Storming the Keep (Solomon's Keep Review)

Solomon Dark is a misunderstood man.  After being picked on for most of his dreary life, this poor young boy decided to get back at everyone by immediately becoming some demonic necromancy dude once he became strong enough to do so.  He now sits on his throne, annihilating anyone who dares to storm his castle. So now that you have a bit of background on Raptisoft's Solomon's Keep, you might be wondering what makes it different from every other dungeon hack in the App Store.  The answer is pretty simple: not much.  As an up and coming wizard, your job will be to storm the keep and take out Solomon.  Gameplay revolves...

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For All of You iPod Touch Clutzes Out There...

I'm usually pretty good with my electronics.  For those moments that I'm not, though, I usually prefer to have a case on my iDevice.  While getting something for my iPhone was easy enough because of the shear saturation that is currently pervading the market, it's been a bit tougher in terms of finding something for my iPod Touch 4th Gen. Which brings me to the point of this post.  The following are cases that I've had the pleasure of fooling around with over the last few months.  This post will give a brief opinion on each one.  They have NOT been donated for promotional purposes (although, hey, would be nice in...

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Creating Bookmarks

For a mobile internet browser, Safari is pretty awesome.  Unlike some of the other mobile browsers that I've had the displeasure of using, Safari is crisp, clean, and gets the job done in a fairly efficient way.  If Apple would decide to implement flash (which apparently will never happen as long as Steve remains the king of the apple trees), Safari would probably be the best browser I've ever used on a mobile platform.  But alas, this isn't a review of Safari, but rather a little trick that I've found over my use of it. Basically, picture yourself sitting on the homescreen of your iPhone or iPod (for testing purposes, I'll be...

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Merry Christmas from TheAppNook!

Merry Christmas from TheAppNook!  Regular posting activities will be resumed as of Monday, December 27...

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TextFree with Voice

Barely scraping by with the minimum texting/voice plan for your iPhone?  Have an iPod Touch and just want to text (or call if you have the new 4G with a mic)?  TextFree with Voice by Pinger may just be the app for you.  Working on a primarily for-free basis, TextFree with Voice does just what the title may imply: TwV provides a free texting alternative with the option for an extremely cheap VOIP service thrown in for good measure.  Menus are designed well enough and emulate the iPhone interface that you're probably used to using, while users are also given a real phone number to use for texting and calling.  Gone are...

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Jetman Review

Every once in awhile I come across an app that is simple but addicting -- a perfect game to play with a mobile device such as the iPhone.  Jetman happens to be one of those apps.  Originally finding its home as a gimmicky Facebook app, Jetman was ported over to the iPhone platform quite some time ago by a developer by the name of Mobilisimo.  The concept is simple enough: Your job is to guide Jetman through a never-ending tunnel filled with floating bricks.  Hit one of those blocks and it's game over.  While you technically can't win at Jetman because it's a never-ending experience, I've found myself playing this little...

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Star Wars: Imperial Academy

Way back when when online multiplayer in Halo first came out, I loved it.  Loved it.  Played online constantly, really.  As the series evolved, I slowly came to recognize one of the key features that every online shooter seemed to possess: live voice chat.  And boy, did I have fun with that.  You know, some people seem to get some type of power trip when they realize that all that the person on the other side of the screen can hear is your voice, and because of that they think it's quite funny to drop every cuss word in the dictionary down the proverbial toilet of their microphone.  This, of course, got me thinking...

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Tappin The Night Away (Tap Tap Revenge 4 Review)

Ever wanted to rock out on your iPod or iPhone to a track from Lady Gaga (let me throw up now, but whatever) or Linkin Park?  Tap Tap Revenge 4 may just be the app for you.  Taking a direct page out of the Guitar Hero handbook for success, Tap Tap Revenge 4 is everything a musical fanatic could wish for. If you already own one of the previous iterations of the app, though, is an upgrade to this new title worth it?  Maybe. For those of you who have never played a Tap Tap game before, the concept in and of itself is pretty simple.  With a song booming in the background, your job is to tap the little bubbles that slide...

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Taking Mutton Off of The Menu (TowerMadness Review)

Ah, the farm/pasture/let's look after sheep life.  Beautiful serenity, life is truly perfect in the world of TowerMadness.  Being as a perfect reality doesn't really make for a great app, however, something had to go wrong.  Something had to, well, interrupt our wonderful world of sheepy goodness (yes, I made up that word).  That something happens to be invaders looking to steal your sheep, which will inevitably lead to you, as the player, trying to drive off said invaders with a unique host of weapons. If you've ever gotten into the tower defense genre before, you should fully know what to expect from TowerMadness.  All...

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It's Raining Ash! Or not...(Ash Review)

Let's be perfectly honest: With the insane amount of portability that the iPhone/iPod Touch platform brings to the gaming world, you'd think that developers would make a more concerted attempt to take advantage of one of gaming's most heralded genres, the RPG.  Most of what has hit recently has either been a poorly done over-priced port better served to be played on a console ('ello Final Fantasy), or something original but lacking in any depth whatsoever.  So, what's a gamer looking for an RPG to do? Get Ash, that's what. Harkening back to the glory days of the original Final Fantasies, Ash is an iPhone turn-based RPG done right...

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Cut the Rope Holiday Gift Edition App Review

Sometimes app developers make use of Christmas as an opportunity to pawn off a festive style of their main app to make a bit of extra cash.  Not so with the happy Christmas elves located at Chillingo, who decided to spread a bit of Christmas cheer by giving away a free new level pack of their popular app, Cut the Rope.  Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift Edition stars the absolutely adorable Om Nom.  Om Nom likes to be on a perpetual sugar high, so your job is to feed him candy by "Cutting the Rope" that is keeping that candy away from him.  Nothing has changed from the original version of the game, so all of the same concepts that you've probably gotten attached to playing the original are all present here.  There are 25 levels available to test...

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"Hey look, it's Angry Bir...I mean, Cannon Cadets!"

Yes, Angry Birds is an awesome app that everyone and their second cousin twice removed to the tenth should get.  If you have it and have gotten bored of it, though (blasphemy, but whatever), XMG Studios Inc. has decided to give a new skin to our beloved birds, replacing perilous fowl with cute astronauts in none other then Cannon Cadets. Cannon Cadets is, as I said earlier, an Angry Birds clone.  For the five of you who have never tried Angry Birds before, the basic concept of the game is to destroy the pigs by any means necessary, even if it means wrecking the structures surrounding said pigs.  In Cannon Cadets, you try to destroy the aliens while rescuing your friends who are caged in steel boxes.  Big difference?  Nope.  The usual features of a level score,...

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StarDunk

Usually, you pay for what you get.  TV's, appliances, cologne...yeah.  Well, thankfully, that's not always the case with apps, as a game by the name of StarDunk wishes to prove.  Created by Godzilabs, StarDunk is a free, addictive app that takes an extremely simple concept and makes it into something actually worth playing.  Don't believe me?  Read on. StarDunk is, as its name implies, a game where you'll be attempting to shoot a variety of basketball-like projectiles towards a makeshift hoop on the other end of your screen.  Score as many points as you can within the given time.  Sound simple?  Well, it really is/isn't.  You see, while this game can easily be treated as a pick-up and play type of experience, doing so would really shaft...

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