(Editor’s Note: Sparkz is free today, October 20 for a one-day promotion!)
Sparkz is a puzzle game with a long history. The app is a reproduction of the vintage Mac game Qix, which was in turn based on an earlier arcade game. And while I never played Qix, I hear that Sparkz does an excellent job of porting the popular arcade puzzle to the iPhone platform.

The goal in Sparkz is to fence off the screen by traveling a perimeter of your own design to create closed shapes: square, rectangle, etc. Basically guiding your diamond-shaped controller — the Stix — around the screen to trap the Sqix in an ever-smaller area. At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, with only your controller and the rotating arches of the Sqix in site. Read the rest of this entry »

Apollonia Kingdom is an action-adventure game where you must fight your way through a variety of monsters, zombie-like skeletons and goblins to find and retrieve the red jars, which will somehow save the entire Kingdom of Apollonia. (I’d love to know what’s in those jars!)

The backstory may be thin, but the game has more depth. There are five levels to wind your way through using a simple 4-way controller. The game map is pretty extensive, so it can take a good bit of time to locate and recover the jars. (Apollonia video after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »

Pig Rush — Way back in the dusty corners of my mind, I can almost recall the day my dad brought home this new game that could be played on T.V. It was Pong. But, like many in my generation, the games I really grew up with more colorful and advanced than Pong could ever hope to be. Games like Pac-Man, Kong and eventually Super Mario Bros. And today’s games are even more colorful and challenging than those.

Such is progress. Nevertheless (progress be damned!), sometimes I just want a unblemished, side-scrolling platform. Something that is fun to play, without all the bells, whistles or learning curve. Pig Rush is just that game.

Pig Rush has just one goal. Keeping going. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s tough to get ready for winter, especially when the other squirrels are bent on destroying you. Such is the moral of the story in Nut Chuckin’.

Nut Chuckin’ is a game where you must dodge the flying nuts of your tormentors and attempt to beat them at their own game. As Risoo the Squirrel, you’re parked on a branch front and center. The other squirrels — apparently suffering from a fit of rabies — are all against you. They come at you — alone or in packs  — and chuck nuts at your head, trying to knock you off the branch. Read the rest of this entry »

Idea Organizer is a handy little app for catching your brilliant ideas in the most convenient way.

In my experience “notes apps” or thought-catcher apps like Idea Organizer fall into two categories: too many features or too few. Give me too many features, and I can’t be bothered. Why spend 5 minutes fussing around with “extras” like color-coding and cutesy icons when I can whip out a pen and paper in 2.3 seconds. However, apps with too few features aren’t any better. I’m simply not going to spend money on an app that is basically a text editor with a fancy background.

Idea Organizer manages to balance that fine line with ease. The app is designed to make taking notes quick and convenient. Nanaimo Studio knows this can mean different things to different people. So, Idea Organizer lets the user decide how to capture their ideas: text, voice or visual. Read the rest of this entry »