Here’s a neat little game — Number 14 ($1.99) presents you with a series of four numbers, all of which you must add, subtract, multiply, or divide in order to end up with the number 14. If you’re given 1, 4, 6, and 7, for example, you’d subtract 4 from 6, multiply the resulting 2 by 7, and then do 14 times 1. Sounds like the kind of game that would drive me absolutely nuts after a while, but I could see it being especially fun for the math-minded.
What’s especially interesting about Number 14, though, is that it was developed by a middle school student! And it’s not even his first iPhone game! Jeffrey Barg also created Nim, and will likely go on to have a long and successful career in the games industry, at this rate. Damn these kids today with their technology, and their go-getter attitudes, and their self-published games. Totally not jealous!
Empty Clip Studios, developers of the well-received WiiWare puzzler Groovin’ Blocks, writes in with news that its first iPhone title, Glow ($0.99), is now available for download from the iTunes App Store.
Glow describes itself as a “free-form drawing puzzle game.” Or, to quote an App Store comment, “It’s like bejeweled with better graphics and stuff moves.” Pretty much, except not really! Glow seems more like a scavenger hunt in concept, in which players must draw circles around objects to claim them. Chain together the right pieces and you’ll make combos and earn higher scores.
I like the art style (it’s all glowy!), and with multiple themes and levels promised, this one looks like it might be worth checking out.
I’ve never felt so stupid while having so much fun. Alphabetic takes a basic, kindergarten-level concept — the order of letters within the Roman alphabet — and turns it into a puzzle game that will have you scrambling for shattered pieces of your own dignity. And yet, you’ll still come back for more, eager for further humiliation.
It starts out easy enough. There are two letters on the screen, one of which is the letter “A.” Touch it, and you’ll add a few seconds to an ever-decreasing timer. Next, you’ll need to find the letter “B” within a small group of letters. Then “C,” and “D,” and so on, until you reach the end of the alphabet. By the time you get halfway through, though, the screen will have taken the form of a whirling vortex of letters, only one of which is the letter you’re currently seeking. You’ll find yourself frantically scanning the screen over and over as the timer ticks down, wondering if maybe you’ve somehow forgotten what an “R” looks like.
Every Monday, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular paid iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D again finishes at the top of the pack, fending off newfound competition from iHunt, which jumps up from fifth to second place in this week’s results. Newcomer action title Crazy Tanks also makes a big splash this week at third place, while Tetris follows close behind.
This week’s chart offers predictable results otherwise, with mainstays like Bejeweled 2, Chopper, and Touchgrind remaining as popular as ever. EA’s SimCity drops out of the top ten for the first time since its release in December, meanwhile, as Moto Chaser and The Price is Right finish up at ninth and tenth place.
Every Thursday (except, again, when illness-related forgetfulness strikes), FingerGaming rounds up the most popular free iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:
The winter-themed Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite has remained a consistently popular download throughout the holiday season, but it remains to be seen whether the title will keep its top ranking for much longer, now that the new year is upon us. ngmoco’s Topple finishes at second place in this week’s results, meanwhile — the previously 99 cent title has surged up the charts after recently becoming free to play.
Also making waves in this week’s top ten is Tap Tap Revenge, which maintains lasting chart popularity thanks to weekly downloadable content. Demos of Pac-Man and Labyrinth continue to place high as well, while recent releases like Done Drinking and Checkers Free make an impressive showing against tough competition.
David Papazian of Mobigame announced that the company’s debut iPhone title, Edge, will be available for download from the iTunes App Store next week.
In Edge, players tilt a cube through a variety of geometric environments while solving puzzles and avoiding cube-hating hazards. Edge uses the iPhone and iPod Touch’s accelerometer to great effect — of particular note is a neat-looking mechanic that allows the cube to hang over the edges of platforms through careful tilting and balancing.
Edge is entered in the inaugural Independent Game Festival Mobile competition, and is nominated for the Excellence in Gameplay award at the International Mobile Gaming Awards. A video trailer of the iPhone version of Edge can be seen below.
B3 United released a cute-looking iPhone game recently — Mew Mew Tower ($1.99). Half the fun comes in trying to decipher the adorably shaky App Store description: “The ‘MewMew Tower’ is the game that is accumulating a lot of cats highly the sky in a line. You will stack a cat straightly so that balance may not worsen.”
From what I can tell, gameplay involves balancing a rising stack of cats by tilting the iPhone. But be careful: “If iPhone is leaned, a cat will collapse easily. Oppositely, let’s incline iPhone and balance when becoming ill-balanced.”
So, in other words, don’t topple the kitty tower on purpose. Instead, help the cats in their mission to stack themselves high enough to reach the sun. Think you’re man enough for the task? More information and a gameplay video can be found on B3’s website.
1UP.com reports that Hudson Entertainment will be bringing the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize-winning Crayon Physics to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The title is scheduled to hit the App Store in early January, and possibly as soon as next week.
Designer Petri Purho developed the iPhone port of Crayon Physics in concurrence with the yet-to-be-released PC version, Crayon Physics Deluxe, which so far has only been released to the public as a playable prototype. A beta version was recently sent to preorder holders, though a final release date has not been announced.
Crayon Physics challenges players to draw gravity-weighted lines and shapes in order to solve a variety of physics-based puzzles. Prior to its release, Crayon Physics has inspired the creation of numerous clone titles, including the commercial App Store release Touch Physics. It should be interesting to see if Crayon Physics comes out on top in App Store sales when both titles compete in January.
ngmoco brings news that HandCircus’ awaited puzzle-platformer Rolando ($9.99) is now available at the iTunes App Store. ngmoco’s most ambitious iPhone project to date, Rolando features interactive environments, physics-based puzzles, and a control setup that takes advantage of the hardware’s tilt and multi-touch functions.
Rolando includes 36 levels spread across four worlds. And it’s cute! Just look how cute it is, seriously. More screenshots and a handful of trailers can be found at Rolando’s official website.
Planet Moon Studios (the developer behind games like Giants: Citizen Kabuto and the recent Battle of the Bands on the Nintendo Wii) has announced the release of its very first iPhone app: Booty Blocks ($1.99).
It’s not what you think. “Booty” is used here in the pirate slang sense, and is not, as I’d originally hoped, a match-three puzzler featuring an array of colorful butts. What’s here instead is a little bit more sophisticated. Booty Blocks challenges players to recover sunken crates full of treasure by touching and dragging them into groups of the same color, after which they will explode.
Explosions will affect surrounding crates, resulting in score multiplier chains if all goes as planned. A tilt function is also included, allowing for quick slides of the stack from one side of the screen to the other to create big booty combos.
More information and a gameplay video can be seen at Booty Blocks’ official website.
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Here’s a neat little game — Number 14 ($1.99) presents you with a series of four numbers, all of which you must add, subtract, multiply, or divide in order to end up with the number 14. If you’re given 1, 4, 6, and 7, for example, you’d subtract 4 from 6, multiply the resulting 2 by 7, and then do 14 times 1. Sounds like the kind of game that would drive me absolutely nuts after a while, but I could see it being especially fun for the math-minded.
David Papazian of Mobigame announced that the company’s debut iPhone title, 
B3 United released a cute-looking iPhone game recently — 
Planet Moon Studios
