iPhone Apps Weekly Digest: Battlezone Goes Crazy, Drum Machines and Loops, Art Toys and Games

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Clockwise from top-left: Easy Beats Pro, Vector Tanks Extreme, Looptastic Gold, Saturation.
Clockwise from top-left: Easy Beats Pro, Vector Tanks Extreme, Looptastic Gold, Saturation.

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews (well, it’s a day early, but, you know, it’s a holiday weekend, so…), courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review Chemical Pixel, Color Magic Deluxe, ..™, Easy Beats Pro, Looptastic Gold, Rotate Video, Saturation, Vector Tanks Extreme, Vellum, and Water Your Body.


APP OF THE WEEK
Easy Beats Pro: First-rate drum machine. Four kits, four-bar sequencer, good UI & open/save/export/kit import. 5/5 $4.99 https://is.gd/b6vkD

Chemical Pixel: Match-three with Zoo Keeper-style modes, but diagonal-only swapping makes for slow gameplay. 2/5 Free https://is.gd/b9VU3

Color Magic Deluxe: Paint colour back into desaturated images. OK for free, but is inferior to ColorSplash. 3/5 Free https://is.gd/b9W5G

..™: Good-looking 3D survival ‘racer’, but lacks extensibility of Cube Runner and excitement of Vector Runner. 3/5 $1.99 https://is.gd/b0hhY

Looptastic Gold: Fun loop mixer, with 60 bundled loops, mix export & in-app purchase for expansion. 4/5 Free https://is.gd/b8sZC

Rotate Video: Competent app for rotating iPhone 3GS video clips, but only grabs from Camera Roll, not library. 3/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/b9WFT

Saturation: Nice free art toy that turns Adobe Kuler palettes into interactive light shows. 4/5 Free https://is.gd/b0tzx

Vector Tanks Extreme: Psychotic, high-octane Battlezone update. Beautiful graphics & tough old-school gameplay. 4/5 $1.99 https://is.gd/b8sL2

Vellum: Simple ink/graphite drawing app, ruined by dreadful lag and poor tool response. 1/5 $1.99 https://is.gd/b0h1F

Water Your Body: Water tracker. Great idea & nice graphing, but largely undone by awkward UI for adding intake. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/b9WvZ

Some great stuff this week, with drum machine Easy Beats Pro just pipping a few other apps at the post. Like the best creative iPhone apps, Easy Beats Pro proves iPhone OS isn’t just about consuming—you can also use apps that run on it to make new stuff to share with the world. In this case, you get a 16-pad drum set to bash, but dig deeper and there’s a four-bar sequencer, save/export functionality, and the ability to import your own kits. Slightly more immediate and intuitive, but also more ‘canned’, is Looptastic Gold, a fun loop-mixing tool, which also enables you to export, so you can playback and share your mixes.

In the world of games, Vector Tanks Extreme reigns supreme. The original Vector Tanks was a great Battlezone tribute, but this sequel is far more intense, adding new enemies, weapons and modes, and amusing voiceovers from Jon St. John and Jeff Straub. Be warned, though: this game is at least as tough as the arcade original, and you will have your bottom well and truly kicked—but you’ll enjoy every moment.

For a daily dose of mini iPhone app and game reviews, follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com.

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