Rating 5/5 Stars

Paper Monsters on the App Store.

Editor’s Note

Advertisements do not effect the final out come of the review. We do not do paid reviews and our opinion can not be bought or changed by any means of money.

Paper Monsters
Developer: Crescent Moon Games LLC

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99 Download

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WorldCard HD makes it a breeze to organize, edit and manage the contacts on the iPads. Penpower’s powerful OCR technology recognizes the contact details such as name, address, company name from the image of the business cards and saves them in the users’ devices. If they have a large number of cards, the Batch Card Mode enables them to do it without pain.

As iPad’s camera cannot produce images that are good enough for recognition, users need to add images through their iPhone photo stream to let this app recognize the data. The WorldCard Data files (*.wcxf) can also be imported directly from cloud storage or through iTunes. I think, this app would really get better if Apple could come up with a better camera for iPads.

Attractive features of WorldCard HD:

• OCR technology that guarantees precision and accuracy.
• Ability to store information in Cloud.
• iTunes file sharing to share information from PC.
• Search tool that makes it easy to find the contacts.
• Image optimization to enhance the images and to offer best definition.
• Contact groups can be created as per the needs of users.
• Google Maps to save users time on route planning.

WorldCard HD is an iPad app and it needs iOS 4.2 or later. This app costs US $14.99. If the bunch of business cards troubles you a lot, this is the app you should look at.

Final Score 4/5 Stars

WorldCard HD - the Intelligent Business Card Manager
Developer: Penpower Inc.

Rated: 4+

Price: $14.99 Download

This game gives blocky characters a whole new definition. It’s like taking a trip back to the N64 James Bond Goldeneye era. The only difference is, this game has worse graphics and James Bond Goldeneye was/is an amazing game. When you first launch the game, they show you a nicely done room, with their poorly done characters standing in it. The nice thing is, what you see on the launch screen is what you get throughout the game. They add a little bit of variety with the weapons, but nothing mind blowing.

The music in this game was ok and the sound effects were alright. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t rush out to try and buy it. With every sound effect there’s an animation and when you play the game, you will see the lack of animations, or lack of sound effects (whichever comes first). The lack of animations can be attributed to the game controls: Yes this game follows a generic iPhone top down shooter setup. But unlike most iPhone shooters, the shooting control is frustrating, and you have little to no control of your aim. The go to game controls automatically selects what it wants you to shoot at, and when you’re being attacked, shooting a vase instead of an enemy is poor design.  However in the options you can change these controls, so you control both where you move and where you shoot.

When thinking of this game and poor design, one thing jumps to my mind, the menu system. When trying to navigate the menu system, the game takes you places you don’t want to go, i.e. When selecting the home button from the in game pause screen, it will 50/50 take you the main screen (where you wanted to go), or it will take you to the character select screen (Why? Why, would it think you want to go there?). What is it with bribing people to complete your games today? Is this supposed to be a new industry standard? Beat our game, and you unlock this character, follow us on Facebook and unlock a new game mode. Why not make a game that is fun to play, and then have an unlock as a surprise.

Having said all that, the game wasn’t the worst game I have ever played, but it was far from the best. Raiding Company does offer 2 player co-op, it is a neat idea, however the setup is awkward, the gameplay and graphics are the same as single player. With graphics that wouldn’t win against a 1997 N64 game (James Bond Goldeneye). The main thing about the graphics is the consistency, you have nice levels, horrible looking good guys, and the bad guys are stuck somewhere between. The art’s consistency is disappointing, now add that to the a messed up menus system. This isn’t that good of a game. With decent controls and with par music; it loops well, but like anything when you listen to it enough, you get tired of it. Just like the music, I got tired of this game very fast.

Rating 2/5 Stars

Raiding Company
Developer: Tuotantoyhtio Tuokio Inc

Rated: 9+

Price: $0.99 Download

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Infect Them All: Vampires

If you’re a fan of blocky characters and anime, this game does a great job at mixing the two art styles, this means there is a bit of everything for everyone when it comes to art. If you aren’t a big fan of the art style at first glance, the smooth animations that play off of each character, really adds to the games atmosphere and experience. Getting the animations down pat is one thing, the other is getting the sound effects to line up with the animations and most games do a poor job of this. This game is not one of those games. With its sleek animations and its bang on sound effects, this games sound and video is nearly flawless.

Controls in a video game are extremely important; they can either make or break a game. Who wants to play a game that has horrible controls? Well the good news is, this isn’t one of those games. ITAV plays it pretty safe by using a fairly generic iPhone app control setup and the nice thing is you have 3 choices for game controls (i.e. Joystick, Tilt Fixed Calibration, Tilt Auto Calibration). The Joystick configuration is very generic; you have your move on the left and your ability on the right. While using the Joystick I ran into a few problems with it; first: being if you move your thumb just a smidge too far from the center, your character will stop moving (making them fair game). Second: the way they overlap your transform ability and special ability. If you tap just as you finish eating a person, you will misuse your special attack.

ITAV’s gameplay is repetitive, because the goal is always the same, but this is a good thing for this game. With each level they introduce new and harder enemies to infect/kill. By keeping the game play the same, it allows you to create a game plan that works for you. Each enemy’s difficulty is done by its class (every Special Force guy is the same), and the enemy classes they put into a level together changes your game plan every time. Even which vampire you play as affects your game plan. All three vampires have different abilities, i.e. Archie: Fatal Claw, an ability that allows you to lunge great distances and hurt every enemy you touch (very useful for boosting your combo chain). Elizabeth: Bat Swarm, a circle of bats shoot out from you and hit everyone standing nearby (also good for boosting your combo chain). Achieving a larger combo chain gets you more money when your combo ends. The more money you have, the more you can upgrade your character.

This games upgrading system at first glance seems very small, however, each category is very important for your survival in future levels. You first start playing the game the upgrade screen is unnecessary, because of how easy the enemies are. When you get to level 40+ the enemies are ridiculous, and making sure you have as many upgrades as you can, is important for your survival. The amount of money you get per level is solely based on your combos, if you do a good job at that, you will have no problem upgrading your characters stats.

ITAV is packed with re-playability; let it be the 3 playable characters, trying to purchase all of the upgrades, or 4 different game modes; Campaign Original, Campaign Infinity, Survival, and Blitz. Each game mode has its own unique game mechanics, even though they are similar (full of enemy carnage, and lots of infecting). This will make the gamer in you want to play more and more of the game. Having said that, what makes games even more fun other than mechanics, and story? Achievements! Yes this game uses OpenFeint and Game Center, and their achievements ability, so if you are an OpenFeint user or Game Center user, sign in and start racking up your achievement score.

With plenty of playable characters, and tons of enemies to devour/infect, this game is full of cartoony carnage the whole family can enjoy. With fun music, animations, and well-drawn art; this game scores high on a visual audio ranking chart. Even though the control layout works well for this game, there are some minor bugs that could use fixing (possibly in a future update?), on the flip side you definitely have a variety of gameplay controls. Other than a few control glitches, this game is a must play by any iPhone app lover and or casual gamer.

Infect Them All : Vampires
Developer: Magic Cube

Rated: 9+

Price: $0.99 Download

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App Store has a wide range of apps to serve the tastes and needs of everyone. There are games, puzzles, newsstands, finance, music and social networking apps. However, if you are a model kit building enthusiast, the options are not many. I found a great one in this category; let me explain how it works.

Users can experience the feel of real plamodel assemble from this app.PLapp is an iPad app that lets users assemble and customize a selection of 3D model kits. As everything can be done on the iPad, there is no need to dig the hand in the dirt. This app enhances the kit building experience with realistic sound effects. Therefore, the users would never feel like they are working on a virtual platform. As it has a variety of material options, they can build a wide range of things – from fighter crafts to robots. The color configuration panel makes it easy to add colors.

As this is not an app for all, new users may struggle a bit with it. However, once they master a few basic things, they can create shapes and models in the way they want. I think we would really appreciate the efforts of the developers as they have taken the app development to a new level with Plapp. It has high utility and high value and is priced accordingly.

PLapp’s original price is US $4.99, but you can get it for US $0.99 if you download it before Dec. 29. Developers have announced this special price to celebrate its selection as the App Store (South Korea) Rewind 2011 Entertainment App of the Year. On the downside I feel for a $4.99 app, this one hold very limited number of models. I hope developers will mind this in their next versions, launching some more interesting plamodels.

There is also a free Lite version available. Therefore, you can give it a try without spending a penny. This app is compatible with the iPads running iOS 3.2 or later.

Start trying PLapp now and let us know your feedback!

Download from App Store

Rating:4/5

PLapp is a good app for anyone who are interested in plamodelling. Even though it is virtual, the app gives a real feel of plastic model aseembling with intuitive 3D interface. I hope the developers can come up with some more models on next verisons.

Battleship Classic

Visually, Battleship Classic is unremarkable. The aesthetic of the sketchy 3D style quickly fades. It’s not that it begins to get ugly or wear on the player, but it becomes more like visual white noise. The UI is also very unobtrusive; in fact, during gameplay, the UI elements (barring the gameplay area) shrink down to cover screen such that the gameplay grid is a perfect square. It’s actually really smart. I didn’t like that the art itself didn’t feature ships. At all. Just little squares. Pretty disappointing, actually.

There is no audio, which is a shame, as a game like this would do well with some catchy, peppy music. There’s also no options menu, which is kind of weird: I can’t adjust the difficulty (I swear, I really am smart!), change the art, or anything. There’s no customizability in this game whatsoever.

Gameplay is what you would expect from an iOS version of the classic game. Tapping to select a grid square, getting an extra turn if you hit a ship. The AI is very clever, to the point of being cheap. I very rarely won against the computer, and I mostly attribute it to the single-size ships that this version of the game includes. No, I don’t just suck at it. I’m freaking BRILLIANT, yo. AI is just too cheap. Yeah, it’s definitely just the AI. It’s too good. The computer cheats. Aside from that, the gameplay is really easy to grasp (if you’ve never played Battleship before), and while there aren’t any instructions or tutorials, they really aren’t necessary. There really isn’t anything that’s been changed from the core gameplay of the original game (aside from the one-size ships),

Multiplayer in Battleship Classic is upsetting pathetic. Over Game Center, the auto-match wait time says “over 2 minutes”, yet I waited over an hour and still didn’t get a match. It’s sad, because this would be a great game to play online, with its easy, convenient gameplay. There’s always the option of multiplayer over Bluetooth, but that requires someone else nearby to own the game.

As it stands, Battleship Classic get’s a 2/5 , because it is just mediocre enough for me to enjoy the game, but just mediocre enough for me to … I just realized what’s wrong with this game. I couldn’t put my finger on it before. It has no features. No extras. Nothing. That’s the big problem. There’s no value in the game. Someone can easily play the game with three pieces of graph paper and a pencil. While just offering a core gameplay experience isn’t exactly a bad thing, when your gameplay is as mundane and…well, “old” as Battleship is, you have to add something to beef up the value and make it worth a purchase. I can’t honestly recommend this unless you’re absolutely craving for a game of battleship, in which case I’m sure there are better Battleship games out there.

Battleship Classic
Developer: Andrei Zubarev

Rated: 4+

Price: $1.99 Download

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CairnStory is an iPhone app that lets people record and share their travel stories while they are on the go. After launching this app, users can begin scripting the travel adventures by entering into ‘New Story’ section and all the stories written and downloaded by the users can be found in the ‘Stories’. However, they need to sign up with the CairnStory website to search and download the stories written by other users. During the travels, these stories would guide them when they desperately look for help.

What CairnStory Offers?

• Social networking services (like Facebook and Twitter) have been integrated  to share their travel experience and stories with other users.
• Powerful GPS tool helps during extended journeys as it can prevent missing trekkers situation.
• Dedicated website available at www.cairnstory.com that helps users search, share and download stories. GPS travel logs, pictures and videos can also be downloaded from the site.
• Comes integrated with Google Maps for reference and for marking the travel route. Google Earth helps in 3D travel recording and there are also offline maps.
• Real time locations can be shared after registering as group travelers.

As this app comes with the powerful combination of GPS, website support and social media integration, it can be a convenient companion for the travelers who want to share the thrill of their adventure. CairnStory is compatible with iPhones that run iOS 4 or later. It costs just $1.99 USD.

Rating: 4/5
Though the app comes with loads of helpful stuff, its quite complicated to get acquainted to.

CairnStory:GPS,climbing,MTB,travel record
Developer: SnGsoft Corp.

Rated: 4+

Price: $1.99 Download

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If you have $1.99 and looking for a superb photo editing app, seriously, stop everything you’re doing and buy FX Photo Studio right now. I’ve spent a couple of hours playing around with the app, applying all the different filters and effects it has to offer. The app never lagged once on my iPhone 4 while using it, even while I had memory heavy apps open in the background. Without a doubt this is by far one of the best photo editing apps out there for iOS devices.

Rating 5/5 Stars

Buy it.

FX Photo Studio
Developer: macphun.com, LLC

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99 Download

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