was frustratingly harder to get through then the rest.

MotoChaser is liking bowling with bumbers. Instead of crashing or being severely penalized for going off course, your rider is gently guided back towards the drivable area with only slight time penalties. If you happen to be on a course with cliffs you’ll see of black screen before being reset onto a drivable area. I really didn’t have a huge problem with the lack of obstacle crashing or off course penalties, but the buggy “off course” position reset bothered me a lot. The narrow cliff section of the “Rumbles in The Jungle” course was the worst offender of this problem, sometimes resetting your position for no apparent reason.

Moto Chaser Graphics

The graphics and animations are all very well done in Moto Chaser. The riders are a tad stock looking but the menus, bikes, and courses all look pretty good. The leg drag animation which happens when accelerating from a stopped position looked really cool. Other then the above mentioned “cat kidnapping” images, I don’t have any problems with the graphics.

Moto Chaser Sound

Moto Chaser has some pretty aggressive sounds. The looping music track(s) are a little over the top and get to be very tiring after the the fourth or fifth go around. The voice over for the “ready” and “go” start words sounded like they were done in house or by a friend. It’s probably just my punk rock blown out ear drums, but there was just something about that voice that didn’t sound professional to me. The other in game sound effects all compliment the game nicely.

Moto Chaser Price

Wingnuts Moto Chaser is currently selling for $5.99. It’s a decent racing game but needs a few more features, bug fixes and production polish to warrant the six buck price tag. I think $2.99 or $3.99 would be more reasonable for the game’s current release.

Moto Chaser Summary

Moto Chaser for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a decent motorcycle racing game. The ten levels, all of which sport full 3d rendering, air time replays and brief combat, are fun and different enough to hold a race fans attention for a few days of gaming. With that said, the game would really shine with some more polish, a few bug fixes and the addition of unlockable riders. If you really like racing games and have the patience to adapth to sensative controls and a few lingering bugs, Wingnuts Moto Chaser may be worth a look.

Space Invasion is a classic arcade style game which is very similar to the old arcade classic, Space Invaders. The game was released by StarByte and is retailing for $3.99 at the iTunes App Store.

In Space Invasion players take control of a movable base which must defend its planet by shooting the progressing waves of alien invaders. Just like in the classic arcade version of the game, each level of Space Invasion, features a slightly different layout of enemy invaders who gradually make their way down to your planet while trying to destroy you and your sheilds. Unlike it’s classic inspiration, Space invasion lets you collect power ups which may add various effects to your base.

Space Invasion Graphics

Space Invasion looks like a slightly smoother version of Space Invaders. The whole game has a very nice retro feel to it and does a good job mimicking its predecessor. My only complaint is that the game background and loading screen, which look great, don’t really match the retro feeling of the game. Additionally, everything in the game feels a little small and cramped.

Space Invasion Sound

The sound in Space Invasion is a great throwback to classic arcade gaming. The squawks and squeaks sound just right as do the advancing aliens sounds. All I’m missing here is some coin drop sounds to start the game.

Space Invasion Gameplay

Space Invasion is played by tapping the on-screen left, right and fire buttons. Two other buttons located below the movement arrows control 1 player and 2 player select. For the most part moving the base works well. While it would have been interesting to see accelerometer support or finger drag support added as control options, the on screen buttons worked just fine. The firing was the only thing that really bugged me about Space Invasion. The firing rate seems a little slow and players must tap the screen every time they want to fire. A hold to fire option would be a welcome addition to the game.

Space Invasion has just one game play mode and no way to save. While the game does save the high score, Space Invasion is missing both online and offline high score name entry. This seems like a pretty big omission given that obtaining the high score is pretty much the only objective to the game. Additionally, I found the power ups hard to collect and understand. When a power up falls it should stay on the game board’s base for a few seconds, flash and then be removed instead of just falling straight off the screen.

Space Invasion Price

Space Invasion is priced at $3.99 which feels quite high to me. Given the lack of features, game play modes and high score entry I think this game would be better priced in the $.99 range.

Space Invasion Summary

Space Invasion is an adequate throw back to the classic Space Invaders arcade game. Currently, the game is missing quite a few features and lacks replay value. With a slight price drop, online and offline score entry and better implementation of the power ups this could be the classic arcade fix your looking for. As it stands, I’d say all but the most die hard space invader fans should pass.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge is a single player commercial racing game from Audio of America. Players take control of an Audi A4 in top down perspective and attempt to race around a series of five unique tracks each lasting three laps. Audi A4 Driving challenge is a free download from the Apple iTunes App store and features a lap timer, course timer, lap counter and mph display.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge Graphics

This racing game takes place on a piece of plain-as-it-gets asphalt with the courses marked off by tiny cones. The course graphics are incredibly dull for a racing game but achieve their intended purpose of keeping your eyes on the car and the logos. The Audi A4 looks great in both the game and menu screens as do the pedals used to accelerate and brake.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge Sound

There is no sound is Audi A4 Challenge. Given that this game is essentially a glorified commercial I am surprised the developers didn’t include engine sounds or subliminal messages playing from an in game radio.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge Gameplay

In Audi A4 Driving Challenge you race against time because there are no other cars to race against. The game doesn’t even include simulated results from ghost cars. It’s just you and your Audi A4. To make your car go, press the on screen acceleration pedal. To stop, press the brake pedal. Turning your Audi is done by tilting the iPhone’s accelerometer left of right. Complete the laps as fast as you can while hitting as few cones as possible. It’s impossible to crash and you’ll always move onto the next course no matter how bad your driving skills are, so, really it doesn’t matter how fast you go or how many cones you hit.

The courses in Audi A4 Driving Challenge are overly narrow. The steering controls are too sensitive and the courses are ultra repetitive. The whole experience feels claustrophobic, underwhelming and boring. There is no way to loose the game and no reward for winning. After playing though all five laps I discovered that much better results could be achieved by not steering. I would simply hold down the accelerator, close my eyes and let the car bounce around the outside of the course. If tilted just right, you can keep cone contact to a minimum and usually achieve pretty good results.  In another TiltGamer created variation,  I tried to hit all the cones . . .much more fun than the intended game play.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge Price

Audi A4 Driving Challenge is an ad supported game. While there is no cost to download the game, the whole thing is a commercial . . .and not a very good one at that.

Audi A4 Driving Challenge Summary

Audi A4 driving challenge is a feeble attempt by a car company to capture the attention of iPhone users. The game plays horribly, lacks a significant amount of features and has almost zero replay value. While there are some commercials (like the Olympic Visa commericals) worth watching, I would suggest you fast forward this one at all costs.

The negative comment I discovered was titled “Better things to do with a dollar. . .” and rated the Pick Fruits game with a single star. Karg’s comment instructed people thinking about buying the game to “Take a nice, crisp dollar bill out of your wallet and put it in your mouth and start chewing.” In doing so, Karg states, “You will get more entertainment and value from that dollar” then you would from buying this game. At first I thought this was just another negative review left in an exagerted and humorous tone, but then I saw the same comment on several more games. Was Karg just spamming this comment to random games? Nope.

Karg’s “better things to do with a dollar” comment appears word for word on exactly 12 iTunes games. While the games receiving this comment range in genre from educational to puzzle, they all have one thing in common, they were developed by Shekhar Yadav. This is by no coincidence either, Karg specifically targets Yadav in his comment accusing him of somehow sneaking these application into the iTunes store. What’s more interesting is that this wasn’t Kargs first set of negative comments. Prior to Yadav, Karg targeted Jirbo for sticking spaces in their games names in order to achieve better placement on the iTunes store.

While, it’s nice to know people are out there acting as App Store watchdogs, Apple’s current system of comments is already being heavily abused and misused. I fear this type of mass negative commenting is only going to give people inspiration to further abuse the comments. I really wish Apple would legitimize comments by only allowing them from people who’ve downloaded/paid for the game.

To date, some of the top iPhone games have been ports of already existing games or mobile extensions of existing franchises. That’s fine and I’m happy to play any quality game, but I think for an iPhone game to really shine it’s got to be something original, something made exclusively for the iPhone’s unique controls. Enter Toy Boy Diaries.

Toy Bot Diaries is a swing and cling platformer developed by IUGO Mobile Entertainment for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Currently priced at $3.99 at the Apple iTune App Store, Toy Bot Diaries puts you in control of Tiny Toy Robot who must make his way though the inside of a strange machine in order to recover his lost memories. With the aid of his electro grappling hook, magnetic boots and expert swinging skills, the little robot navigates three complete levels and one special boss level in an attempt to unravel the mystery that is Toy Bot Diaries.

Toy Bot Diaries Graphics
The graphics is Toy Bot Diaries are pretty good overall. There is nothing that seems unfinished but also nothing that really knocked my socks off. I really liked the the splash screen, game menus, restored memory illustrations and floating Soda Boy can, but found the level backgrounds to be a little dull. I know it’s a tall order with screen size and device limitations but I’ve seen some impressive backgrounds in other iPhone games and think creating a bit more depth and detail in the Toy Bot Diaries’ environments would add a lot more to the game.

Toy Bot Diaries Sound
Toy Bot Diaries has great sound for the iPhone. The opening music, level music, sound effects and character emotions are all great and fit the game really well. The sound of Toy Bot Diaries took me back to my days playing platformer style games on the NES. Sure, the quality of sound is better on the iPhone, but there was something about the Toy Bot background music and sound effects that brought back some good NES memories.

Toy Bot Diaries Gameplay
The main attraction in Toy Bot Diaries are the level obstacles. Levers, zip lines, bowling balls, coin receptacles, water, electricity all stand in way of Tiny Toy Robot’s progress. There are three main levels, all of which are quite long, and one boss level. To successfully make it through these levels our little robot can walk (controlled by the accelerometer), push things by walking into them, swing from metal objects via his grappling hook (done by tapping and tilting your iPhone), cling to metal objects by using his magnetic boots and pull ceratin objects with the grappling hook.

There are a few sections of Toy Bot Diaries that deliver that finest gaming experience currently available on the iPhone and others that made me want to throw my phone out the window. There are parts of the game that seem near perfect. Good pacing leads to a well thought out puzzle involving a few complicated maneuvers ultimately ending with an exhilarating slide or swing. This is Toy Bot Diaries as its best. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t always play like this.

Complicating the sometimes challenging levels are the controls. The controls in Toy Bot Diaries need tuning. I always felt like I was fighting the controls in the game. It often proved difficult to get the tiny robot to do exactly what I wanted, when I wanted. The magnetic boots were a total pain to get working most of the time and walking became unresponsive to my tilts on several choice occasions. The grappling hook works well as does the swinging, but work is needed on swing releases. In addition to the control problems there were a number of level design glitches that trapped Tiny Toy Robot or rendered an obstacle unsolvable. Luckily for Toy Bot Diaries, the good outweighs the bad and those who stick with difficult sections are eventually rewarded with more outstanding gameplay.

Toy Bot Diaries Price
Toy Bot Diaries is currently priced at $3.99 which feels just right to me. Although there are only four total levels, three of them are very long and have collection aspects to them which add replay value. IUGO could have gotten away with pricing Toy Bot Diaries at $7.99, but they didn’t and I think they deserve some points for their accurate price point.

Toy Bot Diaries Summary
Toy Bot Diaries is an original iPhone platformer that mixes a lot entertainment with a little frustration. Overall, the game is very well done, if not a little difficult. Their are parts of Toy Bot Diaries that are incredibly fun to play and represent some of the best gaming on the iPhone. Unfortunately, there are a few level and controls issues that take away from some of the enjoyment this enjoyment. Ultimately, Toy Bot Diaries is an impressive offering from IUGO and well worth the $3.99 . . . if you commit to sticking through the hard spots. Because of its game play and use of iPhone controls, I think we’ll all be seeing a lot more of the cute little robot from Toy Bot Diaries and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.

1. Laser Battle

“LaserBattle lets you wildly swing your iPhone/iPod Touch through the air while listening to exciting laser sounds as well as keeping score”

2. SimStapler

“The first true office equipment simulator, SimStapler brings all of the thrill and excitement of a ‘real stapler’ right to the palm of your hand”

-Doesn’t a real stapler already bring that excitement to your palm?

3. Ball Fight

“Ball Fight is a turned based game where you shoot an opponents balls into the goal.”

-I don’t know just made me laugh.

4. FingerMill

“FingerMill is a fun and interactive game that turns your device into a treadmill for your fingers!”

5. Stroll Garden

“Each time you complete a board you’ll see Zen Garden come to life. You may also find enlightenment.*

*Results may vary.”

6. World 9

“The usages is quite simple. Press start and put your iPhone/iPod Touch in your pocket. Then jump and run! With a sound effect. your ordinary neighborhood becomes a world of TV game.”

-I’m no longer invited to neighborhood functions

7. Vegas Pool Sharks

“But soon those friendly locals you met in the casino are showing a certain predatory side.”

-You really need to read this full description to get the full “hmm” effect.

Did I miss a good one? Add descriptions you find hmmable to the comments below and I’ll post them to a list.

There are a lot of card based games available at the Apple iTunes App Store. While most focus on casino style games like Poker and Blackjack, there’s at least one that brings a little something different to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Disney’s All Star Cards is a 4 in 1 card game application currently priced at a whopping $9.99. The game is aimed at the youngest of iPhone gamers and no doubt tries to capture their attention through the 3d characters and Disney name. The four games included with Disney’s All Star Cards are Donald’s Go Fish, Mickey’s Crazy Eights, Minnie’s Hearts and Goofy’s Card Toss. Players start the game in a mobile device version of ToonTown and select which game they want to play by tapping a character’s house. There is also a Town Hall, which controls the settings for the game, and an unused house which simply tells players to check back later. After selecting one of the game houses a nice loading screen appears before you’re inside sitting down with three Disney characters for a nice game of cards.

The card games all have the same basic features. Hold down your finger in the middle of the game board to access the menu, slide left and right to look through your cards and drag cards towards the center to play. In addition to these basic features, all of the included games except Goofy’s Card Toss let you acquire Pixie Dust. The magical Pixie Dust has different effects depending on which game you’re playing. In Mickey’s Crazy Eights the Pixie Dust forces all other players to draw two cards, in Minnie’s Hearts it allows you to get a new set of the three passed cards and in Donald’s Go Fish the dust allows you to ask every player for the rank you’re fishing for.

In the most recent version of Disney’s All Star Cards the game has added additional sound, character voices, tutorials, Goofy’s Card Toss enhancements and various bug fixes. Sounds impressive right. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Even with all of these updates Disney’s All Star Cards leaves a lot to be desired, not the least of which is it’s $9.99 price tag.

You know your game has problems when the best looking part is the “loading” screen. Disney’s All Star Cards feels incredibly dated and clunky. Honestly, the game would have been better done in 2d. I know 3d is was all the rage, but speaking as an ex 3d character animator, the animations and character models in this game are not anywhere near Disney quality. The whole game feels a little pixelated, muddy and dated.

The sound in the game is decent, if not a tad repetitive. The character voice imitations are nice but Disney didn’t include nearly enough phrases. If you’re youngster plays this game for any length of time the sounds will undoubtly annoy you.

With the addition of the tutorials, all of the card games are much easier to pick up and play. The game play in general is pretty decent and, for the most part, the games work as advertised. While the controls work, they were the wrong choice for a kids game. Sliding through the cards takes a little bit of work, slows the game way down and can be difficult for kids (who don’t use an iPhone all day) to master. Disney’s All Star Cards should have put a lot more focus on the actual cards. They should’ve been bigger, easier to see, easier to play and adorned with the likeness of popular Disney characters and symbols.

There were some parts of the games that I did like. I spent a lot of time playing Goofy’s Card Toss, which I found to be only slightly less fun the actually tossing cards. The Pixie Dust feature was pretty cool and did add some strategy to the game. Of the actual card games, I would say Micky’s Crazy Eights was the most fun. Donald’s Go Fish played way too slow and Minnie’s Hearts lacked a few features common to most Hearts games.

At first glance your might think Disney’s All Star Cards looks like a lot of fun for you and your kids. It offers 4 different games, 3d Disney characters and a 3d Toon Town’ish game menu. If that weren’t enough, Disney’s iTunes description of the game promises, “dazzling animation, great music and surprises throughout.” Unfortunately, the first surprise you’ll encounter is how mediocre this game really is. It’s not awful. It just doesn’t have a single drop of that old school Disney charm or quality some of us still expect. Your $9.99 would be better spent downloading five of the Pixar Short films. Personally, I’d pick Presto, Lifted, For the Birds, Boundin and Luxo Jr.

That reminds me. In exactly 19 hours and 32 minutes I’ll be in Disneyland with the wife and kid. Hopefully, I won’t have to listen to this game the whole way there.