Mach Dice ($0.99) is a very slick, impressive dice simulator for the iPhone. You can select any combination and number of dice, so it can be used for all dice games, from Yahtzee to Dungeons and Dragons. It also utilizes a unique 3D effect when tilting the phone that I’ve haven’t seen on the iPhone before. Check it out the video below.
There is an official licensed version of Tetris ($9.99) in the iTunes apps store, but it’s expensive and bloated and has long loading times. There are, however, two free basic Tetris clones, Teto Teto!! and Tris. Here’s a look at both of them:
While both of the Tetris clones are flawed, the better of the two is Teto Teto!! It won’t win any awards for graphics, but Teto Teto’s button controls are much more accurate than Tris’s, which becomes important when the game speeds up. The buttons rotate and move the blocks left, right, and down. The buttons are in no way comparable to classic tactile buttons, but for Teto Teto, they work well enough to not get in the way of game play.
There is one one minor glitch. If you tap the down button, which accelerates the descent of the blocks, too zealously, it will immediately drop not only the block on the screen and but also the next block in the queue. This is an annoying flaw, but not a game killer, as you learn to be careful and work around it.
Teto Teto also features an interesting strategy twist. There is an area on the right side of the screen called the Stock. Tapping the Stock button will place the next block in the queue in the stock area, and tapping Back will place it back in the queue. You get 5 stocks, which you keep track of on the left side of the screen.
Overall, what makes Teto Teto superior to Tris is the accuracy of control. This becomes more important in later stages when the pace of the game begins to pick up.
iLounge recently took a look at both of these games and listed Tris as the better of the two. While I agree that Tris is the better looking and intially the smoothest, I found it frustrating to control the blocks accurately as the game sped up.
Tris uses finger swipes to move the blocks left, right, and down. Players simply tap the screen to rotate the blocks clockwise (there is no option to rotate them counterclockwise). The problem with Tris’s controls comes with the inaccuracy of the finger swipe positioning. Also, accidental taps tended to be a problem.
Both of these games are very basic (neither features sound) and make for a very average Tetris-like experience. Their controls will take some time to get used to thanks to some control flaws. Since they’re both free, they are a risk-free proposition.
iFlix ($1.99) is an iPhone app that allows you to manage your Netflix account anywhere with the iPhone. You can add or remove movies from your queue or reorder the queue. You can also rate the movies you’ve watched.
For movie suggestions, you can access Netflix’s lists for top movies and other categories. It also allows you to search through the Netflix movie database, view movie information, and add any of the movies to your queue.
This looks like a killer app for anyone with a Netflix account. See our look at Dashbuster Free for another app with similar capabilities (Dashbuster features both Blockbuster Online and Netflix, but the free version doesn’t allow you to add movies).
SimplifyMedia is an iPhone app that lets you play iTunes music and other media files from your home computer anywhere you have an Internet connection with your iPhone. It works over EDGE and 3G as well as WiFi, although the time it takes to stream a song or video will depend on connection speed.
It also lets you access the iTunes libraries of up to 30 friends. It won’t stream DRM-protected music, so any music purchased from iTunes most likely won’t work (unless it comes from iTunes Plus), only DRM-less formats like mp3s will stream.
It works on a PC, Mac, or Linux, and requires you to create a free account with SimplifyMedia on your home computer. It requires no router configuration.
SimplifyMedia is free for the first 100,000 downloads but will cost $3.99 afterwards.
Video demo:
Platinum Sudoku ($2.99) stands apart from sudoku competitors due to its depth of features, graphics, and game play, all of which work together to keep the game fresh over time. There are plenty of free Sudoku apps for the iPhone, but if you’re a serious player, Platinum Sudoku’s polish and depth make it well worth the three bucks.
The game features 20 million grids as well as five different difficulty levels: easy, medium, hard, pro, and Sudoku X (which adds diagonals). There are two ways to enter numbers: select a number from a circle or trace the shape of the number with your finger (see above). The second method works better than I expected, although not perfectly. I found the game misrecognized the numbers about 1 out of 10 tries. (See my post on how to write the numbers.)
The game features draft notes for writing down number possibilities. It you’re stuck, the game offers hints such as filling in draft notes or the correct number for a square, or you can choose to have it scan the entire grid and show incorrect numbers.
What really makes Platinum Sudoku special is the sense of progress that comes with completing a puzzle. As you solve grids, you gain unlockable features such as 14 different backgrounds, 11 soundtracks, new puzzles, and special challenges. This works well to keep the game fresh over time.
There is a coach mode that offers a brief tutorial for beginners and a set of unlockable lessons that will teach you advanced puzzle-solving methods. You can also select from two coaches.
Other features are the ability to create custom grids, a solver mode if you’re stuck on a particularly complicated sudoku, and a game called Kakuro, which is described as a mix between sudoku and crosswords.
My biggest complaint about Platinum Sudoku is its loading time. There are 2 unnecessary splash screens before a loading screen that takes another 15 seconds of your time. The sheer size of the game can be bothersome when you just want a quick game of sudoku.
Conclusion
Platinum Sudoku is the most full-featured out of all the sudoku games in the iTunes app store, and its unlockable features and polished interface give it high replay value. Serious sudoku players should look no futher and shell out the $3.oo for the best.
Dashbuster Free is a free iPhone app that lets you view your Netflix or Blockbuster Queues on the iPhone and change the order via drag and drop. Unfortunately, the ability to add movies to the queue is not in the free version but is coming in a future pay version.
Besides viewing and manipulating your Netflix or Blockbuster queue, you can also view your shipped and saved movies. There is also a tab for RSS feeds showing new releases, top 100, and other categories.
Dashbuster Free offers the ability to search the Blockbuster and Netflix databases for movies, as well as switch between DVD or Blu-ray formats. Search results show box art, movie description, as well as limited movie information such as actors, director, and rating. Again, the ability to add these movies to your queue will be in the pay version which will hopefully be released soon.
Dashbuster is also available as a widget for your Mac’s dashboard.
Other links:
Official Dashbuster for iPhone website.
Crossword Light is the free demo version of the top rated crossword puzzle game Crosswords. It’s available for a free download from the iTunes app store. The light version offers 30 puzzles to solve, plenty for a demo.
Crossword Light features multitouch pan and zoom and a landscape mode that shows you a view of the grid, clues, and the keyboard at the same time.
The full version, Crosswords ($9.99), allows you to download crosswords from various free and pay sources, including the New York Times crossword subscription service ($6.95 a month).
