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
Pinball Fantasies: First-rate update of 4-table Amiga pinball. More intricate than Dreams, but a bit less fun. 4/5 $5.99 https://is.gd/2rNSH
KRYZER: Stylish, great-looking, great-sounding, but terminally dull basic shooter with Head On overtones. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2kYfK
Solitaire (Fat Head Apps): Bare-bones Solitaire. Iffy graphics & feature-light. Sol Free much better. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2mIKj
Mixed: Anagram game with ongoing/timed modes. Has problems with mixes that have multiple solutions. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2mITf
Tase-A-Hippie: One-joke app, which lacks a joke. Just prod to ‘tase’ a static cartoon beatnik. 1/5 Free https://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 https://is.gd/2mJaz
Eurosport: Sports news app. Lots of content, mostly looks good, and works well, but a bit crashy. 4/5 Free https://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 https://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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