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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

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iPhone Weekly Digest: Quality iPhone Pinball, More One-Joke Apps, and Bowling by a Legend

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

APP OF THE WEEK

It might be a sulky teenager, but Pinball Fantasies is still a great pinball game.

It might be a sulky teenager, but Pinball Fantasies is still a great pinball game.

Pinball Fantasies: First-rate update of 4-table Amiga pinball. More intricate than Dreams, but a bit less fun. 4/5 $5.99 http://is.gd/2rNSH

KRYZER: Stylish, great-looking, great-sounding, but terminally dull basic shooter with Head On overtones. 2/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/2kYfK

Solitaire (Fat Head Apps): Bare-bones Solitaire. Iffy graphics & feature-light. Sol Free much better. 2/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/2mIKj

Mixed: Anagram game with ongoing/timed modes. Has problems with mixes that have multiple solutions. 2/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/2mITf

Tase-A-Hippie: One-joke app, which lacks a joke. Just prod to ‘tase’ a static cartoon beatnik. 1/5 Free http://is.gd/2mJ1U

Ask Happy Buddha: Rub fat guy’s tummy, ask ?, shake, get answer, wonder why didn’t get free Magic 8-Ball app. 1/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/2mJaz

Eurosport: Sports news app. Lots of content, mostly looks good, and works well, but a bit crashy. 4/5 Free http://is.gd/2oonU

Ten Pin Championship Bowling: Good-looking, fun bowling. Let down by ball sometimes having a mind of its own. 3/5 $0.99 http://is.gd/2qha6

Lots of junk and mediocre stuff this week—one-’joke’ apps in particular are really wearing thin—but three apps stand out from the crowd. Eurosport offers a pretty good means to get at regularly updated European sports news and standings; Ten Pin Championship Bowling, while having a ball that sometimes seems to do its own thing, is a fun game and made by industry legend David Crane (Pitfall!, Little Computer People); and Pinball Fantasies proves that you don’t need gloss to create a great game. A loving and careful update of the 1992 Amiga classic, Pinball Fantasies eschews modern cartoon-like or 3D pinball for tables instead packed with features and missions. It might not look terribly modern, but it plays brilliantly, and its four tables offer plenty do to. If I’m honest, I prefer the simpler tables from prequel Pinball Dreams, but Fantasies is still a must-have iPod game for pinball aficionados, and I await Pinball Illusions with bated breath.

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About the author

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

Email the author | Read more posts by Craig Grannell.

One comment

    little computer people! *that* is one they need to port to the iphone!

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