An ethereal, relaxing game unlike almost any other I’ve across is one of the picks for this week’s “Awesome Apps of the Week.”
In addition, we’ve selected a massive price reduction and big update of a great original Nintendo game for iOS, an app which uses ARKit to help create floor plans of your house, and a Cedars-Sinai medical app for Apple Watch. Check out our picks below:
Flower
Eight years after it introduced its brand of zen magic on the Sony PlayStation 3, thatgamecompany’s ethereal Flower has landed on iOS.
This is a very different gaming experience to your normal one. There are no enemies to kill or a score to keep. Instead, your only goal is to guide a floating petal through a variety of landscapes by tilting your device.
It’s an emotionally and spiritually engaging experience, which promises you a relaxing play time of around one hour. On release, it won several awards, along with plenty of praise from gaming critics. On top of that, it’s part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which has twice featured Flower in exhibits about media art.
Available for: iPad, iPhone
Cost: $4.99
Get it from: App Store
Super Mario Run
Super Mario Run, the first iOS game to feature Nintendo’s iconic Italian plumber, burst into the App Store back late last year. It immediately set a new download record of 40 million downloads in only its first four days, although interest has waned a bit since then.
This week, Nintendo tried to change that by offering a 50 percent price reduction on the $9.99 game to entice new players. Through October 12, Super Mario Run will set users back just $4.99 for every level. (If you’ve never played before, you can download it for free and play a few sample levels before making up your mind.)
In addition to the price drop, the game new boasts (deep breath!) support for a new character called Daisy, an extra nine levels, new enemies, new coin-collecting challenges, the ability to play your own music in the background, and an additional mode called Remix 10, which remixes the existing levels into randomized quick-fire short bursts.
Well worth checking out if you haven’t jumped on the Super Mario Run bandwagon, or — if you have — revisiting it for the new content.
Available for: iPad, iPhone
Cost: Free (with $4.99 in-app purchase to unlock all levels)
Get it from: App Store
Cedars-Sinai Apple Watch app
Photo: Cedars-Sinai
World renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center launched an update to its existing iOS mobile app this week — allowing patients who own an Apple Watch to use it to find nearby hospitals and even call doctors directly.
The free app lets Watch owners quickly and easily find hospital and urgent care locations, get maps and directions to the locations closest them, and call a recently searched doctor directly from the app. While the Apple Watch isn’t yet an FDA-approved device, this app adds one more reason why — even today — it could be a lifesaver.
Available for: Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
RoomScan Pro
If you’re thinking of having work done to home or office and need to generate floor plans, you could do a whole lot worse than RoomScan Pro. Instead of having to draw plans by hand or with CAD software, it uses ARKit to let you achieve this by scanning your home with your iOS camera.
Once you’ve done this, you can export your drawings to Notes, Messages, Photos, and a range of other apps. It’s an impressive real-world demo of augmented reality in action — with all the detail and complexity you’d hope for from a pro-level app.
The app has been around for a few years now (the above demo is from 2014), but the addition of augmented reality with iOS 11 takes it in a new and exciting direction.
Available for: iPad, iPhone
Cost: $0.99 (with in-app purchases)
Get it from: App Store
