This game has the look, feel, and beeping sounds of one of those little LCD games on a handheld or on a watch, but it’s on your iPhone or iPod Touch instead! Absolutely polished and charming graphics, great retro sounds, and a touch interface means you don’t have to try and mash itty bitty buttons while playing this engaging game. The developers really put some polish into this game.  One example, press “Flipside” on the main menu and you flip over the game’s “box” to look at product info on the other side.

Your goal in Great Leaping Lambrettini’s is to help the Lambrettinis perform their circus act by managing who leaps at what time. Be careful, if a performer lands on the wrong spot, a Lambrettini is rushed off to the hospital, and if 3 Lambrettinis are injured the game ends.

There are 3 teeterboards and human pyramids. Every couple of seconds a Lambrettini will jump off the platform onto the first teeterboard so you must make sure it is safe for him to jump. This is where the challenge comes in. Human pyramids can only be 3 people high and you cannot have two people on one side of a teeterboard. You will be constantly telling performers to jump to the next position so there will be a free space for the next incoming performer.

Once you have gotten a Lambrettini to the very end, you will need to “dismount” them off the last pyramid to earn points and clear that spot for the next incoming performer.  The game is a combination of rhthym and management as you try to maintain a groove of constantly leaping Lambrettinis and make sure the way is clear to keep the whole show moving along smoothly.

The game interface is very easy to use. A simple touch on a pyramid or teeterboard will get a Lambrettini to jump off the top of a human pyramid or move from one side of a teeterboard to another. Just press on the desired pyramid or teeterboard to get a performer to do their corresponding action.

You gain extra points by having a Lambrettini jump to the high spot on a pyramid so the game really encourages you to not leave yourself a cushion by keeping pyramid size low, higher risk gives you higher rewards. A great plus in my book – the game respects your iPhone’s mute button so this game is perfect for a surreptitious bathroom break at work or while waiting for a meeting (’cause I know you’d never play during a meeting). There are also local and global leaderboards so you can demonstrate your mad skills to everyone. All in all, easily worth the $0.99 price point.

Score 4/5

Great Leaping Lambrettini’s on the App Store.

DJ Jones is a simple game that tests your knowledge of the music you have stored on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The developer, Shibby, states, “DJ Jones is a fun way to play around with your iPod music library and rediscover all the great songs you forgot you had.”

Pipe Mania is a puzzle game where your goal is to build a pipe pathway from a given starting point to a given endpoint. You are presented with random bits of pipe, and it’s up to you to make a complete pathway and avoid having green Flooze ooze all over the place.  The concept is definitely a classic basis for a puzzler.

Once the game starts, you’ll be at the Main Menu. There is a helpful series of “How to Play” slides accessible from the main menu that show you the basics of the game. Options lets you turn the sound effects and music on or off, turn off the in game Tutorial tips, and under Profile Select create or edit up to three Profiles. Extras allows you to view your game Statistics and Treasure Room.  The menu navigation just seemed a bit awkward to me as there can be a number of sublevels to each option and I felt “Extras” should have been “Achievements”.

One thing I really liked was the Profiles. If you have someone who likes to borrow your device, never fear, they can have their own profile so they don’t mess up your achievements or scores…or complete levels for you that you haven’t even attempted.

There are four different game modes and each has its own levels and sublevels for a total of 354 individual levels of pipe puzzling fun. You will start in the campaign style World mode. It’s here that you will earn Treasures and Trophies to unlock the other game modes which include Arcade, Bonus, and Classic

The gameplay is very simple. You’re given a starting point and an end point. On the left you are shown the pipe pieces you have to work with and the order you will get them. To place a piece, simply click on a block on the play area to place it. If you can’t immediately use the next piece, try to think ahead and place it where it can be integrated later. If you need to replace a piece of pipe with another, no problem. Just click on the old piece and it will be replaced with the new one; however, you will lose points for doing this.

Don’t spend too long in zen-like contemplation of your pipe path to be, because the Flooze will soon start to flow and you don’t want it spilling all over the screen. So keep building to stay ahead of the green Flooze and complete your path. You’ll earn extra points for both using extra pieces to make a convoluted path and for using the “Fast Flooze” button at the lower left. Press and hold to keep the Flooze moving quickly and the points rolling in.

That’s good.

That’s bad.

As you progress, obstacles are presented to throw a wrench into things. Some may block you from building in certain squares. Others include special pipe pieces that will give you extra points if you incorporate them. Along the way, you can earn Trophies based on points and find 35 Treasures. These definitely add to the fun and depth of the game.

Pipe Mania is a classic game that has been well implemented for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The controls for gameplay are intuitive and easy to work with and there is a lot of replayability. There are a few things that need some tweaking, especially the Menu layout, but certainly nothing that detracts from the actual gameplay which I think is pretty spot on. A definite recommended game for fans of this classic, or for anyone looking for a good, solid, fun, and challenging puzzler with lots of replayability.

In Mystic Emporium you play as Lily who has always dreamed of owning her own magic shop. She’s finally saved up enough to purchase the shop and now it’s your time to help her make it a success.

You’ll be serving various customers and providing them with various potions and artifacts. The game’s 24 levels follow a definite progression. Along the way you’ll be serving more customer’s simultaneously, brewing potions with multiple ingredients, and growing magic Pocus berries. Each level has a par sales amount and then an Expert level amount that you can try and reach. Reaching Expert will often mean a lot of split second timing and juggling of different tasks to maximize your ability to get things done.

The game’s tutorial is very nice and shows you exactly how to brew potions and retrieve artifacts, take customer orders, and accept payment. The game’s interface is very easy to use. You just need to tap on the appropriate locations or items and Lily will do the requisite action. If you tap on multiple things, she will do them in the order you tap. As each customer arrives you’ll see that they have a little status bar next to them that shows how impatient they are and some customers are definitely more impatient and cheaper tippers…this is why you need that harp. Other customers regularly ask for multiple items at once.

Once you start playing, you will get an idea of just how long different actions take so you will be able to decide which actions should be prioritized. Of course, the faster you get a customer their wanted item or items, the bigger your tip will be…so be prepared to work fast. If you want that Expert level, Lily should never be standing still.

You’ll be able to buy various upgrades for Lily and her shop with the money you’ve earned. These include shoes to let her run faster, better cauldrons for faster potion brewing, storage spaces to hold extra berries or potions ready for sale, and a harp to soothe impatient customers.

There are also mini games you’ll play. You can earn different charms that will have an overall game effect. You’ll really want to try and win these mini games because the charms can definitely be helpful. The two I’ve encountered so far give a 25% chance for a customer to leave a double tip and having Pocus berries grow faster.

The difficulty level of this game can be quite challenging and in later levels you may be hard pressed to meet the par score versus even trying for the Expert level score. One thing that is nice is that you can go back and retry earlier levels to see if you can earn more money or get that Expert level. Also, there are various trophies to earn for various achievements like not losing any customers or having to flush any potions.

I really like the graphics and sounds for the game. There are a lot of visual and auditory cues in the game to help you out and generally add to the Mystic Emporium “atmosphere”. All of the customers have their own animations as well and will definitely look angry as their patience levels drop.

If you like the time management genre of games, or are looking to try one out. I definitely recommend Mystic Emporium. It’s easy to play, but quite challenging to master. You can have multiple profiles so if you have to share with someone else, they don’t have to affect your progress. The graphics and overall package are really fun, and I like that you can play minigames and earn trophies.

Definitely recommended.

Mystic Emporium on the App Store.

Have you ever played the game Minefield where you have place flags to mark mines and figure out where it was safe to click next?  Did you ever spend hours just playing it over and over trying in vain to beat your high score?  Aqua Globs is very much like that.  It is one of games that is so infuratingly simple to play that you find yourself pressing YES when it asks you if you want to play again because you’re so sure that you would have done better if only you had seen that one glob.

The idea behind the game is simple; join like-colored globs together while keeping differently colored globs from touching. Globs are these really adorable looking one-eyed monsters that come in a number of colors. 

After the game loads, you have the choice of muting the music, sound, effects, or all sounds. You can also listen to your own music if you want. Next is the Main Menu. From there you can access a number of different selections:  Goals are 12 earnable achievements, Tutorial offers a walkthrough explanation of how to play the game, and Stats shows several fun statistics.

Global high scores are also included in the game; unfortunately, to view them the game must close and a web page in Safari is opened.  Thankfully for iPod Touch owners, you can manually choose when to upload your scores so you can wait until you have Internet access.  Score uploading requires you supply a nickname. You also have the option of entering an email address; however, it is not required.

The graphics are pretty simple but look very cute and polished. Aqua Globs has soothing lighthearted background music that is a great fit with the cute theme of the game, and helps calm your frustration as you become convinced that “just one more time and you’ll beat your score”. The sound effects are also good including the litte “awww” when orange and blue globs collide.

Gameplay
Aqua Globs is super easy to play. There are three kinds of globs: orange, blue, and green. You cannot allow orange and blue globs to encounter one another or you will lose one of your three lives. Green globs are like type O blood, they can be joined with either blue or orange globs with no problems.

Globs enter the screen from the edges.  A little warning symbol appears that shows the color of the incoming glob several seconds before it actually arrives.  It is advised you really keep an eye out for these markers since you’ll want to keep oppositely colored globs away from an incoming glob.

Gameplay works like this.  All of the globs that enter into play are small globs.  Join two of the small like-colored globs to make a big glob.  Join two big globs and they will disappear and you get points and some temporary screen space.

To join globs, you just have to draw a line between two identical globs.  They will immediately alter course and follow your line to meet in the middle.  If you need to redirect a single glob, just draw a line away from the glob and it will follow the path you’ve drawn.  The only way to get rid of globs once they’ve entered the screen is to keep matching them up until you can make the pairs disappear.  One thing that is really helpful is that you can actually connect a glob on screen to another glob’s warning marker.  This really helps you out in making matches more quickly.

If a red halo appears around two globs and you hear an alarm chime, that means they are too close!  Separate them quickly so you don’t lose a life.

Overall
Pros:
-amazingly simple gameplay
-well designed tutorial
-achievements, local and global scores
-fun, polished graphics, music, and sounds
-game can pause and saves its state/resumes if interrupted

Cons:
-you must leave the game to view the high score table
-cannot flip the game orientation

Aqua Globs is an addictively adorable, easy to play game. It definitely had me wanting to “just try one more time” to beat my last score.  The graphics are just simply cute and polish shows throughout the game from the menus to the gameplay. It is really fun with a good mix of challenge.

Definitely recommended especially at its current price.

Price $0.99

Aqua Globs in iTunes