MacHeist and developer tap tap tap Tuesday released The Heist

I talked to MacHeist Directorate Members and tap tap tap Principals Phill Ryu and John Casasanta to find out more about the idea behind The Heist, and what why it seems to have struck such a positive note with app buyers. Note that MacHeist and tap tap tap, while technically separate entities, share the same founders and most staff. MacHeist is a software bundle deals provider that also happens to develop apps in the process of designing its deals packages.

Beginning in 2006, MacHeist ran series of challenges that consumers could follow in order to gain access to a software bundle deal that offered multiple Mac applications for one low price. In 2009, with MacHeist 3, it brought coder Corwin Derkatch (who was also instrumental in the development of this iOS app) on board to create Flash minigames.

Casasanta came up with the idea of packaging minigames for the iPhone later that year, says Ryu. While the “games looked nice enough,” Ryu wanted to go bigger than simply repackaging what they already had, so he ended up suggesting “a much more involved take that featured a giant looming safe to crack, a prize at the end, and mysterious phone calls from Sophia, to try to port the spirit of MacHeist over [to the iPhone].” The MacHeist team had already invested considerable time and effort into a straightforward port of its flash games (six months worth, according to Ryu), but “everyone was on the same page about taking the time to make something truly cool.”

The result of their efforts is definitely cool, as well as addictive. And I’m not the only one to think so, either. Ryu reports that the app has seen more than 25,000 sales so far in just its first day on the App Store. It’s the single best launch tap tap tap has seen for any of its apps so far. Those players are eager to crack the safe, too. So far, 10 percent of buyers have already beaten the game, which is no small feat, speaking as someone who probably slept less than he should have last night in an effort to claim my prize from The Heist.

The addictive quality of the puzzles found in The Heist is due to a simple formula, according to Casasanta: “take a classic puzzle and throw an interesting twist into it.”

For example, Casasanta points out that the wires puzzles in The Heist “are basically traditional 15-puzzles (8-puzzles for the easy levels),” with the additional element of having to “figure out how the wire segments on the tiles need to be arranged to connect the various circuits.” Same with the stone/sand/glyph puzzles, which borrow elements from Sudoku, but use “sections [that] are much more irregular” than the traditional simple 3×3 grid within a 9×9 larger grid arrangement used in Sudoku puzzles. Also, the Sudoku-style puzzles in The Heist employ “color to add another dimension,” and “various abstract glyphs instead of numbers” to “breathe a bit of new life into a familiar puzzle,” says Casasanta.

Of course, the careful attention paid to the look, feel and sound of each puzzle experience is also a key factor. Casasanta notes the development team tried “very hard to make them look great and also have nice background soundtracks to set just the right mood for the player.”

I also talked to Ryu about the business model behind The Heist. MacHeist charges $0.99 for The Heist in Apple’s App Store, but upon completion of the game, users are rewarded with a code for a $9.99 game called Eets in the Steam marketplace, which sells games for Mac and Windows computers. Ryu and his team negotiated a promotional deal with Klei Entertainment, the studio behind Eets, in which MacHeist pays Klei a licensing fee in exchange for the rights to distribute Steam codes to The Heist players for one year. Klei is looking for a bump in sales thanks to the exposure promotional downloads will provide its game through Steam and other sources as a result of increased download volume.

Finally, I asked Ryu about his plans for the future of The Heist and the potential of the iOS platform. He admitted that there were potentially plans in the works for both the introduction of new content to the existing Heist app, and also plans to expand with additional apps and iPad support, but he wouldn’t make any guarantees about either. Judging by the response so far, I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see something new and exciting from the MacHeist/tap tap tap team on iOS down the road.

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Here are my 21 favorite games to wait around with. The key common features for these games are that they’re quick to start playing and that you can achieve goals quickly with available playtime of as little as a minute. There are no long drawn out strategic battles, epic adventures or quests to get absorbed into.

Aztec Quest

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

My new favorite puzzler, Aztec Quest requires you to get the ball to the destination utilizing the available gadgets with some great physics based puzzles.

BeeCells

Website – iTunes: $1.99 – iTunes: Free

BeeCells is a simple puzzle game where you need to clear the colors by moving at least six of the same colors next to each other. After each turn, more colors appear and its a race to clear cells before they inevitably fill up.

Aurora Fient II: Arena Daemons

Website – iTunes: $4.99

Aurora Fient offers an epic level-upping RPG with multi-player (of sorts) game play, based on a simple puzzle clearing game (matching three or more of the same blocks), offering the same gameplay with different twists, power ups and great sounds and graphics. This gives you quick gameplay wins with long gameplay goals to obtain. Aurora Fient costs $4.99 and is easily worth it in my opinion.

Toobz

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Toobz is a simple pipe game where you try to get the water to the edge. While the graphics are plain, the game play can be addictive and good fun.

Geared

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Geared presents you with gears you need to layout in the allowed spaces to make the required preset gears rotate.

Flood-It!

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Make the screen one color by flooding the pixels with colors in the least number of moves. The flood always starts in the top left and floods all matching colors.

Pocketball

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

One or more balls will drop from the top, leaving you to guide them to the correct bucket with ropes attached to pegs.

Gravity Sling

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Send the astronaut back to the space shuttle by flinging him around planets.

TanZen

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

TanZen is very peaceful and relaxing, aligning up triangles into the silhouetted shape.

TimeLoop

iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

In TimeLoop you need to perform multiple actions at once, but you only have one guy. So you need to go back in time to help do all the necessary parts.

Tiki Towers

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Build bridges and towers by assembling bamboo sticks, so your monkeys can get to where they want to go.

Toople & Topple 2+Plus

Website – iTunes Topple 2+Plus: Free – iTunes Topple 1: Free

Stack different shaped blocks and see how high you can go. Topple 2+Plus enables online leaderboards and profiles. Both are now free.

KittyPuzzle

Website – iTunes: $1.99
KittyPuzzle is a simple tile sliding game, but with gorgeous kitten pictures to reward you at the end. You can also use your own photos.

Peggle

Website – iTunes: $1.99

Peggle shouldn’t need an introduction, a cross between pinball and color clearing games it is one of the most addictive games ever.

Zen Bound

Website – iTunes: $1.99 – iTunes: Free

Relax and paint objects by covering them with rope. Utilizing the accelerometer and touch screen perfectly, this is one of the best original games for the iPhone.

Zentomino

Website – iTunes: $1.99 – iTunes: Free
Zentomino is the same concept as TanZen, filling the silhouette but with pentomino pieces instead of triangles.

Orba

Website – iTunes: $1.99 – iTunes: Free

Orba is a color clearing game, where each game does go on for a while, but is the type of game that can be put down, saves your position and can be instantly picked up to resume clearing to end with the highest score. Simple and addictive.

Totemo

Website – iTunes: 99 cents

Clear the screen by matching various configurations of totems.

Vortex

Website – iTunes: Free

Get the spaceship back to earth by strategically placing black holes, planets or various gadgets to assist.

Polyhedra

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Fill up the screen by making shapes as big as you can in the available area, without letting them be touched by the critters while growing and using the accelerometer to change the direction of gravity to your advantage.

Minesweeper Classic

Website – iTunes: 99 cents – iTunes: Free

Figure out where the mines are in the field, in a perfect translation of the Windows classic game.

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For the past two weeks, I’ve been completely engrossed in following Plants vs. Zombies. For those who haven’t heard, this isn’t about the Supreme Court case, but about the latest game from PopCap, makers of the infamous Bejeweled and Zuma games.

Planets? And Zombies? Do those even mix?

You may have seen the cute viral video that has been making its way around the net. Plants vs. Zombies is a combination of a tower-style defense game and its own unique take on an action strategy game. As one can surmise, the plot involves zombies taking over your home in a quest to eat your brains. (Sounds like a great movie plot, doesn’t it?)

Similar to tower games, zombies come toward your house in waves, with each zombie having its own strengths and weaknesses. Some wear road cones or metal cans on their heads. Some pole vault over your defenses. Some even do a little moonwalk, while others drive giant “zombinis.” Your defenses are your trusty collection of plants, ranging from those that shoot peas, to mushrooms that explode when zombies get near.

Gameplay

The graphics and gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies are simple and fun, and really help to give the game a high degree of replay value. Unlike most tower defense games, each plant takes on a personality of its own, adding even more fun to this uniquely clever, little game. With 49 plants and upgrades and 26 different types of zombies, the game quickly moves from a simple defense strategy to more complex levels requiring higher degrees of strategy. As you progress through the game, you unlock more defenses and upgrades, including cute plants such as melon-pults and cob-cannons.

The main game is a series of 50 levels played out across five different areas (your yard during the day, your yard at night, your backyard and pool, your backyard and pool at night with fog, and your roof). Mixed in with this are 10 extra survival levels, 18 extra puzzle games, and 20 extra mini-games, based on other popular games, like slot machines, Bejeweled, bowling, and one even inspired by Portal. I was really impressed by the diversity of all the mini-games and puzzles included, as they really kept me in the spirit of the game while not letting me get bored of fighting wave after wave of zombies.

As you progress through the game, unlocking more plants and collecting coins, you can use your winnings to buy items from your neighbor, Crazy Dave, to assist you in the game, or purchase plants and accessories for an included Zen garden. The Zen garden, much like you would imagine, provides a relaxing, safe haven from the zombies where you can grow plants. Watch them grow and dance before your eyes, and before you know it, you can sell them for a profit or just keep a nice Zen garden full of cute plants.

Final Thoughts

Plants vs. Zombies is available on the Mac and PC platforms and sells for $19.95. You can download a free trial version here. At the time of this release, it is not available for the iPhone, but based on PopCap’s commitment to porting its other games to the iPhone, it is likely just a matter of time. This game is great for casual play or long term, if you wish. Your progress is saved between sessions, making it easy to kick some zombies for five minutes and come back and finish them off later. But good luck putting this game down. It’s pretty addicting.

For even more fun, type “mustache” or “future” during gameplay for a good laugh.

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A genie, a load of balls, and an ancient labyrinth come together to create a frustrating, but fun, puzzler.

One of the big boys in the movie biz, Warner Bros., has been solidly churning out iPhone apps for the past few months. Most of these apps have been global franchises, though, including Terminator Salvation, Watchmen and — the double whammy of brand-names — LEGO Batman.

Without a movie, cartoon series, or line of toys, Stuck Genie is an entirely original game. Containing 73 puzzles, the game challenges you to complete each one and earn the highest score.

You Look Like You’re Stuck

It’s immediately clear that the game is worthy of the Warner Bros. name. It’s bright and colorful, instantly pleasing to the eye and, although it’s not an established brand, the game has an artwork style that is very much its own.

The attention to detail, especially important from such a big publisher, pervades almost every aspect of the game. Even the name-entry screen is fun, finding you spinning an alphabet wheel, and dragging letters around to spell your name.

Musically, the game features a chill-out soundtrack pinched straight from the beaches of Ibiza. It’s absolutely out of character for a puzzle game — especially one featuring a mischievous cartoon genie.

And yet it works: When the puzzles get tougher, the mellow background music makes it feel more like you’re chillaxing, as opposed to seriously flexing your cognitive problem-solving muscles.

Control Your Inner Genie

Before jumping into the first level proper, there’s a tutorial section. The tutorial explains the basics: By tapping and dragging, you control an orange ball moving through a labyrinth.

Your aim, in each level, is to collect the other balls dotted around the maze. The mazes are incredibly simple, and collecting the balls is achieved simply by colliding with them.

The real challenge is that the balls stick to your orange ball as you collect them; your shape grows and changes with each added ball. Maneuvering through the maze becomes tougher as you collect each ball, and forward planning is key to solving each puzzle.

Misadventures in the Maze

My sojourn through the freaky genie’s labyrinth hit a major roadblock, though. Closing the app to take a break, due to a tough level, I returned hours later to be sent back to the start of level one.

Apparently, Stuck Genie features no auto-save functionality. This means that to save, you have to exit the game by first pausing it and then clicking exit (which instigates a save). Simply tapping the iPhone’s Home button will exit, but it won’t save.

Furthermore, after working my way back to the tough level I’d been stuck on, I discovered that there’s no rest or rewind button. This is an all but essential feature for this genre of puzzle game.

To reset the level, you have to open the menu and select rewind; it doesn’t ruin the game, but it’s an oversight nonetheless. Far more preferable would be, say, tapping the genie to use a magical time-reversing crystal, or even just a plain old rewind/reset button.

Summing Up

There’s something about the cartoony yet ornate artwork, which, when melded with the Café del Mar-esque chill-out soundtrack make for a very mellow but challenging puzzler.

This mellow vibe is immensely important in Stuck Genie’s case, because some of the puzzles had me literally roaring with frustration — the good kind of frustration, though, when you know you’re being beat by a devious puzzle and you’ve just got to solve it.

Despite being so much fun from the off, the difficulty curve was unexpectedly steep. Nevertheless, fans of challenging puzzlers should download Stuck Genie and get stuck in immediately.

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, even better, it’s a super selection of fresh picks, plucked from the App Store, especially for you.

But that’s not all I’ve got in store for you this weekend: After perusing the week’s happenings right here at TheAppleBlog, I’ve prepared a swift run-down of Apple news from the past seven days.

The folks over at Amazon kicked off the week by dropping an update to the Kindle for iPhone app. A few weeks back, Amazon acquired the company behind Stanza, the free e-Book reader. It seems as if Amazon is still pushing forward with the Kindle for iPhone app, rather than, as I would have expected, focusing its efforts, and considerable resources, on rolling Stanza and Kindle into one.

TheAppleBlog’s Henry Balanon helped melt away those Monday blues with a new iPhone Dev Sessions tutorial. For coders and tech-minded musicians alike, this should be a particularly interesting one, as Henry’s latest article is all about creating a drum machine app for iPhone.

On Tuesday, Microsoft launched a shot across the bow of Apple’s iPod, with its latest Zune advertisement. The ad features Apprentice-losing certified financial adviser Wes Moss, explaining why a Zune is much more of an economically savvy purchase than the iPod.

Perhaps signaling the end of the line for the iPhone 3G, Apple has now made it possible to purchase the device online. It’s the latest in a long line of what seems to be inventory-clearing tactics from Apple, making way for the rumored iPhone refresh this summer. Potential buyers should consider holding out for a possible iPhone announcement in the coming weeks.

Also this week, David Klein posted an excellent tutorial on setting up Google Sync for Mac and iPhone. This is essential reading, both for Gmail users looking to integrate their iPhone more closely with their Google account and for MobileMe users looking for a free alternative to Apple’s service.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth, Guru Meditation, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Peggle.

When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth (free)
Blogger, journalist, author and super-smart guy, Cory Doctorow, has had one of his excellent short stories brought to the iPhone, courtesy of Robot Comics. The story centers around a bunch of sysadmins as chance survivors of a global apocalypse. Although the comic book reader software is incredibly bare-bones, it doesn’t matter, as the story makes for incredibly compelling reading. For fans of short science-fiction stories, this is a must-have app for the iPhone and well worth checking out over the weekend.

Guru Meditation (free)
Whether you use your iPhone for work or play, it’s just as important to get away from the incessant flow of e-mails and PDFs, zombie apocalypses and pachinko-esque puzzles. If you want to relax but just can’t seem to break away from your iPhone, Guru Meditation could be just the app you need. Created as an homage to an old mythical Amiga game, Guru Meditation could be considered a game in the loosest sense; it’s more a tool for encouraging relaxation and calm, albeit with a retro Atari-style look. To play, you simply find a quiet place, sit in a comfortable meditative position and then hold the iPhone still for as long as possible.

Resident Evil: Degeneration ($6.99)
If meditating isn’t your bag, though, and you’re just on the lookout for another zombie head to pop, this may be just the app for you. Capcom’s Resident Evil: Degeneration is an incredibly faithful addition to the long-running series, featuring excellent 3D graphics, shake and tilt to fend off zombies or reload, and, of course, a panoply of disgruntled undead folk to unleash your sweet gunnishment upon. It’s a deep, action-packed experience, certainly ideal for fans of the series, and, at the moment, this is as close to console gaming as the iPhone can get.

Peggle ($4.99)
We’re finishing up this week with Peggle — a pachinko-style puzzler, which is a genre that seems to be all the rage on the iPhone at the moment. Arguably one of the titles at the forefront of this genre, at least in the online casual gaming space, is PopCap’s Peggle. The iPhone version is astonishingly good value for money and an example of just how much of a better experience a little polish and attention to detail can bring. The game packs in 55 levels, various game modes, loads of score-modifiers, replays, and even an array of weird characters, all of whom give it an Adult Swim-lite vibe. Just like Rockchinko, which I reviewed earlier this week, it’s a brilliant game, but it could still do with downloadable levels and online connectivity.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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A bag of metal balls, a rockabilly soundtrack, exploding pegs: Rockchinko is the pachinko machine from hell.

Harking back to the old American parlor game Corinthian Bagatelle, pachinko has captured the imagination, and yen, of Japan. While the game may not have invaded Western casinos, there’s a steady stream of pachinko apps arriving for the iPhone.

Rockchinko gives pachinko an injection of rock ‘n’ roll, featuring physics-defying tilting, plectrum powerups and tons of guitars across more than 40 levels.

Pinball Wizard

Breaking away from the seedy glitz and smokey fog of traditional pachinko parlors, Rockchinko restyles pachinko’s dated look for the rock generation — installing a twisted metal board coated in a neon glow.

The design can be a little inconsistent at times though, one moment shiny metal, the next pixellated skulls — it’s a messy milieu that floats between edgy and geeky.

Of course, there’s a rocking soundtrack too: Each stage is based on a different sub-genre, including blues, rockabilly and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll. Although none of the music seems to be directly licensed from well-known bands, à la Tap Tap Revenge, the music certainly captures the theme of the game.

Scales and Modes

There are three main game modes, two of which are initially locked and unavailable. To unlock the two game modes, you’ll have to complete Normal Mode — a feat that’ll only take a couple of hours at most for a new player.

Once Normal Mode has been beaten, Randomizer and Rock Mode are unlocked. Randomizer allows you to play through the array of stages on offer in Normal mode in a random order — it’s simple and effective, and revisiting even the early levels can still present a challenge to seasoned players.

The third game mode, Rockstar, contains a set list of brand-new stages to launch, tilt and turn through. The Rockstar stages blend together all the previous features and gameplay twists discovered in Normal Mode.

Everyone Can Play Guitar

The aim of each level is to destroy all the red pegs by bouncing your metal ball around the stage. The balls are fired from the funnel at the top of the screen, which can be adjusted by dragging side to side.

Tapping anywhere on the screen launches your shot and, once the ball is in play, the iPhone can be tilted, affecting the ball’s direction. With enough practice it’s possible to move the ball around the playing field, squeezing out each shot’s destructive potential.

There are obstacles, too, unlocked as you progress through Normal Mode. Windmills, moving platforms, and warp holes can prove formidable hindrances or useful tools, depending on your perspective. Also enhancing the puzzle aspect of the game is a range of effective powerups, from the tame Triple Ball to the impressive Flame Thrower and bombastic Mega Ball.

Destroying all but one red peg instantly throws the game into “Matrix”-esque slow-motion. The camera dramatically crash zooms on your ball and you’re given full control, even the ability to turn the iPhone upside down, sending your ball plummeting upwards and defying the laws of physics.

As your metal ball speeds across the screen, combusting any pegs it collides with, you’re thrown in to slow-mo for your coup de grâce. Oddly, this destructive slow-mo finale reminds me of Burn Out (the hyper-destructive crash and burn driving game) as it’s so exciting, needlessly dramatic, and satisfying.

Summing Up

Even with the levels I couldn’t beat on first try, I knew I could adjust my strategy, come back and keep advancing through the game. And that’s where Rockchinko introduces depth. You’ll need to be strategic, planning out your shots and tilts before hand, for each stage.

There’s still work that needs to be done, though. It needs more stages, online scoring, and some kind of competitive element. Plus the load times are abominable. However, the main game is executed almost perfectly. It’s incredibly satisfying, so much fun, and has consistently left me wanting more after every session.

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It’s only fitting that a serious crossword puzzle app has a seriously verbose title.

The daily puzzles offered up by The New York Times are a classic staple in many crossword puzzle players’ diets. Kicking off each week with Monday’s easy offering, the puzzles get gradually more difficult each day, peaking with a fiendishly difficult grid on Friday.

The New York Times Crosswords Daily 2009 is the official NYT crossword app. The app features daily downloads of the latest New York Times crossword puzzle, alongside leaderboards and player profiles.

Sophisticated and Stylish (6 letters)

The game opens with a seriously smooth New York vibe: the Big Apple’s skyline sits atop the menu, rendered with a newspaper-style aesthetic, all backed with light-hearted jazz.

The cheery music and mellow tone was initially off-putting, perhaps due to my current diet of awful iPhone action games. After a few minutes though, I had adjusted to the breezy pace of the game and started to appreciate the gorgeous menu animations.

Zipping through the different menu screens, the animations are utterly gorgeous. Before even setting a single letter on to the grid, it was clear that this is a different breed of iPhone game — it’s smart, paced and incredibly classy.

To Make A Link (7 letters)

Prior to playing, you’ll need to set up a profile, which enables you to access the game’s array of community features and downloadable puzzles. Even though the registration process takes place within the app, it’s still a bore. I resented having to give my email address away, simply to access the game content.

Another issue with the registration process is that you’re automatically given a Magmic Profile. Magmic, the developers of the app, had, quite unexpectedly, created a profile for me on their site. It seems somewhat inappropriate for Magmic to be harvesting user-data for the game in order to create unrelated public profiles on their site (and without prior warning, too).

Once registered, the app is given an injection of content. You’re immediately able to download and play the latest daily crossword from The New York Times. There’s also a small archive of puzzles available to play, dating as far back as 2002. And best of all, downloading happens in a snap, which means you can be playing a fresh puzzle only moments after opening the app.

Corbijn’s Directorial Debut (7 letters)

Once a crossword has been opened, the timer starts ticking, giving the game a sense of pace and competition. Navigating each crossword is surprisingly intuitive. I expected clumsy navigation, and yet the interface design is solid and incredibly easy to grasp.

To select a square on the grid, you simply tap it. The clue is then displayed at the bottom of the screen. Tapping the same square again toggles between Across and Down, while using the left and right arrows (which flank the clue text) scrolls through the clues sequentially. You’re even able to zoom in and out of the grid by pinching, Mobile Safari-style.

Separate to the main crossword grid is an excellent clue view screen. The clue view screen is a useful tool when attempting to solve a grid; it’s a space where the clues are clearly laid out, enabling prolonged perusal and consideration. Plus, solutions can also be entered on this screen, too, enhancing its usefulness.

Summing Up

Magmic says that the app “includes access to daily and archived puzzles until the end of 2009.” It’s not clear exactly what this means, though. Does the app stop downloading all crosswords — even old ones from the NYT archives — when we hit 2010? The lack of clarity is an issue; if the app is essentially a subscription, it should be made clearer from the offset.

Setting the app’s description discrepancy aside, despite it’s overly verbose title, The New York Times Crossword Daily 2009 was an unexpected pleasure to play. The app’s design is classy, and the excellent user interface means that solving the crossword on the iPhone is just as engaging as the real thing.

The real joy of this app is the way in which it stretches your mental capacity. And taking on such a challenge — giving your brain-box a thorough testing — really does make you feel immediately smarter.

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The weekend seems to have rolled up super-fast, so welcome one and all to the Weekly App Store Picks.

Before we jump in to this week’s apps, let’s take a gander at recent happenings in the world of Apple.

First up, as a frequent tweeter, I was pleased to learn about desktop tweeting without a client app earlier this week. Check out the article for a helpful how-to guide.

Mid-week it all kicked off iPhone-style! Countering Apple’s recent anti-jailbreak actions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a 15-page exemption request to the U.S. Copyright Office. Hit up our post for the low down.

With timing that implied that their next-action was some kind of nonsensical retort, Apple clenched their fists, stomped their feet and promptly rejected the latest South Park game from the App Store.

Moving on to the apps, this week I’ve been looking at FrostyPlace, geoDefense, GooSync, Bowman, technoBox and Shooter.

FrostyPlace (free)
By installing this app, Apple’s ultra-cool Japanese emoticon set — Emoji — are activated on your iPhone. Simply download the app, open it once, close it and then go to Settings, General, International, Keyboards, Japanese and switch Emoji on. Now try sending an SMS, click the globe icon, you’ll have access to a cavalcade of Emoji. Absolutely awesome, essential, legal and free!

geoDefense (99 cents)
There is an overwhelming array of tower defense games available at the App Store. Some are downright awful and a minority are good fun. This app, geoDefense, is a clever twist on a confusingly saturated genre. The game plays out like a puzzle: as the vectorised baddies follow a set path through each stage, you have to work out the optimal tower configuration to defeat each enemy wave. It’s cheaper than many of the other apps, wonderfully stylised and a serious challenge too.

GooSync+  ($14.99)
GooSync+ syncs your Google Calendars, contacts and ToDo lists and is a seriously pricey app, especially for what it is, given the other options available. The problem is that Google’s iPhone and touch web-app support is pretty good — Gmail works perfectly (and is apparently going to feature offline mail in a future update), tasks is now available for iPhone too and users wishing to sync their actual iPhone Calendar with their Google Calendar can do so for free already.

Bowman (99 cents)
My current online game of the moment is Globulos — my user-name is Olly for any readers looking to challenge me — unfortunately, it’s not on iPhone as yet. However Bowman, an online time-waster that I have consistently returned to over the years, has just hit iPhone and touch. Seriously low on graphical flair (you’re a stick man with a bow and arrow), where it really shines is the gameplay — drag the arrows back before launching them at unwitting silhouetted ducks. So simple and so very satisfying as your arrows thunks in to a bird which then plummets to the ground in a shower of blood.

technoBox ($9.99)
I adore electronic music and, as such, there’s a special place in my heart for Roland’s TR-808 and 909 drum machines. If you’re not too familiar with what I’m talking about, go watch this video of the TR-808 in action, bask in its glorious rhythmic awesomeness. Developed by AudioRealism, creators of various pro-level audio plugins, technoBox recreates the 808, 909 and also 303 bass machine. The even has a sequencer and a raft of variables for creating awesome blippy techno tracks whilst on the go.

Shooter (99 cents)
Finally! It’s the official Shooter game, a perfect companion to the movie. You know the movie, right? The one that came out two years ago, featuring nobody we’ve actually heard of except that moderately-talented actor from the Funky Bunch? Yeah, that’s the one. Frankly, I have no clue why this game is tied in with the movie, its not like there’s a marketing bandwagon it could jump on to. It doesn’t even seem to feature Marky Mark’s likeness. The game itself is quite good fun though — it’s like sniper mode from Counter Strike — and, for the price, it’s definitely worth downloading.

That’s all for this week, I’ll be back next Saturday, in the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what you’ve been downloading (and enable those Emojis!).

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The game from developer GiantCrayon features, appropriately enough, frozen kittens as the core gameplay component. There are also unfrozen kittens, and kitten-free blocks of ice, too. These three different types of blocks appear at the top of the screen in varying configurations (i.e., “L”-shaped, etc.), and proceed to slowly descend to the bottom of the screen. You can move and rotate the block, with the object of creating groups of five or more unfrozen kittens, at which point those blocks will disappear.

To rid yourself of the remaining blocks, you’ll have to make a solid horizontal row of either type, ie. frozen blocks or frozen kitten blocks. Unlike in Tetris, when a shape hits the bottom of the screen, blocks without any support underneaht do not hang in the air, and instead fall to the lowest level possible.

In theory, it sounds like an interesting enough twist on the basic Tetris concept to keep veteran players interested, but in practice, I found otherwise. Starting out on the easiest possible level, I figured the game would be simple enough to get the hang of. That was not the case.

Right away, I found the mechanics unnecessarily difficult and poorly thought out. Controls were awkward, especially the down swipe, which doesn’t simply accelerate the fall of the piece you’re working with, but sends it directly to the bottom. Getting kitten groups together while still trying to arrange ice blocks and frozen kittens in screen-spanning horizontal lines proved immensely complicated, too much so for the first skill level. I did manage to get a grouping of five kittens eventually, but by that time my screen was so cluttered and disorganized that it would’ve been impossible to dig myself out of the hole I’d created.

In the end, ShiveringKittens is too complicated to be a distraction, and not substantial enough to make me want to meet the significant challenge it presents. I’m not opposed to a good, difficult game, but this one just seems poorly designed, not intelligently tricky. If I were you, I’d take a pass on ShiveringKittens, even if you happen to be a cat person.

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Developed by Hudson Soft, of Bomberman fame, Puzzloop Endless is actually a licensed version of the original Puzz Loop game, rather than a reinterpretation. As the name suggests, Puzzloop Endless focuses on the endless mode of the game, meaning that there is a never ending amount of balls coming down the track that you must clear. The game only offers two modes of game play, easy and hard, in which there is one track and two tracks of balls, respectively. It’s nonstop fun with a ridiculously low learning curve. Just tap on the screen where you want the ball to go and keep the chain away from the fault line. As the levels progress, the number of colors of balls increases, as well as the speed at which they come down the track. You will have to time your shots better to get them in the precise position you want. You can also create combos for extra points by creating matches such that when those balls disappear the ones around it also match. Once you get a game over, that is, the chain reaches the fault line, your level and score are recorded and can be uploaded to an online scoreboard.

The graphics are on par with Nintendo DS graphics, which is to say that they are very good for a casual game. The only fault to be found with this game is that it doesn’t allow you to play your own music while playing game. What makes this especially frustrating is that the game’s own soundtrack is a single, horribly cut track that does not even loop properly. If you are not a fan of 8-bit tunes, you will find yourself turned off very, very quickly.

Hudson also offers a free version and the full version at $7.99, which offers both the Endless variant and the regular stages which have a limited number of balls that must be cleared before you can move on to the next level, but at $1.99, Puzzloop Endless feels just right price-wise for what it offers.

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