Apple App Store gaming update for the week of April 6

Sections: Features, Lists, Updates, Apple App Store

Apple App Store gaming update for the week of April 6 - April 12, 2009

by Kris Rosado on Apr 13, 2009 at 05:02 PM

The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s App Store game releases. We cover them all - good and not so good - in their respective categories with a breakdown of the great games and the free games right where you want ‘em, at the top and in your face. The list is available every Monday, right as you are about to start that long work week.

gamertell apple app store weekly update logo Happy Easter iPhone and iPod Touch gamers! Looks like the Easter Bunny brought us a decent set of gaming apps this week and even had the courtesy to limit the Easter-themed games. It’s nice to see mascots not too full of themselves.

Anyway, lets dig right into the basket and go right for the goodness with:

What You Might Want To Check Out

Abigale: Price: $0.99
“Abigale is a newly designed action shooting game. The uniqueness of the game is that the player is using Mosa, a weapon from the Dark God, to take-in bullets from the enemies to attack. Working with the accelerometer control of iPhone/iPod touch, Abigale is undoubtedly an exciting and challenging game for you!”

Sprill: The Mystery of Bermuda Triangle: Price: $1.99
“Sprill: The Mystery of Bermuda Triangle is a super-beautiful version of the popular hidden object game for the PC. To save Sprill, a brave fox cub, from evil ETs, you must search the Bermuda Triangle for the legendary Pearl of Poseidon. While you’ll find virtually anything in the cabins and cargo bays of the many sunken ships you’ll have to search, your goal is to find the items that point the way to the Pearl. Features gameplay optimized to take advantage of your iPhone’s capabilities!”

RPS Battle
“RPS Battle is an exciting new twist on the classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Battle your friends in a turn-based multiplayer game or play against the computer. Rock! Paper! Scissors! SHOOT!”

Sky Babes vs Fly Boys Lite
“Take to the skies as an ace delivery pilot and race against rivals to deliver the most cargo across the globe. But beware, competition in this business is fierce. Tap on dozens of cities to pickup and deliver packages. Longer routes can earn more cash, but burn more fuel, so plan wisely and double up on deliveries when you can! This is a lite version of the full game. The full version contains additional levels and playable characters.”

Space Trader™: Moon Madness: Price: $0.99
“Assume the role of a Space Trader™. Make a profit buying and selling commodities. Start on the Moon, buy low. Hop aboard your ship to new destinations. Sell high. So simple its madness! In the 3D trading game, Space Trader™: Moon Madness, your mission is to make as much money possible within a time limit. Visit various locations in search of the best deals and boost your score by accepting the side quests that offer rewards.”

Wordsmith: Price: $1.99
“Wordsmith is an entertaining word-forming game. Form words up to seven letters long before the time expires, or enjoy more relaxing play in lite mode. Use wilds and letters to form words as fast as you can. Create words with bonus multipliers for additional points. Get more points by forming words five, six, and seven letters long. Use the hot buttons at the bottom, to shuffle tiles, drop your hand, or automatically create words.”

What’s Free

Space X Ball Lite
“Space X-Ball is trapped by bricks over the top. Your goal is to clear the blockage and help X-Ball break free. Drag the reflection board left and right to bounce the ball up. Calculate the angle carefully so you can smash the bricks quickly. Catch the falling props - some of them will extend the size of your reflection board. “

Epic Pet Wars
“Adopt a unique & exclusively designed pet to join the thousands training, battling, and customizing in this FREE, real-time, constantly evolving Massively Multiplayer Online RPG that spans the iPhone/iPod Touch, Facebook, and epicpetwars.com!”

iDance Lite
“iDance is an addictive dance-tap game for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you feel the rhythm of the song as you touch the screen. Once you start playing, you won’t be able to put it down! The full game features 9 levels/songs and 2 dancers (1 of each sex) to choose from (Chris and Mandy). You’ll unlock new songs as you beat more levels.”

Hoopster Basketball Lite
“Get your hands (and fingers) on the hottest basketball experience in the App Store! Hoopster Lite features a realistically rendered 3D basketball court, exciting sound and visual effects and free reign of the practice court to sharpen your skills for the Quick Shots game in the full version.”

YouPong
“YouPong makes your face into the ball in a simple 2D pong game. Just snap a picture, and YouPong will automatically recognize your face! (you can also choose the picture from the photo library). You can play YouPong by yourself in 1-player mode or with a friend in 2-player mode. It’s the perfect game to show off the advanced processing power of the iPhone!”

Multiplayer Tiki Spades (Free)
“Tiki Spades is a full single and multi-player version of the classic card game, with beautiful graphics and relaxing background ambience. As avid Spades fans we’ve made sure to include the most popular variations in Tiki Spades such as the ability to bid a blind nil, and the loss of 100 points after a team collects 10 bags. This free (ad-supported) version has the same features as the paid version.”

Hero of Zero - Lite
“This is the free lite version of Hero of Zero. This version is limited to 15 games (equations)! Sweat was running down his face. He looked up and faced his challengers. Pythagoras of Samos, Hippokrates of Chios und Thales of Milet - the most famous and gifted mathematicians of the world. This round will decide the winner. The numbers are difficult, the pressure is enormous. Victory will bring fame and money, the losers will sink back to nothingness. Suddenly his brain provides the solution - another Hero of Zero is born!”

Blowfish Lite
“We’re the little (or big) blowfish in this game. We like to grow with the tap of your finger. We don’t like those red prickly sea urchins that make us go POP! When we see our friends pop, we get sad. We like seeing our friends grow, but sometimes we get bored and we’ll make faces. Can you help us out?”

Name That Guitar Riff — Lite
“Think you can name a tune by hearing just the Guitar Riff? Get ready for lots of fun trying. It’s even more fun to play in a group. Crank it up and play it at a party; challenge your friends; or even liven up a boring business meeting.”

Word Search Free
“Word Search Free is a hidden word puzzle game with 4 difficulty levels and over 80 different word lists to choose from. And best of all it’s free. Word Search Free is ad supported.”

iBoat Challenge Lite
“Addictive boat game with advanced highscore system.”

Vampires Live
“Turn your lowly vampire clan into the most powerful clan in the Vampires Live world!”

KingdomGame Lite
“KingdomGame pits you against thousands of other players, online, in a real time, ongoing strategy game. Players become the ruler of their own Kingdom in a fantasy world, given a plot of land and some willing peasants.. From there they can expand their small estate into a powerful and large Kingdom.”

LittleVillage Lite
“A little town with three people. Smash them with your finger, burn their houses, or unleash a monster upon them!”

Fruit Juice Tycoon Lite
“Immensely addictive and highly enjoyable blend of manic action and business strategy that will challenge your coordination, strategy and multitasking skills to the absolute limit! Manage the daily supplies, sort and squeeze the fruit, make and pour the juices, serve and sell to the customers, deliver your juice around town, take part in competitions, upgrade away and expand your juice empire to the max! Features fast-paced fruit sorting, wacky juice making, and frantic customer service, all on one screen! Also features mini-games and a need for sound managing of your assets.”

iFiller Lite
“iFiller Lite is a free version of iFiller. iFiller is an exciting puzzle game. This game is splendid antistress and antidepressant game. It is designed for all age groups.”

What’s New

Action

iTrapped: Price: $0.99
“Your goal is to move the red block to its home. If you think this is just another clone of Blocked, think again! There are 6 blocks of different sizes and types: some can only slide horizontally (indicated by light grey color), some only vertically (light grey), while others can slide both horizontally and vertically (dark grey)! Play a few levels and boost your ego to enormous size, and the watch it get crushed in higher levels because the going gets tough as you frantically try to slide the block towards its home. At times, you may be one space away from victory, yet that one final block in the way will drive you crazy.”

MechOrga: Price: $0.99
“MechOrga is 3D RPG like game. This is non-stop 3D action and all of the memorable enemies are there for you to conqure! MechOrga has new 3D controll system to easy play! MechOrga has many particle systems so it’s more realistic view. Thanks Enjoy!

Hysteria Project: Price: $1.99
“Step into the shoes of the main character and take part in an unforgettable adventure! Will you take the right decisions and make it out in one piece? Hysteria Project is a groundbreaking gaming experience, where you are the hero of an entirely filmed adventure. Go along with the video clips, keep a sharp eye on what’s going on around you and most importantly of all - make the right choices at the right time.”

Avoid: Price: $0.99
“A simple and wonderful game that enables you to develop your concentration and reaction!”

Adventure

Realmaze3D: Price: $0.99
“Realmaze3D takes maze games to the next level—literally! Not just a regular labyrinth dressed up in 3D, but an actual three-dimensional experience where you must find your way to the top through multiple floors by climbing ladders. With multiple sizes to choose from and millions of possible mazes, it’s never the same game twice!”

Arcade

Aroma Coffee: Price: $0.99
“Your dream is to operate a leading specialty coffee franchise and for people from around the world to come and taste your gourmet style of preparing coffee. After saving enough money, you open your first coffee shop. Your first shop is very successful by selling gourmet style coffee that meets the customers’ requirements. You have a daily sales target to achieve in order to continue operating your business. You can spend the profit you earned to purchase different kinds of coffee recipes, i.e. Caffe Mocha, Caffe Latte, Cappuccino….etc. In order to accomplish your dream, you need an exciting coffee menu to attract more customers and increase your profits so that you can open more branches nationwide.”

SportTaps: Price: $0.99
“There’s no better way to play sports than with your fingers! So grab a glove, root for your team, and tap away in the easy-to-play, finger-gripping game, SportTaps! The object of the game is simple. Just tap the baseball, soccer ball, football, basketball, golf ball, tennis ball, or hockey puck to score 10 points. As easy as that sounds, SportTaps challenges you in increased levels with each point scored, so keep your eye on the ball! How many points can you get?”

Spintastic: Price: $1.99
“Think you’re up for a challenge? Spintastic is a highly addictive, color based puzzle game for all ages. Easy to play: Simply tap a spinner to rotate it, or swipe on a spinner to make a ball move in that direction. The object of the game is simple: Fill each slot of the spinners with colored balls, sometimes with the same colors, and sometimes following a pattern. Complete each level by filling the slots of all spinners.”

Robotco: Price: $1.99
“The new robot model Steam Laurie rev 2 needs to be sorted or else the bots will explode! And that’s really bad for business!”

iMarbles: Price: $0.99
“The goal of iMarbles is to get points more than Computer. You can get points if you take away the balls out of circle. There are many obstacle, such as vane, blackhole, brick.”

Board

WordOut: Price: $0.99
“WordOut is a brand-new mind puzzler, one that will challenge your time management, vocabulary and luck! Featuring level upon level of challenging and strategic word creation. If you are a fan of word games, this is one word game you will not want to pass up! The game rules are easy enough to follow. Accomplish the task assigned by choosing groups of letters of the same color. Use these letters to create the words needed to clear the level. Watch out though! Not only is there a ticking clock you have to beat, you have to try your best not to “waste” letters or you will be penalized. Make sure you are aware of these tips, otherwise…game over.”

Rune Memory: Price: $0.99
“Rune Memory is a fun and relaxing game for all ages! It’s your classic memory game with a pagan twist. Let your fingers have fun in the lush Celtic garden where butterflies search for the sweet nectar of the beautiful flowers that grow there. Rune Memory will turn your iPhone/iPod into a fantasy come true. Simply touch a tile to reveal a Rune. Touch another tile to find your Rune’s match. Your high score will be recorded for you to beat it later. Casting Runes has never been more fun.”

Domination: Price: $0.99
“Domination is played by two players on a 10x10 field. You can play versus the iPhone in 3 difficulty levels or versus another human player.
You start with 2-2 mazes the same colour in the middle of the game field. Placing your mazes enclosing the opponent’s fields turns the mazes into your colour.
The game ends, when there are no more moves or free fields left. The one with more fields of the same colour at the end, wins.”

Card

Multiplayer Tiki Spades: Price: $2.99
“Tiki Spades is a full single and multi-player version of the classic card game, with beautiful graphics and relaxing background ambience. As avid Spades fans we’ve made sure to include the most popular variations in Tiki Spades such as the ability to bid a blind nil, and the loss of 100 points after a team collects 10 bags.”

Casino

Dragon Dollars Slots: Price: $1.99
“The most fun Orient themed slot machine simulation has arrived. The Fiery Dragon sets your wins aflame as you strive to win the Lucky Coin Feature and mysterious Mystic Yin Feature. Three Jade Jewels triggers the Jade Jackpot where you can win huge virtual bucks! 3 or more scattered lucky coins during normal play will award you the Lucky Coin Feature. Each lucky coin free game is a free spin which keeps on giving… after each spin, all non paying symbols are locked in place and all symbols on active paylines (as well as scattered coins and jade jewels) will respin. After the respin, all new pays are paid out. The respins will continue for as long as new pays occur. To add to the excitement, mystery Golden Pagodas may appear on centre reels during the lucky coin spins and respins. Each time mystery pagodas appear they are replaced at random by a new picture symbol - most often a dragon wildcard!

Vegas Slots: Price: $3.99
“Grab a crisp $20 from your wallet and slide it into the bill slot. As it’s pulled into the machine, credits light up with a flourish of sound. Press BET MAX and watch the symbols blur as the reels spin wildly. Where will they stop, how much will you win? Vegas Slots from Electron Hut is an exciting three-reel slot machine game for your iPhone or iPod touch. With features that rival existing slot games, Vegas Slots is nothing short of the real thing.”

Dice

NOTHING

Educational

Renumber: Price: $0.99
“Test and improve your short-term memory skills with this small but fun game. Try to memorize the appearing number. Type it in after it disappears. When you feel ready for a new challenge you can increase the length of the number and try to set a new Highscore.”

Scrambled Eggs - Spanish: Price: $0.99
“Scrambled Eggs is a challenging and interactive word puzzle game that contains hundreds of spanish words and word phrases. The words range from easy beginning words to challenging two word phrases for experts. No matter what your skill level is, you’ll enjoy many fun and thought-provoking hours playing Scrambled Eggs.”

iColor Easter Eggs: Price: $0.99
“iColor Easter Eggs is the perfect Easter app for people of any age! Using iColor Easter Eggs you can create a custom Easter Greeting to email to friends a family. You can choose an egg design, a background, and a Easter greeting to put on you Egg. After you have picked your design, color your egg anyway you want! It is a perfect way to send anyone a fun and colorful Easter greeting.”

Family

Word Speed: Price: $0.99
“Word Speed is a great game for testing your word unscrambling ability. The objective is simple: unscramble words as fast as you can in the time allotted and achieve as many points as possible. Get a word right and score points. Get a word wrong and lose points. The number of points are based on the length of the word guessed or missed. Each game begins with five minutes on the clock. But, in addition to scoring points for a correct word, every time you get a word right, time is added to the time remaining. However, get a four, five or six letter word wrong and time is subtracted (there is no time penalty for words of length 7, 8 or 9). There are two game modes: Progressive and Constant. The objective in both games is to unscramble words as quickly as possible.”

Match-It Trains: Price: $0.99
“Match-It Trains is a memory match game that’s fun for all ages. Compete with friends, family and coworkers to see who can get the best times. Be the first to complete all 12 rounds of the Insane Difficulty level!”

Blowfish: Price: $1.99
“Please don’t pop us - we like to grow! We’re the little (or big) blowfish in this game. We like to grow with the tap of your finger. We don’t like those red prickly sea urchins that make us go POP! When we see our friends pop, we get sad. We like seeing our friends grow, but sometimes we get bored and we’ll make faces. Can you help us out?”

Music

NOTHING

Puzzle

Astrosphere: Price: $2.99
“Astro Sphere is a challenging 2D game where you must travel through space while teleporting through different portals. You will have to guide your spherical ship that can somehow transgress through space with no real means of actually creating any propulsion, using your i Phone or i Pod’s touch screen while avoiding exiting space and suffering a horrible ending.”

Splitz: Price: $0.99
“Splitz is a touch-based, minute-long puzzle game whose simplicity hides an addictive “just one more go to beat the high score” element. The player touches the ball to split it, spawning up to a maximum of 100 balls. After 20 seconds or if a 100 balls are spawned, a klaxon sounds the flipping over of the balls, to reveal a mix of colored balls and bombs.

Touching the colored balls removes them from the screen while scoring points; red balls (1 point), green balls (2 points) and blue balls (3 points). Touching bombs will blow up any balls in the vicinity without scoring points. However, any bombs avoided will add a bonus (10 points) to the final score. A second klaxon sounds the end of the game after 40 seconds, or if all the colored balls have been removed (any time leftover scores a time bonus). A fanfare signals a new high score.”

HuaRong: Price: $0.99
“HuaRong is a simple but challenging block-moving puzzle game based on the Chinese ancient heroic characters. The game chessboard has 20 cells filled will blocks of various sizes - a large square block, five rectangular blocks and four small square blocks. And it only leaves two cells empty for you to move the blocks around. Your mission is to move the large square block from the top around different smaller blocks in the chessboard, and help it approach the bottom in a limited number of moves.”

iso: Price: $0.99
“Designed to free you of your time. iso, the latest and most unique falling blocks game, is unlike bejeweled and more exciting than tetris. Control the falling piece, match three or more colored blocks for points. Sounds simple doesn’t it? iso becomes more difficult over time. Match up to 8 different colors vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Speed pieces into place or cause chain reactions for more points.”

Equilibrio: Price: $3.99
“Equilibrio is a brand new 3D platform game where you control a ball through various levels to reach the exit. Simple you say? Wait until you play this game! Equilibrio not only tests your reflexes but also the old gray matter to defy the laws of gravity. Set in a colorful world you have to literally turn your iPhone upside down to move the ball and reach the exit. Let it roll too fast and it will shatter, leaving you to pick up the pieces and restart the level. Let it go a little too slow and the ball inertia will not be powerful enough to jump to the desired spot or to overcome deadly traps! Add to the recipe balls with different properties and you get an amazing variety in gameplay. For example the paper ball is light and can be used to easily make 360° rotations while the rubber ball bounces any surface you’ll touch. These are only 2 examples amongst the 5 available ball type.”

Racing

NOTHING

Role Playing

iMob Friend Finder (Unofficial): Price: $1.99
“A tool for all fans of the brilliant iMob game, iMob Friend Finder gives you access to thousands of mobsters to help you on your way to becoming the biggest mobster of them all! Promote yourself! iMob Friend Finder remembers your friend code, and with a single touch, you can submit and bump yourself to the top of the friends list at iMobFriendCode.com!”

Simulation

Painted Eggs: Price: $0.99
“This is a classic cordination game. Using the instrument you color the picture the folowing way: Place the color balls in the hole with the same color. If every ball is properly placed then the words to the picture will appear. When all the pictures are painted, they provide you with a short little story! We wish you lots of fun and happy easter!”

Tactical Defense: Price: $0.99
“Nuclear War - Tactical Defense is a one player strategy game. The object of the game is to destroy your opponents before they destroy you. Each of the computer players will fire on each other as well as you.”

iHunt 3D: Price: $0.99
“iHunt 3D is a genuine hunting game, not a simple shooter. Experience the thrill of lining up that big buck in your scope and squeezing the trigger. Gain cash and experience as you hunt through different seasons. Purchase a more powerful scope or camouflage. The deer are highly detailed and lifelike. They stop to eat, look around, and are startled if you shoot at them and miss. They even go down realistically.”

Sports

NOTHING

Strategy

Safe - The Game: Price: $2.99
“Begin with the easy difficulty and work your way through normal all the way up to hard difficulty. There are currently 30 levels with ever increasing difficulty inside Safe. New levels will be added in the near future. The goal of the game is to crack the Safe open repeatedly. This is anything but easy because you not only have to remember the right numerical combination, you’re also up against the clock!”

Trivia

Geography 301 - World - Quizner’s Trivia: Price: $0.99
“Test your knowledge of World Geography and have fun at the same time with Quizner’s Geography 301 - World. Fight boredom anywhere, anytime, and in those “in-between” times. For extra fun, compete against your friends or play together with your family. Stuck on a question? Quickly get an assist by emailing a friend directly from the quiz.”