"If there is an app for that"

Vlobs review

March 22, 2023 by RSS Feed

I'm always on the lookout for a puzzle matching game that isn't just a recycled version of the same match-three mechanics that I've seen so many times before. Vlobs is exactly that. I'm not sure that the finer points of its matching mechanics are all that intuitive--which can lead to some frustration, but I do appreciate the game for delivering something original and generally well conceived.

Colors and dots

Vlobs starts out simply enough with a blank chess-like board. Your goal is to drop colored orbs onto the board in such a way that you can link and eventually clear these orbs while making sure to leave room for more orbs to place. The only catch is that each orb also has a certain number of dots on it and you can only connect orbs of the same color using ones with dots on them and you can't clear those connected orbs until there are no dots left on a chain of connected orbs.

Writing it out like that makes it sound completely confusing, but it's a surprisingly easy-to-grasp concept. In no time you can make extended strings of orbs to clear, and in doing so you'll level up which eventually makes some changes to the board like expanding its size, adding obstacles, and more. All the while, Vlobs will serve up a larger color variety with orbs that have increasing numbers of dots on them you'll have to deal with before being able to score.

Learning the hard way

This unique puzzle design makes Vlobs feel pretty refreshing for what is essentially still a matching game. The trade-off of innovating in such familiar territory is that there is a learning curve to understanding exactly how the game operates, especially since the tutorial doesn't fully cover the situations you can run into that can doom a run to failure if you make one false move.

Things like what happens if you drop an orb next to multiple same-colored orbs with dots on them, how to manipulate certain obstacles, or the fact that there are powerups that you have to memorize the icons of to understand how they work can lead to frustration, particularly when encountered deep into a run. It's hard to tell how intentional these design decisions are, but it would be helpful if the game had some options to undo your last move or at the very least label powerups so you don't accidentally choose the wrong one after coming back to the game after some time away.

Portability pros and cons

If you play Vlobs for long enough to score 20,000 points in the game's normal mode, you gain access to a "Stressful" mode which challenges you to place and match orbs in order to keep filling up a timer that keeps counting down. If the timer runs out (or you fill up the board), you lose.

Both modes of Vlobs play beautifully on any iOS device you might own, which is to say the game looks and plays great in landscape and portrait orientations. Unfortunately, that's about where the game's mobile-friendliess stops. There is no iCloud syncing and if you close the app mid-run you can't resume it. Luckily, any given session with Vlobs is usually pretty short, but it still would be nice to at least resume a run on the same device you started it on if you get a phone call or otherwise distracted with other things.

The bottom line

Vlobs injects some much-needed freshness into the matching puzzle genre. It may not always be entirely clear about its rules and it has some limitations as to its mobile-friendliness, but there's plenty to enjoy about it regardless.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/vlobs-review/

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 03/22/2023

March 22, 2023 by RSS Feed

Home Run High , ReViiV , Medieval Cat Stickers and more

iPhone:

Anchor Pointer Compass GPS ( $3.99 → Free ) Alexander Deplov We really enjoy using Anchor Point because of its simplicity. Just tap the Add Anchor button to pinpoint your location, and attach a name and icon to it. The location will be stored in your personal list where you can also share it with your friends. When you want to make your way back to your anchor point, just follow the compass or view the directions on the built-in map.

Home Run High ( $4.99 → Free ) Kairosoft Co.,Ltd Home Run High is brought to you by the very popular developer Kairosoft. This baseball simulator will have you developing players to construct a winning team. You can train players by giving them practice drills where you can tailor drills around the areas you want them to focus on. As the manager, you will also be in charge of installing facilities like batting cages and showers. Don’t forget about your players’ studies. You’ll have to balance their school life with time on the field.

ReViiV ( $1.99 → Free ) Martysoft LLC ReViiV uses guided breathing therapy to offer relief to those suffering from the long term effects of a virus. The app includes daily breathing exercises, weekly breath timers, and progress graphs. It also has useful guides and tips to for breathing through your nose as much as possible, day and night.

Medieval Cat Stickers ( $0.99 → Free ) Pavel Dubov Medieval Cat Stickers lets you send interesting stickers to your family and friends. There are 45 unique medieval cat stickers to choose from.

Remote Mouse and Keyboard Pro ( $9.99 → Free ) Evgeny Cherpak Remote Mouse & Keyboard Pro just works. Simply visit https://cherpake.com/get and install the companion software onto your Mac or PC. Then launch Remote Control on your iPhone or iPad and it’ll automatically connect. Remote Control cannot only act as a trackpad with touch gestures but also a functional keyboard, application launcher and switcher, and remote.

Taskburn: Get Tasks Done ( $4.99 → Free ) Actowise LLC Taskburn is here to help by making it super easy to prioritize what’s important. The app automatically orders tasks according to priority. You can change ordering by drag-and-drop. It lets you organize lists by groups and customize them with emojis. The app also allows you to add subtasks and notes to tasks. Taskburn offers full dark mode support.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 03/21/2023

March 21, 2023 by RSS Feed

Superb IQ Test - Brain Quiz , Timer Machine , Blood Pressure Monitor Pro and more

Superb IQ Test - Brain Quiz ( $4.99 → Free ) Sharply Labs Super IQ Test - Brain Quiz throws a variety of puzzles, brain teasers, and quizzes at you to test your IQ. See just how many riddles and puzzles you can solve. After you complete the questions you will receive your IQ score. There are unlimited tests and solutions.

Timer Machine ( $0.99 → Free ) Montage App, Inc. This simple timer app lets you create multiple timers with a variety of time durations. You can use it as a timer to count down or as a stop watch to count up.

Blood Pressure Monitor Pro ( $0.99 → Free ) AK Capitals LTD Blood Pressure Monitor Pro is a blood pressure management app designed and tested by healthcare professionals. You’re able to record, track, analyze, and share your results right from the app. You can see your progress using the graphs and statistics. It’s a great way to see if your diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes are helping or hurting your numbers. This app isn’t a substitute for a healthcare professional but it will give you more control and keep you informed of your heart heath.

Memorize: Learn Spanish Words ( $4.99 → Free ) LIKECRAZY Inc. Memorize is an AI-based study app that will help you learn and memorize Spanish vocabulary words. The app will choose the words you need to work on based on the detailed analysis of your progress. It slowly incorporates new and more difficult words while sneaking in less of the older, easier cards. There are more than 8,600 commonly used Spanish words from a variety of different categories.

Vidiom - Video Translator ( $19.99 → Free ) MARCELA VEGA Vidiom lets you discover thousands of YouTube videos created in other languages around the world. It then translates the voice into your native language. Just select the language that you want to get results for and the app will take care of the rest.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free

How We Know We're Alive review

March 20, 2023 by RSS Feed

One of the things that can doom a game story is its pacing. There's always a balance that needs to be struck between saying what needs to be said narratively and the degree to which developers want you to engage with a progression of mechanics and systems. This isn't really a problem for How We Know We're Alive, as the mechanical part of it is mostly strolling through a small town. This results in a story that moves at the swiftness it needs to to be impactful.

Horrible homecoming

How We Know We're Alive is a story about a young woman who is taking a break from her busy life in Stockholm to return to her hometown. The circumstances from this visit are rather tragic, though. As you learn almost immediately after taking control of the game, you are there to visit the gravesite of a childhood friend on the anniversary of their death.

What proceeds from there is a brief story that provides some insight into this friendship and what ultimately led each character to where they are now. It isn't a typical journey either. Where many games that center around this kind of storytelling often opt to be rather meditative or even abstract, How We Know We're Alive keeps its focus on the characters and their interactions with each other, even as they get rather contentious.

Beauty in bluntness

A big part of How We Know We're Alive draw is its art. The somewhat minimal pixel-art in the game looks really sharp with the help of fantastic lighting effects and an effective soundtrack. As you play, this beauty extends through the game's writing, though perhaps not in the way you immediately expect.

Now, with How We Know We're Alive being a game you can easily finish in a single sitting, I'll stay away from spoiling anything, but what I will say about the writing is that it isn't particularly subtle or delicate. That lack of subtlety has a purpose though, and when it reveals itself the payoff is definitely worth it.

How to judge

To get specific about How We Know We're Alive's length, we are talking about a game that easily wraps up in under an hour. For some games, that might feel like a bad value, but this game makes the most of every minute and--in fact--would likely be quite off-putting if the story it tells got stretched out to any additional length.

The value of How We Know We're Alive is how it uses what little it has so effectively. It wants you to pick apart each little thing that happens and serves them up in a way that you can't help but do so. In many ways, this all feeds in to How We Know We're Alive's story, which may not be especially complicated, but otherwise is rather compelling.

The bottom line

Even within the realm of storytelling games (or "walking simulators," if you must), How We Know We're Alive is a bit of an outlier. It is remarkably concrete and economical in ways that both ground the game in comparison to others but also allow its specific story to work effectively. The story itself is also somewhat refreshing in its perspective, despite being pretty straightforward.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/how-we-know-were-alive-review/

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 03/20/2023

March 20, 2023 by RSS Feed

Iron Marines: RTS offline game , Remember: Stickies Widget , Zero+ and more

iPhone:

Word Watch - Keyword Research ( $5.99 → Free ) kimihiro kubota Word Watch is a thesaurus dictionary app for AppleWatch. It enables you to perform quick searches for synonyms, and includes more than 150,000 words on or offline. The words can be pronounced using the AppleWatch speaker.

Iron Marines: RTS offline game ( $2.99 → Free ) Ironhide S.A. Take command and guide your troops through dangerous territories. The game will require you to think, strategize, and plan in order to defeat ever-adapting enemies. Iron Marines is from the makers of the Kingdom Rush trilogy. It includes 21 campaign missions across three plants and 12 special operations. There are four difficulty modes: casual, normal, veteran, and impossible.

Remember: Stickies Widget ( $1.99 → Free ) Virtual GS Add a sticky note widget to your home screen with this handy app. Create custom widgets so you can remember any task, big or small. The app lets you select widget size, font, text color, and background color. You can even use emojis to add some fun to your notes. You need to open the app first before you can add widgets to the home screen. Remember: Stickies Widget will sync with all your devices.

Zero+ ( $0.99 → Free ) SaturnBoy, LLC The basic gameplay mechanics in Zero+ are simple enough. You must slide positive and negative numbered tiles around the board in order to achieve zero. The first few levels consist of just ones and twos, but things get crazy pretty quickly when large numbers and new kinds of modifier tiles enter the mix. Also, keep in mind that tiles won’t stop sliding unless they run into something. The game includes a total of 120 levels.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free