A great instant markup app for Mac that lets you easily annotate screenshots is just one of our selections for this week’s “Awesome Apps of the Week.”
In addition, we’ve got a great multifaceted journey through video game history, a music mastering app for iOS, and a card battler based around one of the all-time great console fighting game franchises. Check out our picks below.
ShotBox
Photo: Josh Parnham
My colleague Charlie Sorrel wrote about new Mac app ShotBox this week, and it’s pretty darn great. Like a Mac version of Instant Markup on iOS, ShotBox presents you with a panel of markup tools whenever you take a screenshot.
This allows you to draw, add text (or, usefully, your signature) to an image, and even add callout magnifiers to enlarge parts of the picture. Once you’re done with it, you can then share the results easier in a wide variety of ways. It’s a great tool to have around running in the background.
Available for: Mac
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
Evoland 2
Can’t decide what type of game to try out this weekend? Why not try out all of them? That’s kind of the broad pitch for Evoland 2, a sequel to the brilliant original Evoland. Like its predecessor, it’s an action adventure game that takes your character through gaming history, with different parts of the game representing various art styles, eras, and game genres.
The plot, in which you play a character who wakes up with no memory of who they are, might be a tad familiar. But it’s hard not to fall in love with the game itself, which is a superb tribute to the joy of videogaming.
Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: $6.99
Get it from: App Store
Grand Finale
Mastering is a crucial part of the music making process, in which songs are fine-tuned to sound as good as possible. Grand Finale is a new iOS mastering app that lets you pull in audio from a variety of sources, then process it using various modules, ranging from compressors and equalizers to stereo processing and 37 “professionally made factory presets.”
If you record and mix your own music, this is a must-have tool that offers some powerful sound-editing features with an easy-to-use interface.
Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: $7.99
Get it from: App Store
Tekken Mobile
Okay, let’s get this out the way up top: Tekken isn’t a direct port of its console older sibling in the way that, say, Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition. Instead, it’s a simpler card-based “swipe fighter” game reminiscent of a title like the mobile version of Injustice 2.
If you’re a fan of card battlers, however, in which you collect and battle using special move cards, this is an entertaining one. The gameplay is smooth and you can string cards together in a number of different ways to create elaborate combinations. Plus, it introduces a new Tekken character in the form of Rodeo.
Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: Free (with in-app purchases)
Get it from: App Store
