You’ll get a top-down view as you navigate from room to room. The graphics are crisp, with your typical monsters and mutants color scheme.

Runnin’ and gunnin’ isn’t usually my thing, so I was concerned that I would have a tough time testing Team Alpha. To my surprise, the dual-dial controls were really intuitive. The left dial moves the commando and the right dial controls where he shoots. It was sometimes odd to see his legs running forward while his torso faced backwards to shoot the bad guys, but overall the controls worked beautifully. The dials are smooth and responsive, leaving me to direct my focus where it belongs — on shooting mutants.

Team Alpha didn’t have any lag as I worked my way back and forth through the rooms, mutants came flying across the screen without even a hiccup. There are 10 levels each with multiple rooms. You won’t know what’s in a room until you get there. You’ll need to remember what you’ve done if you need to go back, which adds to the fun and complexity of the game. You can also tap the screen to view a map of your current level along with the rooms you’ve already completed.

From my playing, the rooms are pretty basic. They all contain mutants to kill or objects to blow up. Kill and destroy to earn cash. As you earn cash, you’ll become eligible to purchase bigger and better weapons for even more killing and destroying. Are you sensing the theme yet?

Team Alpha has just about all the features of a top-tier game: automatic game saving, a local high score board and global leaderboard. There is no true interaction over WiFi which is quickly becoming the norm for more advanced games. For me, this isn’t a big deal. But Open Feint integration would be a nice touch for gamers that look for a more layered gaming experience.

Team Alpha is a solid, video game for the iPhone and iPod touch. The features are strong, the controls are easy to use and there’s very little learning curve. There’s no denying that Team Alpha is similar to any number of strategic shooter games. But honestly, can you ever really kill too many mutants?

Wondering if Team Alpha is the app for you? Watch the video demo below.

• app_name: Team Alpha
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Team Alpha: All the Mutant-Shooting Action You Can Handle | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Race for Home from Shawn Kollat is delightfully creepy.  Your job is to help Grace float home by hooking her umbrella on different things in the sky, such as rockets or angels.  On each level in Race for Home, there is an evil one whose only goal is to foil Grace’s progress.  For example, Grace is followed on Level 6 by a shooting star who literally shoots Grace.

As Grace hooks her umbrella onto different objects in the sky, she is thrust forward on a trajectory while you try to follow the arrow and guide her to three gifts floating somewhere in the sky.  You feel a thrill as Grace is propelled through the air, only to feel devastated as she is shot down by one of the bad guys.  Her demise is rather morbid; her burnt body tumbles toward the ground for a few seconds before she recovers.

When you achieve specific amounts of points in Race For Home, you are eligible to “purchase” upgrades for Grace with your points, such as a fireproof dress.

I wish there were more levels in Race for Home, but even more, I wish I could move between the levels at will.  Currently, I am playing Race for Home on Level 6, and my only option is to complete level 6 which, unfortunately for me, is significantly more difficult than the other levels. I would love to take a break and play other levels of Race for Home or restart the game, but these options are not available to the user, or at least, not that I can find.

In Race for Home, the themes are odd and the characters creepy, but it feels right.  The delicate music adds to the sense of the surreal.  Race for Home is a wonderful game as is;  with the ability to move between levels and start over (and maybe the addition of a few more levels), I think Race for Home would be nothing short of excellent.

• app_name: Race for Home
• rating: 8/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Race For Home Mixes Fantasy with Action | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Stunt Wagon from zinc Roe looks like a game for children, but believe me, Stunt Wagon is challenging.  As the characters race down the hill, you tilt the iPhone to steer the wagon, avoiding tires and pylons, and tap the screen to jump over the obstacles.  You can get speed and power in Stunt Wagon by running over white stars and picking up potions.

Stunt Wagon’s cartoon graphics are wonderful and will appeal to all ages, even teenagers.  But you are going to need some patience and skill to race down the hill successfully.  I have played Stunt Wagon over a dozen times now and I can’t seem to get the hang of tilting the iPhone just right to steer, nor have I perfected the timing of my tapping to make the wagon jump.  When I play Stunt Wagon, the Zimmer Twins spend more time on their butts on the pavement than in the wagon.  Schnitzel!  My friends fared only slightly better with Stunt Wagon than I did.

I think the reason for my difficulty with Stunt Wagon is threefold:  One is that the wagon moves very fast, and there is not an option to slow its pace.  Second is the size of the view.  I feel like I can’t see far enough ahead on the course to anticipate what is coming.  Third is the narrowness of the course.  At times, Stunt Wagon requires micro movements to avoid obstacles.

Perhaps Stunt Wagon would be best suited for a more hardcore gamer than I.  At the same time, the appeal of the Zimmer Twins is strong.  I have become a fan of Edgar, Eva and their cat (who always lands on his feet) and am eager to check out zinc Roe’s other three games:  Snack Attack, Flying Furball and Artic Shuffle.

An additional note:  zinc Roe’s website is excellent.  You and your children can make your own Zimmer Twin cartoon movies, which inspire creativity and look professional.  Whether you buy Stunt Wagon or experience the Zimmer Twins through another avenue, you should take the time to get to know these kids.

• rating: 7/10
• app_name: Stunt Wagon

© AppCraver, 2009. | Zimmer Twins are Out of Control in Stunt Wagon | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Xpandaballs is unique.  I do not know whether to call it a puzzle game, action game or strategy game.  Essentially Xpandaballs falls into all three of those categories.

To play Xpandaballs, you try to destroy balls by hitting them with other balls.  Each ball requires a different number of hits to be destroyed.  When the ball you fired stops bouncing off the walls of the iPhone screen, it expands to fill the space where it landed.  If the ball hits the boundary line at the bottom, you lose a life.  Different colored balls have different properties; my favorites are the yellow, which can safely hit the boundary, and blue, which destroys a ball with one hit.

I like to challenge myself by playing Xpandaballs as fast as I can, making it an action game.  You can also play Xpandaballs slowly and thoughtfully, mapping out the trajectory of each ball in your head before you shoot.  Xpandaballs’ ambient music peacefully accompanies the thoughtful moments, but when I am feeling like a daredevil I prefer to turn the music off.

Xpandaballs has three levels, each decidedly more difficult than the previous level, leaving room to grow your skills over time.

Depending on how you decide to play Xpandaballs, Xpandaballs can be whatever kind of game you want it to be.  Today you can play fast and furiously; tomorrow you can be meditative and pensive.  In a world with so many uncreative apps, Xpandaballs is a truly original game that is both addictive and adaptable.  Developer Craig Caldwell is onto something good with Xpandaballs.  I highly recommend Xpandaballs; it has earned a permanent spot on my iPhone.

• app_name: Xpandaballs
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Expand Your Game Experience with Xpandaballs | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

The premise of Cops and Robbers is that you are a robber who must drum up enough cash and diamonds to pay your rent to a pimp-like baron who drives a stretch, white limousine. But the cops are on your tail (it also doesn’t help that you are dressed like a robber from the Eliot Ness era). Cops and Robbers is played by jumping over obstacles and tilting your iPhone/iPod touch to avoid the barrels, puddles, and walls that can get in your way. The controls are pretty easy to use, though sometimes the “junp” command, which involves tapping twice on the screen, could have been more responsive. You must beat the time limit for each round in order to advance. There is also a diamond that must be found by playing a lock-picking game, which your character must then give to his evil landlord in order to pay off his debt.

There is not much in the way of customization for your character, but it works for a mobile game. You can be either a male or female robber. And after successfully completing a round (there are checkpoints that include an excessive 360-degree close-up of the main character) within the time limit you can play it again as one of the cops. This time you try and get to the end of the line faster than the robber, who you can see a shadowy figure of while you are running.

Overall Cops and Robbers meets its goal: it is a fun game to play. There are nine levels in all; each with three different challenges. Cops and Robbers is at least mildly addicting and worth draining some of your iPhone batteries for.

• rating: 7/10
• app_name: Cops and Robbers

© AppCraver, 2009. | Cops and Robbers | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Parachute Panic gets it right from laying out a simple premise that easily communicates the point of the game. This is a level based game where you have to direct free falling skydivers to safety on top of sailboats wading in the water. You launch the skydivers’ parachutes by tapping on them, and it works as advertised. Along with launching parachutes, you can also manipulate wind conditions to influence the direction your skydivers.

The last piece of the Parachute Panic gameplay experience is wrapped around enemies environmental hazards. You’ll have to contend with random things like helicopters, rainy clouds, and UFOs on every level. Five deaths of your skydivers will end the game, and you earn points from progressing through the levels for placement on scoreboards. In theory, this should add up to an original and fun game, but some terrible layout and pacing decisions dramatically have an impact on the fun. More on that later…

The presentation layers in Parachute Panic are both inspired and well executed. The action is set on top of a crinkled sheet of graph paper and smoothly animated sketch illustrations. FDG Entertainment made a smart decision in using this approach as I’ve always found that a stylized approach always works better than going for the realism angle on the iPhone.

In my 20+ years of gaming, I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that have had A capella tracks, but you’ll find yourself singing “The Game is Over…” before you know it. To borrow a catchy tune from McDonald’s to describe my overall impressions of the presentation, I’d say, “Ba Da Ba Ba Bahhhh…I’m lovin’ it!”

It’s a shame that such a beautifully presented game is let down by poor pacing. To put it simply, Parachute Panic is hard. I’m not sure who thought tapping on enemies and environmental hazards five times to kill them was a good idea, but it’s not fun and it amplifies my next point.

The difficulty level is criminally hard because there is just too much going on. By the third level, I felt as if the difficulty level ramped up way too fast as the screen was filled with an orgy of skydivers, helicopters, UFOs, and rain clouds. Some may brand me a weak sauce gamer with this critique, but Parachute Panic would be served well to examine how well Flight Control gradually ups the ante in a fair way.

All is not lost here though. FDG Entertainment seems to be aware of the shortcomings of Parachute Panic as they tease that an easy mode and online leaderboards are coming soon. While I don’t see this beating out Flight Control in the long run, Parachute Panic has the potential to be a polished casual gaming experience down the road.

• app_name: Parachute Panic
• rating: 6/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Parachute Panic Tragically Trips Over Itself | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Like many iPhone games, Quick Turn is based on a simple concept but it is surprisingly challenging. As the star falls across your iPhone screen, you have to rotate your iPhone so the star bounces off the wall that matches the star’s color at that moment. As the star falls more quickly, it is easy to flip the iPhone the wrong way as your rush to steer the star into the correct wall.

Quick Turn can quickly become disorienting, in a good way.  I found myself laughing and shrieking as the game sped up, trying to react as fast as I could to get the star to bounce off the correct wall, and inevitably driving it into the wrong color. At first I thought Quick Turn’s giant score in center was distracting, but then I realized that it rotates with the iPhone, helping you to see the angle at which you are holding the phone.

Quick Turn reminds me of pool, with the ball being a star moving of its own accord, and the iPhone being the rotatable pool table.  True, you have a whole wall to hit instead of getting a ball into a hole, but the concept of angles applies in both games.  In Quick Turn, the angle that the star hits the wall might set it off on an undesired trajectory, just like a pool ball.

Trying to run over Quick Turn’s bonus pickups is tricky. If it wasn’t for my greediness, I would probably have a higher score.  If you tilt the iPhone excessively to try to steer the star toward the extra points, it is easy to end up hitting the wrong color wall.  My advice?  Avoid the corners.

Because Quick Turn is more difficult at high speeds, I found myself questioning the responsiveness of the iPhone to my steering.  I think the real limitation is that my wrists don’t rotate 360 degrees and keep going.  Curse my human body.

Portable Zoo, the developers who brought us Letter Bug, have created another winner with Quick Turn.  Quick Turn is easy to play, fun and addictive.  I am going to wish on this falling star:  I wish I had more time to play Quick Turn.

• rating: 8/10
• app_name: Quick Turn

© AppCraver, 2009. | Quick Turn: Can You Catch a Falling Star? | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

The typical scenario you’d expect applies here when it comes to the setup of Sparta. You are a Spartan solider that’s tasked with killing all opposition using your trusty sword. Movement is restricted to going left or right, while combat options include the ability to use your shield, swing your sword, or use a puny (and completely useless) kick. Everything is controlled using on screen commands, and I didn’t find myself frustrated by response much.

In playing Sparta, your goal to kill as many enemies as possible to top the local leaderboards maxed out at 100 kills. The enemies that perpetually spawn generally come in two flavors (e.g. swordsmen or archers). As a result, Sparta doesn’t require much strategy —you’ll figure out two basic approaches to combat and react accordingly.

When your kill count gets up there, enemies become more difficult to kill as they’ll require more damage to die. Your armor cosmetically changes over time too, but there are no tangible upgrades to your capacity to take enemy fire. Gameplay is passable, but the simple gameplay is aching for more strategy, enemy diversity, and a greater range of weapons that are available to use. So when it comes to core gameplay, Sparta has a ways to go before it’s in the same league as Zombieville.

Sparta does look quite good though. The 2D cartoony art style is quite detailed and executed well. The death animations are over the top as head decapitations and spewing blood are commonplace here. Yet as good as things look, you’ll quickly wish that Pocket Monkey added more variety after seeing the same art and animations repeatedly. This segues into my main disappointment with Sparta…

Sparta is not a finished game by any objective standard. The combat is limited and basic, there’s only one revolving level, two basic types of enemies, and there isn’t much that’s “sticky” to keep you coming back. From reviewing the large list of features to be added in future updates, Pocket Monkey is fully aware of the lack of content in Sparta. While it’s great that updates will be made available in the future, I can’t recommend this title in it’s current state. If you’re a Greek mythology buff, you should keep your eyes on how Sparta develops over the next couple of months.

• app_name: Sparta
• rating: 6/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Sparta Isn’t Ready For War | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

Car Jack Streets, developed by the original GTA team, puts you in the shoes of a character by the name of Randal Meyers. As you’ll see in a funny introductory sequence, Randal owes some mobsters a ridiculous amount of money. To save his life, you’ll have to complete a variety of jobs (legal and nefarious alike!) to pay down his gambling debt and get past the persistent drama once and for all. I’d consider this storyline from Tag Games Limited to be one of the more unique setups I’ve seen in a GTA clone.

For those of you that are acquainted with sandbox games, you’ll feel right at home with Car Jack Streets. To earn the cash that Randal needs to get out of his situation, you get a slew of missions sent to you to earn cash. Assassinations, robberies, car-jacking, and timed missions are but a few of the nice selection of missions that are available. As an interesting play mechanic, you have to deliver weekly cash drops to the mob which is a constant reminder of the overall goal for Randal.

I’m very impressed by how cohesive and together the whole campaign is, but there is one thing that seriously impairs the fun here. As you may guess, it’s the controls.

Car Jack Streets suffer from awful vehicle controls. In theory, the on-screen steering and gas/brake controls should work, but they are unresponsive and infuriating as it’s hard keeping a straight line on the city’s streets. These shortcomings are especially exacerbated by missions that require vehicles to be delivered in “perfect” condition. Since the majority of  the game is spent traveling from one destination to another in vehicles, surely you can imagine why would be a major issue from playing over several hours.

Car Jack Streets looks and feels like the twin brother of the recently released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the Nintendo DS. Tag Games Limited has leveraged a colorful cel-shaded visual treatment that works well. The top down perspective doesn’t take away from the game’s richly detailed 2D sprites and hand-drawn art. One drawback on the visuals is the “busyness” of the art assets. Whether it’s the super-small stylized font on text overlays or the “serial killer-esque” real time clock, I suspect many of you will find the unorganized chaos a bit jarring. To supplement the visuals, Car Jack Streets also has large soundtrack that is inclusive of several genres (e.g. hip hop, country, electronica, etc.) on fictional radio stations you hear when you jack a car. While I wish I could change stations on a whim, the music sounds very good.

I really want to give Car Jack Streets a glowing recommendation that spotlights the laundry list of attributes that are in the game. But in my view, even the most voluminous set of features doesn’t matter when an essential gameplay mechanic is broken like the vehicle controls are here. It also must be noted that Car Jack Streets has penchant for crashing often. I’ve literally had to hard reset my phone several times due to the game’s instability.  As a result, I can’t give Car Jack Streets the nod over Payback right now. If Tag Games Limited can figure out how to fix the vehicle controls and crashing problems, Car Jack Streets has all the ingredients to be the new standard for sandbox games.

• app_name: Car Jack Streets
• rating: 7/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Control Issues Prevent Car Jack Streets from Achieving Elite Status | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!

In this game, your a little creature named BubbleHead. Don’t let the confused and dazed look your character has fool you, he’s incredibly fast and nimble. Something tells me BubbleHead’s not this way out of pure desire, but rather, it’s a requirement to take on the challenges he faces across 25 levels (split in 5 themed worlds).

The goal of BubbleHead is to get from one end of a level to the other as fast as possible to set a good time. Along the way, you’ll need to pick up stars to that take seconds off your final time. The path is littered with objects and obstacles, but it makes things a little more tense and interesting. Unlike some games that only have offline top scores, you’ll have incentive to do your best as your performances will be compared with others through the game’s online leaderboards.

BubbleHead has some the most refined tilt and touch controls I’ve experienced in an iPhone game. The game is played from a top down perspective, and moving your touching the screen accelerates your character while removing your finger stops momentum and allows backtracking. The most impressive thing about the controls is the accelerator that controls left and right movement. A gradual tilt moves your character slowly while a sharp turn triggers a fast movement across the screen. With a little practice, you’ll be zipping around at amazing speeds, and you’ll be having a ball trying to go for a perfect run.

BubbleHead’s zaniness comes across most in its visuals and sounds. The high resolution hand-drawn art is beautiful to watch. Across the game’s five themed worlds (e.g. fast food, sports, forest, etc.), you’ll see related objects and obstacles in the level. For example, in the fast food world, you’ll have to navigate around burgers, donuts and pizza among other things. It’s quite cute and funny to look at though, so it isn’t as corny as it may sound. BubbleHead also supports playback from your iPod library, and it listening to Eminem’s new album while playing felt strangely perfect. The one downer of using custom soundtracks was that some subtle frame rate hiccups started to occur. I’m confident this can be addressed with a software update though.

Do yourself (and Crowdcafé) a favor by picking up this inspired and polished little game. BubbleHead controls wonderfully, looks gorgeous, and has more than enough depth to justify the two dollar barrier to entry. BubbleHead is an extraordinary debut game from Crowdcafé, and I’m anxious to see what their next effort will look like.

• app_name: BubbleHead
• rating: 9/10

© AppCraver, 2009. | Bubblehead is One Zany Game | Get our iPhone Reviews on Facebook & Twitter!