iPhone Weekly Digest: A Brain-Bending Puzzler and a Decent Vertical Shooter

Left: MetaSquares. Right: Sky Force.

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review MetaSquares, Piyo Blocks Lite, Space Dock, Sky Force, PuzzlingsXXX.

APP OF THE WEEK
MetaSquares: Board game where you grab territory via squares made from placed pieces. Decent AI adds challenge. 4/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/6Pe1r

Piyo Blocks Lite: Zoo Keeper (time attack) clone. Pleasingly chunky graphics. Undone by pedestrian gameplay. 2/5 Free http://is.gd/6vuit

Space Dock: Flight Control in space, but less fun, more complex, and with worse graphics and only one playfield. 2/5 Free http://is.gd/6AFVQ

Sky Force: 1942-style vertical shooter. Retro graphics/audio. Marred by lack of resume, but fun & worth a buck. 3/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/6JwuC

PuzzlingsXXX: Match-3/collectables hybrid. Great if you hate fast, challenging games. Not so great if you don’t. 2/5 Free http://is.gd/6Jx0h

Another games week, but less quality than last time. But two titles did at least stand out. Sky Force is a cute vertical shooter, akin to 1942 in space. The graphics are pleasingly chunky retro creations, and there’s a chip-tune noodling away in the background. However, any iPhone games dev who doesn’t include a resume option when a game is interrupted won’t get app of the week round these parts…

DON'T MISS
iPhone and iPad Apps Weekly Digest: The Magic of Instapaper Pro and Air Video, and More Besides…

So, this week’s top app is MetaSquares. The game’s simple and takes about three seconds to learn (put marbles in a grid, get points for those that make squares), but a long time to master. The AI’s pretty good and there’s also a two-player mode. Well worth a buck, but if you’re not convinced, you can play online (although that version’s less polished and slower than the iPhone version).

Follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com.

Comments Off