This is the second day of the promotion and they've started out strong.  The first day was Rope'n'Fly which was pretty popular for a while and today Zombie Pizza.  Both are games I've wanted to try in the past but that didn't rank high up enough in my interest to warrant a purchase.

Go take a look at freeappaday.com every day to see what gift is waiting for you!

Crunchyroll

Wow.  Thankfully I was checking out Anime 3000 while listening to my friends over at Reverse Thieves.  A3K happens to be hosting their new podcast.  Go give it a listen!

Anyway, this is an amazing development and I can't believe I hadn't heard about it till now.  For those who don't know, Crunchyroll is a a legal streaming site for anime and live action drama from Asia(Japan and I think Korea).  Before Netflix had their streaming, I used Crunchyroll a lot.

Now they've made it even easier to watch!  Crunchyroll is free for a good number of shows.  If you want exclusive content access as well as more current,  as they release in Japan, shows you can pay a fee.  If you pay a fee you also don't have to watch commercials.

The app itself is nothing too crazy.  You can sign in to your Crunchyroll profile to view your account and guestbook.  As for viewing content, you can tilt the phone sideways to see featured titles as well as using buttons along the bottom to Browse and Search.

I tested on wifi and 3G.  The wifi works great and it appears to use the built-in Quicktime viewer which allows you to scrub around to view the part you want as well as zoom in a little so the picture takes up the whole screen.

Unfortunately, probably because of Apple and ATT, the app will not let you stream anime over the 3G network.

For a free app this is great and it may actually turn me in to a paying customer of Crunchyroll!

Crunchyroll for iPhone rates Super Awesome!

The New Years Blowout

Another batch of iPhone Appsters has gotten together for a combined iPhone App Store promotion. Unlike the Appvent Calendar, most of these are discounted instead of free. Let's take a quick look at the games that have been discounted for this New Year's sale:

Dragon Eye

Dragon Eye

This is another version of Simon.  There are 4 colored buttons.  The game plays back a sequence of lighting them up and you need to tap them in the same sequence.  There are three difficulty levels and achievements.  I've come to the conclusion that Simon was a lot of fun 25 years ago when it came in a physical box with tangible buttons but not so much now on the iPhone.  Please stop making Simon clones developers!  The graphics are nice and there's a decent amount of polish here.

Aqua Wars

Aqua Wars

Another ancient game design, though this time it's taken from older video games at least.  There submarines moving across the screen at various speeds and depths.  You have a boat on the surface that can drop depth charges.  You can move your boat let and right using tilt controls.  There is a little added depth thanks to upgrades you can purchase between levels using coins that you collect during them.  These coins float up from the submarines you destroy.  The graphics are another attempt at "kiddy" or "childlike" drawings that falls a little flat.

Volcano Planet

Volcano Planet

Here's the only game of this bunch that I found entertaining.  Another very simple concept with added dimension.  Volcano Planet is wack-a-mole on a sphere.  You can spin it around and tap on volcanoes to put them out.  They make musical tones when you do.  Why?  Who knows.  It's fun in short stretches but I found it definitely a little easy.  The planet has momentum so I found my self just spinning the thing around and tapping at any volcanoes that gas geysered out of.  The geysers have nice particle effects but the screen is a little busy with numbers and scores for such a simple game.  I'm keeping this one for now but it might wear out its welcome quickly.

Outnumbered

Outnumbered

Outnumbered is a multiplayer 3rd person shooter.  You have 4 options in weapons which autofire at your current target.  You use an on screen directional pad for movement.  There's no way to manually point your camera so you have to rely on movement and tapping on targets to get the job done.  I'm not a fan of 3D graphics just to be 3D.  The third dimension doesn't add anything to these flat environments.  This game would be much more fun if it was just a top down 2D shooter.  I'm pretty sure Outnumbered won't be staying around on my iPhone.

Hi, How Are You and Sword of Fargoal are both on sale.  I already own them both and am mostly happy with them.  They're priced at $0.99 and $2.99 respectively.  Battle for Wesnoth is on sale as well for $1.99 and I'm going to have to bite on that one.  I played that game a bit on the computer and it was great turn based strategy fun in single and multi-player.

In total, there are 30 apps taking part in the promotion.  Head on over to The Second Annual New Year's App Blowout for the complete list and pricing.

Blacksmith Games' Appvent Calendar

You might be thinking to yourself that a free game is totally worth it. I argue that isn't always the case. My iPhone's screens are pretty full, and although I'm fine with storage space, I can imagine there are plenty of 8GB or original iPhone owners who are running a little low on bits. Then there's the time you spend downloading and trying a game to see if it's fun for you.

As I'm writing this introduction, we're on day 8 of blacksmithgames' Appvent Calendar 09. As an advertising promotion in conjunction with other developers, they are dropping the price of a game each day till December 22 to $0, FREE for one day only. There also appears to be a random Featured Free Game in the upper left hand corner.

Continue reading for quick rundowns on the free games. I'll update this post when subsequent titles are released for free. This has to set some sort of record for number of iPhone game reviews in a single post.

33rd Division

33rd Division

Price: $0.99
This was the first day and I'm annoyed that I didn't find out about the promotion until the day 2. I may have to actually buy this game but I suck at the line drawing games. I already own Flight Control and Harbor Master so maybe this would be superfluous. Reading the description, it looks like the unique aspect here is stealth. Not being a fan of stealth, I think I'm going to skip my possible purchase. I originally thought there was some sort of shooting mechanic in this, like a line drawing Real Time Strategy Game.

TriDefense

TriDefense

Price: $2.99
Now we move on to my favorite genre of iPhone game: Tower Defense. TriDefense takes the genre in a slightly different direction with 'deformable terrain'. What this basically means in game terms is that units arrive via land, air, and water. The land and air units behave like they normally would in a tower defense game. Land based enemies follow the shortest path to the destination while working around the tower maze you build and flying units travel as the crow flies. With the introduction of water units, part of the game map is made up of water. You can cheaply remove land to create water pathways and then place turrets around the water which in turn creates land underneath them. Overall I'm pretty happy with the game and will probably continue to play it though I'm not sure if I would have given the $2.99 price tag.

Snorkeling

Snorkeling

Price: $0.99
I guess everyone could use a simple arcade game once in a while. Admittedly, I was at a loss for how to control this game to start out. You have this odd creature in the water and you have to eat the good fish and avoid the bad fish. Relatively simple though I could figure out how to make your guy move. After reading the directions I learned you swipe, not tap like I was trying to do. Snorkeling could be a lot of fun if this is your kind of thing.

Totemo

Totemo

Price: $0.99
Totemo is a fun little puzzle game. It reminds me a little of those peg jumping puzzle games. You have to eliminate dots in a square grid. The dots however are spaced out in different patterns. The challenge in this game is that you have to select dots in certain groupings of numbers. So to start out with you have to select 2 at a time. The next difficulty is 3 at a time. When you select them, they must be contiguous and in a row or column. It boils down to order of operations. Even if you don't get how the puzzles work, randomly guessing different orders of removal will eventually get you to the solution via order of operations. Like with Sudoku puzzles, I quickly get bored of these kinds of challenges. Decent fun that might be worth the normal $0.99 price tag depending on your gaming preferences.

Samurai

Samurai: Way of the Warrior

Price: $1.99
Another game that might appeal to certain audiences. It's a very attractive action game. Viewed from overhead, you tap and your samurai moves there. You swipe in the direction of enemies and he swings his sword. The visuals and audio are very nice. The animation is also well done. Everything is in a cell shaded style done in the Unity game engine. Tapping to move is annoying since your samurai stays in the center of the screen. My hand keeps obscuring my view of the game.

smackBOTS

smackBOTS

Price: Free
Apparently the developer still has this game priced at free for the release of their new game. Frankly, I do not enjoy smackBOTS. There are two robots on the screen that look like rock'em sock'em robot toys. Cool. You then tilt the screen left and right to make your robot move towards and away from the other robot. Tap the left or right hand side of the screen to make your robot swing it's two arms. There are tapping combos to do special attacks. There are unlockable robot parts to customize. The game just feels fast and loose to me while still maintaining a slow pace. It's very difficult to judge the hit boxes and when you're supposed to swing. Who knows, you might like it.

Polyhedra

Polyhedra

Price: $0.99

I actually like this action puzzle game. Your goal is till fill up the screen with a certain amount of shapes. You create the shapes by holding down your finger on the screen. The shape grows until you let go. When you reach a certain percentage threshold for the level you advance to the next. Complicating this simple mechanic are little dots that bounce around the level. If one of these touches your growing shape it's cancelled out and you have to start with a new shape. You can move the growing shape by dragging your finger around, enabling you to dodge. There's a similar problem here I have with other action games that require touching random spots on the screen: my fat hand blocks my view. It's really easy to obscure the enemy dots with my hand. Maybe that's part of the challenge? When you tile the screen around the shapes will fall and move with gravity. This enables you to trap and block the enemy dots to make it easier to create your shapes. You get more points for less amounts of shapes used as well as time.

Ickle Count

Ickle Count

Price: $0.99
Ickle Count is a relatively simple game mechanic combined with really odd design. I have no idea what the story behind the sea monster is, but he's hungry for divers. Divers appear with numbers on their chest. They're numbered sequentially starting at 1. Tap the divers in order to keep the fork away from your sea monster. Do you know what an ickle is? I don't, but the game is neat for some quick fun. The game does suffer a little from the problem of your hand obscuring the screen. I suppose that's going to be a problem that all touch screen games have that don't feature fixed controls. And on screen controllers style buttons are pretty lame. This is a compromise that we'll all have to deal with until there's a controller accessory dock/case.

Wheeler's Treasure

Wheeler's Treasure

Price: $0.99
Wheeler's Treasure is a platformer. The main movement ability you have is jumping. You touch and drag to set your jump trajectory and let go to execute. However your character is inside a giant destructible hamster wheel. Unlockable items give you other options for movement like a grappling pirate hook hand. The pirate theme feels pretty tacked on here, but it's done with a lot of polish. There are high production values all around. I'm not a fan of the genre, especially on the iPhone but I could see it being a fun game for a lot of people.

Blimp

Blimp

Price: $0.99
Great game! This is a great clone of those games where you have a spaceship or helicopter and you're trying to rescue people. The controls are tilt for direction and tap the screen for upwards thrust. I would probably buy this game for $0.99. The controls are good, especially when compared to similar entries on the iPhone. Some of which utilize tiny buttons that make controlling the game very difficult for those of us with pudgy fingers. This is another game that has a lot of polish and style. It doesn't quite ooze polish, with some of the screens and menus being just a little off, but overall it's great.

Crazy Snowboard

Crazy Snowboard - Holiday Special

Price: $2.99
Wow, that's expensive. Crazy Snowboard almost plays and feels like a snowboarding video game for a normal video game system. Your boarder rides down a mountain and you hold to prep for a jump and then tap different buttons to do different tricks and combinations of tricks. Unfortunately it really feels like you're on rails. Also the buttons in this case are different regions on your touch screen. The big problem is definitely the feel though. Sometimes your dude is moving down the mountain while your board is pointing in the wrong direction. It's just sort of odd. Unlockable boards, moves, and dudes is kinda cool though.

iPharaoh

iPharaoh

Price: $0.99
iPharaoh is a fun action puzzle game. It presents you with a top down view of mazelike tombs. Your goal is to protect the treasure from an Indiana Jones style treasure hunter. The defenses are made up of mummies, magical floating blocks, and other things that fit the environment. They move until they hit a wall and then choose a random direction. You can flick them in a direction to move, sort of like one of the control schemes in Pac Man Championship Edition on iPhone. It's a fun game with a nice presentation even with it's tacked on Egyptian setting and silly "i" name.

iBlast Moki

iBlast Moki

Price: $1.99
Two dollars is entirely worth it. This is a great puzzle game that I actually purchased a while ago. I'm very surprised to see it as part of this promotion. There are many physics puzzlers on the iPhone platform but iBlast Moki stands apart with a neat concept. You have a sequence of bombs that you use to get your Mokis to the exit. You can set timers on the various bombs you place on the maps so that they explode at just the right times. There are movable pieces on the boards that are all affected by the explosions. You can also create your own boards and share them.

Elf

Elf

Price: $0.99
This is not good. DO NOT WANT. I guess it's a simple game that some people might enjoy. You tap the screen to start the elf jumping. Then you tilt the phone left and right to steer him towards the holiday goodies that are floating in the air. Each time he gets something good he shoots up higher. Miss too many and he'll fall back to the ground ready for you to start over again. It's a very casual game with seemingly no penalty for failure. I really hope the normal price isn't very high.

Cheese Collect

Cheese Collect

Price: ?
Wow this is bad. The graphics are okay I guess. You choose one of 8 directions to move your mouse in to get him to the cheese. There are mouse traps in the way. You have to get to the cheese within a maximum number of moves.
Okay, after doing some reading this game isn't as bad as I initially thought. It just didn't explain itself very well. The cheese moves directly away from you unless it hits an obstacle. I suppose it's like the reverse of those games like Daleks where the robots are trying to get you. I'm not a fan of the silly art style and presentation though. I'm willing to just merely give Cheese Collect a pass as opposed to piling on the hate.

Cabby

Cabby

Price: $0.99
Cabby would be awesome fun if it weren't for the controls. there are tiny buttons to control upward thrust and left/right directions. These make the game artificially difficult to play. It's the game I complain about in my critique of Blimp further up in this same post. You fly your flying cab around picking up customers and taking them to their requested destinations. The unlockable vehicles and challenging maps go a long way towards me wanting to like this game. I just wish the buttons were 10 pixels taller. If the controls aren't a problem for you then Cabby is definitelyawesome!

Alphabattle

Alphabattle

Price: ?
The iPhone is crowded with word games.  I own probably half a dozen myself.  Alphabattle tries to be different by utilizing a fairly original game mechanic.  Like many of the others in the genre, the main gameplay consists of tapping letters in order to spell words.  Creating a word and then swiping right will attempt to lock in that word and then remove the tiles.  The catch here is that the vowels are in a row across the top and the consonants are in a row across the bottom.  They are slowly encroaching towards the middle.  If the letters touch the center it's game over.  There are also various power ups to clear the map, etc.  In practice this makes for a pretty hectic and divided experience.  I've found that I like my word games to be nice and slow, but there might be some value here for those who like intellectual action.

Imp or Oaf

Imp or Oaf

Price: $0.99
Are guessing games like this supposed to be fun?  You're shown a zoomed in portion of a picture.  You have to guess if it's an imp or an oaf.  It's not entirely clear on what the specifications are for either of those categories.  Maybe Imps are smiling and Oafs are not?  Each time you tap you see a different portion of the image to help you but you also decrease your score when you do so.  The art style is cute and nice but there's not much of a game here.  I believe the developer is at work on a board game style RPG which I am excited for, but this is definitely a pass for me.

Mini Squadron

MiniSquadron

Price: $2.99
I'm pretty sure I'm in love with MiniSquadron.  What we're looking at here is a side view shooter of sorts.  You control an airplane via a virtual joystick in the lower left corner of your screen.  The plane responds to your direction control by appropriately looping or diving and climbing to best match your input.  Holding down your finger in the lower right corner of the screen will make your fighter plane shoot.  There are waves of enemy planes on the screen and the view will pan around to follow as you shoot them down.  At certain points in each level you unlock new planes to use in the future.  There are also checkpoints so you can continue a level from a certain wave if you fail to finish a level.  The different planes you unlock have different stats for speed, armor, turning, fire rate, and type of weapon.  MiniSquadron brings back memories for me of this dogfight game I had for the Intellivision.  Great game with fun graphics and sound!

Doodle Golf

Doodle Golf

Price: ?

Doodle Golf is basically an advertisement for a more challenging version of the same game.  You're shown a drawing of a golf hole.  Your goal is to drawn a line from the ball to the hole without hitting and obstacles.  The trick is that as soon as your start drawing the line, the picture starts to fade out.  Having a visual memory, this game isn't very difficult for me.  Maybe the more difficult version of the game would be more fun, but as it is, this version of the game isn't enough to get me interested.  It does feature a nice art style with whimsical drawings of fantastical golf holes and courses.  There are also plenty of levels to keep you playing if you're interested.

Sponge Dude

Sponge Dude

Price: ?
Wow, really?  Sponge Dude?  Sponge Dude crashes his ship from the moon on to the earth.  His boss says he's been demoted.  Amazing story no?  The grammar and language of the actual script needs some work too.  Maybe the game would be more entertaining for kids, but then again I wouldn't want kids subjected to this kind of butchering of the English language.  Anyway, the game plays out like a simple puzzle physics platformer.  You can tap the screen to make Sponge Dude jump.  This control however is pretty flaky.  Sometimes he would jump, other times not.  As he slides along, you'll come across objects to help you.  In my short play session I came across a 'pusher' and a bomb.  The graphics are done up in a doodle or sketch style, but childishly enough to look like a child drew them.

Featured Free Games

Green Fingers, Payload, and Navy Patrol Coastal Defense have been free at certain times during this promotion. Out of all the games obtained during this free sale, Green Fingers has been the one that I've played the most.

UPDATE 12/18/2009: There are now 4 free featured games on the appvent calendar.  I'm a big fan of Uniwar as a turn based strategy game.  It was one of the first on the app store and uses hexes.  Monster Ball is a little odd.  It's a turn based strategy game where your units are balls that eat each other to get bigger.  Minim is a neat order of operations puzzler.  Numbers are connected to each other via lines.  You tap two connected numbers that are the same to increase their number by 1.  When you only have one node left, you complete the puzzle.  The 4th today is Trigger Happy Christmas.  It's a fun little side scroller where santa has to defend and collect presents from renegade elves encroaching from the left and right side of the screen.  There are powerups!

Green Fingers

Green Fingers

Price: $0.99
Great falling puzzle game. You have flower pots on the bottom of the screen. The goal is to end up with flowers sprouting in the pots. Pictured on each pot is the next item that the pot requires for the flower to grow. First is seeds. Then there might possibly be a requirement for sun, water, bees, clippers, etc. Instead of moving these falling items tetris style, you swap the flower pots around. If an item falls in to a pot that doesn't require it, game over. It's a great simple game that I would never have given a second look given it's name and game type.

bitFLIP

Price: ?
I'm still undecided on bitFLIP. It's a game in the populated genre of match 3. The same old swap one thingy with a thingy next to it in order to create lines of 3 or more of matching thingys is there. The difference here is that you can flip each pair of thingys over. On the other side is a different thingy. Is that enough to make the game different and engaging? I found it more annoying than anything else. In my brief attempt at playing, I didn't see an easy way of reorienting which pairs of bits I was trying to flip without first dragging to swap two bits first, swapping them back, and then double tapping to flip them.

Below are some of the games that I deleted today to help clear up some screen space. They were all free to me but probably cost $0.99 now that their sales are over.

Dark Raider 3GS - It's a double stick shooter with some light puzzle elements. It's 3GS because it takes advantage of some graphics tech. The graphics aren't any better for it.

Project Phoenix - Another bad double stick shooter. The variation here is that you're some sort of tank. wooo.

Equilibrio - It's a poorly implemented semi-physics puzzler. You tilt the phone to make the ball roll through a side view of platforms. The ball has one roll animation which is set to fast. The tutorial levels are too boring to get through to any game that might be there.

Moon Drop - Stuff falls. You have to tap to have the stuff apply thrust. They'll thrust basically towards your finger. With multiple stuff falling you need to place your finger appropriately so that all the stuff lands in the target.

Balcassa - It's a sliding puzzle but instead of sliding tiles, you roll cubes. Each side of the cubes has a different face. So they have puzzles that say white in upper right and red in lower left. It boils down to iterations of rolling cubes around. Not run, just rote.

Spheric - Shoot marble at other marbles to match 3 game. The variation here is that the marbles hug the inside of a circle. You launch the new marble from the center towards the outside. You can tile the phone to make the marbles roll around the outside, make gaps, etc. and then launch the new marble in the direction you're pointing. I don't really like twitch games that depend on tilt controls on my phone.

bitFLIP - Match 3 game. Adds a layer of complexity by having the 'bits' be double sided. More annoying than additive gameplay element.

Elf - silly game where you make your elf fly up the screen. See my quick review in my Appvent Calendar post.

mevo

Thanks to the recent successes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, rhythm games have risen in popularity.  Of course there was a slew of games that made at some sort of success in the US market: Parapa the Rappa, Dance Dance Revolution, Amplitude/Frequency, etc. but none of them have reached the heights of popularity like the ones with plastic instruments.

Can the rhythm game genre make it on the iPhone platform?  The Tap Tap series started with Revolution not only was one of the first batch of iPhone applications, but it was also the first rhythm game on the platform.  However it really is just a clone of the Guitar Hero game mechanic with notes flying down the screen on in this case 3 lines instead of 4.

Mevo & the Grooveriders, by Red Rocket Games does things differently.  At first glance it looks like a simple platformer.  It is a platformer of sorts, except that the only controls you have are two buttons that correspond to cues on screen.  Your little dude runs and jumps, and as he does, either an arrow pointing left or one pointing right will cross his path.  You then tap the appropriate button at that time.

It starts of simple enough, and is actually pretty boring if you're familiar with the concept of rhythm games.  That's compounded by the fact that in order to unlock new costumes, which in turn unlock bonus powers, you have to do each song on all three difficulty levels.  A little over half way through the game, the songs start to get a little challenging, requiring the player to both hold one button while tapping on the other.  Up until then though, it's all just sustains and rhythmic taps.

Actually, the gameplay itself reminds me of Donkey Konga for the Nintendo Gamecube.  That game definitely has more complex patterns plus the additional clap for a third note type.

I believe it's normally $0.99 but I picked it up during a one day sale for free.  It was definitely a fun surprise, but I'm not sure I'd pay money for the experience.

Mevo & the Grooveriders: Galactic Tour earns a score of Not Quite Awesome.

[View with PicLens]

Score Pad

This app is more of a tool to help you have fun as opposed to being fun itself.  Score Pad (Score Keeper / Counter) by Andre Khromov sells for $0.99 on the US iTunes Store.

Read on for my impressions.

It quite simply allows you to keep track of scores for 1 to 4 people, players, sides, etc.  If you quit the program it will automatically save any data you've entered.  You can customize the names and enter scores.  There's also a clear all scores button that pops up a confirmation dialog box before it performs that action.

Harry's beating me... again.

For each number of scores from 1 to 4, there is a separate screen.  So it can be handy for keeping track of more than one game at a time.  So far I've used it to keep track of card game scores, both one on one and 3 player multiplayer.

There have been several updates in response to user suggestions.  It definitely helps the app stay in line with it's general awesomeness.  having the time and battery status bar always displayed at the top is a nice touch.

The key features for me are that it's simple, easy to use, and looks good.  Score Pad doesn't try to do too much.

Is it awesome? Definitely.  Score Pad earns a score of Awesome!

[View with PicLens]

Leaf Trombone

Here's the first game and entertainment app on my iPhone to be featured in my new Fun From My iPhone feature.  It just happens to be Leaf Trombone World Stage from smule.  It's currently selling for $0.99 on the American iTunes Store.  I think I might have paid more for it though.  It's important to note here that every app I'm covering is either free or paid for with my own hard earned cash.  It looks like there is also now a Lite version of the app on the store which is free.  The Lite version is lacking online performance and has a smaller song library.

Read on for my impressions.

So, what is a leaf trombone?  It sounds like a synthesized version of making a leaf buzz between your lips, which I could never figure out how to do.  smule has taken a very simple idea here and added enough features to turn it in to a phenomenon.

Main Menu

The main menu has 3 options to choose from: Play a Song, World Stage, and Free Play.  There are also buttons for Help and Settings.  The help has pictorial guides as well as links to tutorial videos online.  Playing a song gives you a selection to choose from which smule claims is from a library of over 2000.  The World Stage allows to to Watch, Judge, and Perform online.  Free Play turns your iPhone in to a free form leaf trombone.

Playing your leaf trombone is pretty simple.  Along the right hand side is a slider.  You slide your finger up and down to change the pitch of your instrument on a sliding scale.  There are markers to show you where actual notes are located.  In the upper left are + and - buttons to raise and lower your octave.  Making the actual notes play is done in one of two ways.  You can either blow at the microphone or just have it react to your finger touching the sliding portion of the screen.  Both ways are fun!

I'm better than this, really!

Both Play a Song and World Stage modes are more complex than Free Play.  In these modes notes fly at your slider in a way pioneered by other music and rhythm games like Frequency and Guitar Hero.  In the lower left corner is a rotating disk with spokes on it.  These function as a sort of percussion and rhythm section for your performance.  The flying notes, which look like leaves, are shaded differently if they require you to press the octave change buttons.

Play  a Song is pretty much just that.  You pick a song and play along with the percussion/rhythm section according to the leaves that are flying at you.  There's no score, passing or failing.  To get that, you can step on to the World Stage.  At that point you can then watch performances and perform one yourself.  You can even judge other people's performances, and that's where the scores come in.  When you're navigating around the menus, you'll find yourself interrupted fairly often with requests to be a judge on the world stage.  It's neat but you can turn off that feature if you want.

Overall, Leaf Trombone: World Stage is a fun experience.  I mainly use it as a fun little musical toy, but I can definitely see the appeal of trying to impress anonymous judges from the Internet.  It also looks like you can go to smule's website and compose your own songs for use in Leaf Trombone.

Is it awesome?  It's a fun little musical toy.  I'll say it's Almost Awesome!

[View with PicLens]

Hopefully I'll get some sort of idea about what I find fun about them.  Then that will inform my future app and game designs that I will turn in to apps on the iTunes App Store!

Toki Tori Title Screen

Let's talk iPhone games.  The iPhone has come in to it's own as a gaming platform.  Having no buttons though, game designers have to rely on multi-touch and inertial controls.

Toki Tori is a port of what was originally a GameBoy Color cartridge.  The controls have been simply matched to touching on the screen to tell the chicken where to go and it's extremely well implemented.  The special abilities that your little chicken gets per level reside in a simple side palette and then you can touch on the screen to activate them.  Toki Tori is an example of a game originally not intended for the iPhone that has made the transition very smoothly.

Then again, it's perhaps an example of a game that was originally clumsy on the GameBoy Color and would have been more comfortable with mouse controls.  Games like Lemmings comes to mind that fit that bill.  Lemmings is quite easy to play with a mouse and made pretty clumsy with a directional pad control setup.

Back to task though, the colors are vibrant and the animation smooth.  The music is very bright and the sound effects nice.  I've only played a little through the first set of levels and the difficulty is ramping up.

In the game, you're given what amounts to a platformer style sideview board.  You can tap somewhere on the screen and your chicken pathfinds his way to the spot.  He can fall down and climb up ladders and small steps.  The idea is to get all the eggs on any given map by walking in to them.  It's definitely possible to get stuck and have to retry the board.  To aid you on some levels are limited quantities of special equipment or abilities.  So far I've encountered the ability to build a little platform and a teleporter.

It ends up being a fun order of operations puzzler.