Touch Screen fun…

iPhone Roundup

More iPhone offerings, reviewed by Jennifer Allen.

A much delayed iPhone roundup at last. I’ve been busy enjoying the summer, or at least sighing at the many heavy rain showers that ruined my plans. On the plus side at least, I now have a shiny new iPhone. No longer is this iPhone columnist stuck with an aging iPhone 2G, instead I’ve got a rather nice iPhone 4 and can finally experience the wonders of 3G. You don’t really care about my Google Map adventures though, you just want to know what the titles reviewed are like this time round. Good news, they’re a sound bunch and well worth a look.

Bermuda Triangle

BulkyPix– £1.19p

Bermuda Triangle is a Match 3 puzzle game. No, don’t run away. I know it’s been done to death but it is quite fun. There is some sort of story about protecting the ocean from global warming but skipping past that, it’s a fun yet simplistic Match 3 puzzler. You know the deal. Match 3 of the ocean nutrients/gems and gain points. Achieve some combos and you get even more points, as well as a very polite woman loudly stating that you’ve achieved a ‘double’ or ‘triple’. Predictably there are obstacles in your way: ink, bubbles and shark attacks for the most part. Fortunately you have power ups to combat that. There’s even an item shop where you can buy useful bits and pieces. With three different modes of play: story, timed and endless, there’s a sufficient amount to do here to warrant the £1.19 price tag. It might be far from original but it’s a perfectly respectable Match 3 game and there’s a very good reason why the genre is so popular: it’s fun.6/10

Mushroom Age

G5 Entertainment – £2.99

Ahh the Hidden Object genre. Another genre that is steadily taking over the casual gaming world. Yet another guilty pleasure of mine too. Effectively I-Spy, there’s still something alluring about it when you fancy a relaxed experience. There’s a hint of a story here. You play Vera, a woman whose fiancée has mysteriously vanished. Vera finds a portable time machine (a mobile phone) and so begins your adventure across time. There are 21 settings in all offering a mixture of hidden object spotting and some puzzles such as hangman, jigsaws and Mah-Jongg. The story is absolutely bizarre but the variety of puzzles keeps things intriguing. There are unlimited hints on offer which can make things a little easy. Much like Bermuda Triangle, it won’t set the world on fire with its originality but it makes for an entertaining distraction. Pity it is a little overpriced considering it only takes a few hours to complete though. Fortunately it is currently on sale at £1.79 which is more palatable. 6/10

Virtual City Free

G5 Entertainment – Free

Virtual City Free is a bit of a curiosity. As the name suggests, it’s currently free. It’s a demo of sorts of an upcoming full title which is waiting to get through the App Store review process. Virtual City is based on a PC game of the same name. A PC game that admittedly I’ve never played but I’m pretty sure it’s a bit like SimCity. This free version only contains a few levels as well as a tutorial but it’s quite good fun, especially for free. It’s a simpler version of SimCity so there’s no need to worry about the sewage system or zonal building. That’s not to say that there isn’t some level of complexity. There is, mostly in the form of a variety of statistics and different building types available to buy. It is rather brief to complete but the full version promises 50 different levels so hopefully it won’t be long till its arrival. For now, the demo/free version makes a welcome distraction. 7/10