This week's Mobile Monday fell off the wacky train! Fortunately it hit a pack of wacky grass which cushioned its fall, but the train kept going to Wacky Town all the same. Now Mobile Monday has to hitchhike. The bus from Wackyville should come by soon, Tomena Sanner is driving today.
Vortex - A building-based puzzle game that I guarantee will receive fewer accolades than it deserves. Vortex is all about steering a rocket back to Earth by using gravity and path-altering tools. Use black holes to draw the craft in, repel holes to push it away, an assortment of walls to ricochet it around, and arrow pads to change its speed. Wormholes, laser gates and other obstacles will get in your way, but you're a crafty puzzle gamer, I can tell, so I'm sure you'll be fine. Over 50 levels are yours to complete, ranging from beginner's difficulty to the enticingly named "insane", and you can also download new level packs along with user created stages. Oh, and there's a level editor, too, which is as easy to use as the game is to play.
Tomena Sanner - Businessman Hitoshi Susumu is in a rush. He's so behind schedule, he won't even stop running to deal with obstacles in his way. What's a suit-wearing guy to do? Might I suggest a dropkick to a T-Rex's face? Dashing past old women, giant candy canes, samurai, cowboys, and more, Mr. Susumu must get to the goal as fast as he can for the ultimate 2D dance party. Simply tap the screen just before you encounter an obstacle to overcome it. The more precise you are, the better your score. A good handful of levels and an excellent variety of things to see make this one easy to come back to and play over and over again.
bitFLIP - One of the more intricate and complex matching-style puzzle games on the iPhone market, bitFLIP takes tile swapping to a whole new level. Match three or more pieces to make them disappear, nothing new there, but to make those matches you have a dual-slotted mechanism that can fit both vertically and horizontally-oriented pairs. Not only that, but every tile has a reverse side, meaning you can flip, swap, rotate and spin things in an impressive number of ways. Highly engaging, very fun to get into, and the music really seals the deal on this superb little puzzler. Oh, and did I mention there's multiplayer? There's multiplayer.
Undead Attack! Pinball - I admit it. I have a soft spot for iPhone pinball games. The few that have been released are well-made, and the touch screen interface somehow brings back a bit more of that classic pinball machine feeling. Even though I never liked pinball that much. Undead Attack is pinball-lite with... well, with zombies. The icky undead spawn and work their way towards the bottom of the screen. Hit them with the ball to un-undead them. Even though the boards aren't all that interesting, the addition of enemies to contend with adds a new kind of interaction, making the power-ups and level events even more exciting! The free Undead Attack! Pinball Lite is also available.
NOTE: Games listed may not be available outside of North America. Prices are subject to change and are therefore unlisted. Please see the individual game pages for purchasing info.
Bitflip is tremendously disappointing. I realize the flipping ought to add depth, but in my playing it doesn't-- the cursor takes just long enough to move from spot to spot that it washes out the difference between the speed at which I find flip-matches and the speed at which I find swap-matches. Which means there's no advantage to getting better at the unusual part of the game.
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