$2.99 - page 2

Top iOS Apps of the Week

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Dog Diary

Browsing the App Store can be a bit overwhelming. Which apps are new? Which ones are good? Are the paid ones worth paying for, or do they have a free, lite version that will work well enough?

Well, if you stop interrogating me for a second, hypothetical App Store shopper, I can tell you about this thing we do here.

Every week, we highlight some of the most interesting new apps and collect them here for your consideration. This time, our picks include a map of the moon, a big green button, and a diary for your dog.

Here you go:

Dog Diary — Lifestyle — Free

Dog Diary is an app that helps you keep track of all the people and events in your canine friend’s life. You can store important, pet-related contacts, expenses and photos. You can also create entries for multiple animals to keep everything organized. It’s an address book, a photo album and a bookkeeping program all in one. You can also track measurements like body temperature, provided you’re not shy about pulling out your phone as soon as the vet pulls out the thermometer.

I’m still waiting for an app that will walk the little guy for me once it gets snowy out, but we might need a robot for that.

Dog Diary

Support by Sony

Mobile Support by Sony — Utilities — Free

Owners of Sony products might want to check out its new mobile support app, which will hopefully save you from having to click around a website looking for the right troubleshooting or contact page.

It contains links to forums, troubleshooting, documentation, and support areas, and it will take you directly to the page you need in Safari and it covers information for TVs, computers, cameras, software and a bunch of other things. You can also get Sony news updates and press releases, if that’s your thing, but the app’s main value is preventing users from falling into bottomless Net-holes.

Mobile Support by Sony

Moon Chart

Moon Chart — Reference — $2.99

If you’re looking for a quick, easy-to-use reference guide for that giant rock in the sky, Moon Chart is a pretty good one. It’ll show you the phase and point out what scientists have named all those holes and fiddly bits and it’s all indexed. So if you have a bet with your buddy as to where Flammarion is in relation to Sinus Medii, this app will help you settle that weird, random thing I just made up.

Moon Chart

TimeStamp

TimeStamp — Productivity — Free

I’m a fan of apps that are basically just a giant button that does one thing easily, so TimeStamp really appeals to me. It’s a productivity tracker that independent contractors can use for invoicing purposes. It may also be of interest to people trying to figure out where their time goes. It’s just a big green button that you touch to stop and start, and when you’re done timing whatever it is, you can just drop your results into the appropriate category on the second tab.

My browse-to-watch Netflix ratio is something like 5 to 1. That’s unsettling.

TimeStamp

The Inner World: A Throwback Game In a Modern Package [Review]

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The Inner World

The Inner World is one of those “throwback, but in a good way” titles that reminds us of how good we have it nowadays. That sounds harsh, but remember that a time existed in which point-and-click adventures were everywhere. Very few of them gave you any help or hints, and all of them required you to play Amateur Psychic with the developers.

The Inner World by Studio Fizbin
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99

This is what I’m saying (slight spoiler, but it’s the first puzzle): I have no reason to believe that a drunken worm would make for a good slingshot.

And it’s a good thing that The Inner World is so cute and sympathetic to its players or that would really annoy me.

‘Moon Chart’ Will Show You All The Craters You Require

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Moon Chart

Moon Chart — Reference — $2.99

If you’re looking for a quick, easy-to-use reference guide for that giant rock in the sky, Moon Chart is a pretty good one. It’ll show you the phase and point out what scientists have named all those holes and fiddly bits, and it’s all indexed. So if you have a bet with your buddy as to where Flammarion is in relation to Sinus Medii, this app will help you settle that weird, random thing I just made up.

Moon Chart

Learn To Conquer Friends Like A Virus In Pathogen [Review]

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Pathogen 3

If you’ve ever wanted to make viruses fight, Pathogen will help you realize your dreams. Pathogen is a board game that has you infecting tiles to eventually take over the entire playing field. You can play versus the computer in an increasingly difficult campaign mode or challenge your friends.

Pathogen by Gameblyr, LLC
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPad, iPhone
Price: $2.99

Perhaps I’m not quite as good at “Go” as I thought I was, but Pathogen’s difficulty is undoubtedly the first thing you’ll notice. The computer in the campaign is prepared to take advantage of your mistakes at every turn.

I’ve frequently been so close to winning a match only to have the computer claim victory because I forgot to take over one of its pieces butting up against my wall of viruses.

Aspyr Liberates Halloween-Themed Borderlands 2 DLC, “TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest,” For Mac

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Boo. No, really.
Boo. No, really.

Mac gamers rejoice, as Mac game port superstar Aspyr just announced the fantastic news that the latest hilariously bloody Borderlands 2 downloadable content (DLC), “TK Baha’s Bloody Harvest,” is available for Mac on the very same day it is available for PC gamers, bringing us all closer together in our need to blast each other away in 2K Games’ brilliant first person shooter game.

I See Art Missing, And I Want To Paint It Back [Review]

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Paint It Back

Fans of Games Magazine will know the puzzles in developer Casual Labs’ Paint It Back as “Paint by Numbers.” Owners of the Nintendo DS portable system might recognize them as Picross, and giant puzzle nerds might know them as Nonograms for Non Ishida, the Japanese graphics editor who invented them.

Paint It Back by Casual Labs
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: Free ($2.99 full-game unlock)

The point is that Paint It Black is not doing anything new; this puzzle type, in which solvers use logic to determine which squares in a grid to fill in to make a picture, is readily available a lot of places. But that’s not to say that this app is a boring rehash.

In fact, whether you’re a fan of Nonograms or picking them up for the first time, Paint It Black has a lot to offer.

Ring Run Circus Is A Clever, Challenging ‘Ringformer’ [Review]

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Ring Run Circus

Everybody loves the circus, right? You know, except for the animal abuse and the crowds and the terrifying clowns? The rest of it’s alright, though: Trapeze artists and human cannonballs and food that makes you wonder why we ever bothered inventing food before we had batter to dip and fry it in.

Ring Run Circus by Kalio
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99 (launch sale; reg. $3.99)

It’s in the spirit of the good parts of the big-top experience that we have Ring Run Circus, a self-described “ringformer” (like a platformer but with rings) by developer Kalio. It’s a two-button affair where you control one of three acrobats who skate around the surfaces of giant rings to pick up a key and take it to the lock to release the celebratory, end-of-level confetti.

It sounds simple, but its controls belie an intricate, complex puzzle game with impressive variety and challenge.

Drop That Candy Contains Every Kind of Sweetness [Review]

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Drop That Candy

Everyone loves feeding cute little animals, and mobile-game developers are no different. Games like Cut the Rope and Cat on a Diet are all about bringing food to adorable, tiny faces, and Drop That Candy continues the tradition.

Drop That Candy by Greenfly Studios
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99

In this colorful puzzle game, you are tasked with clearing all of the candy in a series of boxes in order to drop them into the waiting mouth of Gizmo, a woodland creature of indeterminate species. You do this by tapping on the candy, and you can clear multiple pieces of the same color with a single tap if they are touching.

It’s an odd setup, but it all adds up to a game that is equally cute, clever, and fun.

Trouserheart: Big On Adventure, Low On Pants [Review]

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Trouserheart

You know how it goes: You’re the king, you have prestige and power and piles of riches all around you … and then some goblin shows up and steals your pants.

Trouserheart by 10tons, Ltd.
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99

Alright, maybe none of that has ever happened to me, ever, but it is the premise of Trouserheart, a new hack-and-slash action game out today by developer 10tons (makers of the Joining Hands puzzle series).

Given the “epic quest to rescue kidnapped pants” premise, you’d expect Trouserheart to be a pretty light affair. And it is, but it’s also a solid, satisfying experience.

Blackbar Is Our iOS Game Of The Week [Editor’s Pick]

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But, but...where are the explodey bits?
But, but...where are the explodey bits?

If you like dystopian science fiction novels, Blackbar is for you. If you like innovative gaming experiences with solid fiction writing and a simple yet engaging mechanic, Blackbar is also for you.

If, however, you prefer your gaming to have lots of explosions and tons of hoorah military sentiment, Blackbar might not be for you. But you should try it anyway.

‘Rock Paper Missiles’ Is An Oddly Compelling Roshambo-Style iOS Game [Review]

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Rock beats Flamethrower. What, what?
Rock beats Flamethrower. What, what?

Here’s an interesting little iOS game for you: Rock Paper Missiles is an evolved version of the classic Rock, Paper, Scissors hand game played by millions of kids across the globe. This game, though, is different in two ways. One, it’s a universal app on iOS, which means you can play it on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

Rock Paper Missiles by Danny Perski
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $2.99

Two, it’s got missiles, flamethrowers and grenades.

Rock Paper Missiles is also gorgeously designed, with a monochromatic red-and-white color scheme that really complements the stark and confusing nature of the gameplay.

‘Cut The Rope: Time Travel’ Gets Dance Fever With New Disco Era Update

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Cut the Rope Time Travel Disco

Zepto Labs just released a new update for its popular Cut the Rope: Time Travel game. Now you can travel back in time to the Disco Era, complete with shiny disco balls and a groovy, disco-flavored soundtrack.

You’ll need to travel with Om Nom waaaaaay back in time to the world of the 1970s, meeting up with an ancestor who’s got all the moves, but one problem. All the spotlights in the era are destroying the candy. It’s up to you to cut the ropes and position a shiny disco ball to keep the spotlights from ruining all the sugary goodness.

‘Knightmare Tower’ Is Great For Short Bursts Of Fast-Paced Twitch Gaming [Review]

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IMG_0080

The endless runner genre continues to iterate across a variety of gaming apps for iOS, with clones and actual, unique ideas vying for the same space. Knightmare Tower, from Juicy Beast Studio, is one of the latter: a vertical endless runner with a twitchy, compelling take on the genre.

Players take on the role of a Knight, whose gameboy gaming session is interrupted by a letter from the local king. All of the king’s princess daughters have been captured by an evil skull, and must be rescued (sigh). Tired trope aside, the Knight leaps into action astride a wooden rocket ship, intent on flying to the top of the evil castle tower and rescuing a princess per level.