Price: Free Rating:
Vampire Run: Written iPhone App Review
Reviewed by Luke Patrick
It seems to us that there’s a genre of iPhone gaming that’s been lacking in new entries as of late. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking about that all important and most coveted field of the endless runner. You know the type: Lots of jumping and dodging to gain rewards and a true arcade style of gameplay. Thankfully, we’ve finally got a new title to share with you today, and it’s called Vampire Run. It’s a phenomenal break out, and if you’re looking for a new app to while away the hours with, we can hardly recommend any other competitor over this little gem. For our full review, you need only to slide on down below the break!
Concept and Gameplay
If you’re not familiar with the concept of an endless runner, let us fill you in while also giving you the story behind Vampire Run. In essence, you awaken hungry for blood, and must now stalk the village streets for commoner blood. Largely, this consists of running in a 2D fashion from left to right while the environment whips past. As you go, you’ll need to jump (or optionally transform into your bat alter-ego) to avoid vampire hunters, nasty objects, and other such bothersome foe that will stop you cold.
What’s the point? Well, if you do it right, you can snack on a few of the villagers, lap up a ton of blood tokens (think currency, here) and even rare blood diamonds. Doing so allows you to play as additional members of the Vampire Run family, and will—of course—boost your high score. And at the end of the day, that’s really what we’re after here with Vampire Run: A good, old-fashioned arcade style running game that will dangle a fat high score over our heads. Thankfully, the game delivers in spades!
Price: Free Rating:
WeDate: Written iPhone App Review
Reviewed by Sarah Hanlon
Dating apps can be compared to fish in an ocean. Some are cool and pretty to look at, and others are downright dangerous and sketchy. WeDate, developed by Changming Li, is a free and well-designed dating app for iPhone. Whether you’re looking to chat or meet new people in person, this is definitely an app to consider.
Concept and Functionality:
WeDate seeks to eliminate the awkwardness by allowing you to provide as much or as little information as you want. Unlike other apps and services, you won’t be grilled with 500 questions about your personality. There are no secret formulas, just the ability to connect with people via chatting and creative question based games.
WeDate allows you to create an account by linking the app with Facebook or via email. As you’re completing the sign-up process, you can immediately upload an avatar. The app asks for your location because it uses geolocation to find other members around you, and disabling location services for the app doesn’t hinder you from using it. Once you’ve signed up you can browse profiles and chat with members who are online. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even create dates or attend dates created by other members.
One thing I do want to mention is that you need to be at least 17 years old in order to sign up and use WeDate. Though many member profiles were fine, I came across quite a few vulgar images that definitely wouldn’t be suited for younger audiences. While this isn’t terribly unusual for dating sites and apps, I quickly got the impression that these sort of photos were allowed. Read more »
Price: Free Rating:
Cut My Apps HD: Written iPad Game Review
Reviewed by Sarah Hanlon
Popular games that have held their place at the top of the App Store charts are great, but sometimes we need a bit of a break from them. When new games come along that put a unique spin on old classics, I’m always eager to see how well they did.
Cut My Apps HD, developed by Bo Zhao, is a new twist on a familiar favorite. If you’re a fan of hack and slash games like Fruit Ninja, this one’s for you.
Concept and Gameplay:
If you’ve played Fruit Ninja in the past, you’re already familiar with how Cut My Apps HD works. However, instead of taking aim at delicious and nutritious goodness, you’re destroying app icons instead. These are generic icons, though, but it’s still extremely fun nonetheless. The idea for Cut My Apps HD was born when the developer became frustrated with having to delete a bunch of apps individually and wished there was a faster way to do so. Though I don’t foresee ever being able to do so with a game, I think all of us can relate to the frustration of removing a large number of apps.
Even though Cut My Apps HD is very similar to Fruit Ninja, there are a few aspects of the game which really set it apart. For example, you’re not limited to slicing each app once. In fact, you’ll earn bonuses for multiple cuts of the same app, adding another dimension of skill and reflexes to the game. However, you’ll also earn extra points for cutting straight through the center of the app, so this is a double-edged sword (pun intended). Read more »
Price: Free Rating:
Sir Octopus: Written & Video iPad App Review
Reviewed by Luke Patrick
As we’ve mentioned a few times here at the iPhone App Review, one of our favorite genres of all-time on the iPhone and iPad is the infamous puzzler. Yes, we absolutely hop skip and jump for anything that gives us a puzzle, a clear set of variables, and ample time to wrestle it through in our minds. With that in mind, we’re chuffed to bits to be bringing you a review of Sir Octopus today. This iOS app, by Sergii Orlov, is inventive, quirky, and fresh enough to warrant a look no matter what level of puzzle fan you are. Best of all, it arrives completely free in the App Store. If you’re looking for our full review of the title, you need only to slide on down below the break! Starting with:
Concept and Gameplay
If you’ve ever played one of the hundred-or-so box moving games that used to fill the Web, then you’ve likely got a good handle on how Sir Octopus works. But before we get that far, the game begins and ends with its story: In essence, you’ll be directing the squiggly protagonist around the levels looking for his scattered children. To accomplish this you’ll need to alter elements of the layout, including the grid-shaped grass clumps, sand blocks, etc. Every time you tag a child, they’ll stick to you, creating a shape that now must be considered when you solve the rest of the map. Snag all the kids, and you’ve won!
As stated, this gives Sir Octopus a great resemblance to those ye olden box-moving titles. However, the gameplay is incredibly fresh, and oddly quirky. We enjoyed having to think about the shape of our growing bulk in relation to the level, and in fact, we like it more than any similar title we may have played recently. Truly, it’s a solid idea.
Price: Free Rating:
iWin Scratchers: Written iPhone App Review
Reviewed by Marilyn Chau
iWin Scratchers is an app by Kenneth Angeliu designed to be a simulated lottery ticket-scratcher system. This app is available for free through the iTunes store, but purchasing in-app credits is required in order to actually play much of iWin Scratchers. The cost of these in-app credits varies, depending on the specific number of credits chosen.
Features:
iWin Scratchers is an app designed to provide a lottery scratch-card platform to iOS devices. This app features 35 different cards to unlock and over 12 different game types. Unlocking cards and playing certain games requires differing amounts of credits; while some credits are awarded to iWin Scratchers players simply for installing the game, most credits need to be purchased through the iTunes store in order to fully take advantage of the app’s games. Other features in iWin Scratchers include daily bonuses, free “scratch” cards, 41 achievements, and 31 different prizes to unlock over the span of playing the various games. iWin Scratchers also shows an overall leader board so that all players can know who the latest winner of the app’s jackpot was.
iWin Scratchers iPhone App Review
Appearance and Layout:
iWin Scratchers is a brightly colored game that will probably appeal to anyone who enjoys the graphics of traditional lottery scratch-it tickets and slot machines. iWin Scratchers can definitely boast of having relatively realistic graphics. The layout of iWin Scratchers is also fairly appropriate for an app of its type. While it is relatively crowded in its arrangement of data and games, this layout seems to mimic the appearance of the closely packed slot machines and game tables in a traditional casino.
Value:
Although iWin Scractchers is advertised in the iTunes store as being a free app, like any lotto-based game, iWin Scratchers can’t really be played unless purchases are made. Because of this, determining the “value” of iWin Scratchers is somewhat difficult. Specifically speaking, iWin Scratchers could potentially help some players win money or credits back (and thereby have a good value) or it could just as easily never result in any winnings at all for a player (and thereby have a terrible value). Overall, iWin Scratchers is simply a lotto-based app, making its “value” anything but consistent for all players.
iWin Scratchers iPhone app requires iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. A small expedite fee was paid to speed up the publication of this review.
Price: $1.99 Rating:
PhoFilter: Written & Video iPhone App Review
Reviewed by Sarah Hanlon
From Instagram to Facebook, everyone loves sharing photos. Even more, people love to customize photos to add their own personal and artistic twist. If you’re looking for a photo filter app that goes above and beyond, read on!
PhoFilter – Filter for instagram, developed by iFacies, is a brand new photo editing app for iPhone. Get ready to unleash your creativity and share your works of art with the world!
Concept and Functionality:
If you love giving your photos extra attention as far as adding filters and other creative adjustments, PhoFilter is the perfect app for you. From basic touch ups such as color correction and contrast to adding text and timestamps, you’re only limited by your imagination.
One thing I was happy to see about PhoFilter is the fact that the app isn’t too difficult to learn and navigate. Simply import up to 30 photos to the app and choose which filters you’d like to apply to each individual photo. Filters can be “copy and pasted” using a “long touch” (ie, touching the photo for about 2 secs to bring up the copy or paste option) from photo to photo. In addition to that custom filters can be applied to all photos by using a “long touch” and selecting the option “Apply to All Images”. Then it will export all photos at once when you’re done editing, which does save quite a bit of time.
There is also a nice sharing facility for filters that are saved at custom filters. They can be shared through ‘FanFilter’ at Facebook. Just touch the share button of each custom filter to go to the ‘Share Filter’ page. The Home button at the bottom of the Facebook share page is where you can choose whether or not to expose your Facebook homepage. The default of the home button is off. You can choose to share at ‘FanFilter’ or on your own Facebook page.
While 171 individual filters might sound like an intimidating array of choices, I found many of the filters to vary only slightly from others. This wouldn’t be an issue if the ability to customize filters wasn’t available. I definitely would’ve liked to see more filters that pushed the creative envelope a bit by being bold and sharp instead of very soft and light. The developer states that more filters are coming and I look forward to seeing them.
Features:
PhoFilter iPhone App Review
As I mentioned before, PhoFilter includes 171 individual filters that can be applied to photos, and up to 12 filters can be applied to a single photo at once. You can even rearrange filter layers for even greater customization, which is a feature I was very glad to stumble on.
PhoFilter also offers many export and sharing options and certainly isn’t limited only to Instagram. You can upload photos to Facebook, Dropbox, and Twitter, along with other apps that allow photo importing on your iPhone.
However, there was one major aspect of PhoFilter that greatly disappointed me, and that’s the need to spend a total of $3.96 (four $0.99 filter packs) to unlock filters such as frames and text overlays. This means PhoFilter is essentially a $6 photo app. Personally I’ve seen free photo editing apps that offer these features without additional purchases. This is somewhat offset by the fact that, according to the developer, as new filters are added to the app they will be free to those who have already purchased the filters.
Value:
PhoFilter is available to download for $1.99 and comes with the optional in-app purchases mentioned above. If you’re looking for a great photo filter app with tons of customization options and you’re not weary of spending a bit more on an app, it’s definitely worth taking a look at.
PhoFilter – Filter for instagram is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. A small expedite fee was paid to speed up the publication of this review.
May 23rd, 2013 
Luke Patrick 
