The iPhone Mom

Have you heard about Train Conductor yet? It’s a terrific, new app that falls into the “traffic management” game category. The idea is to match numbered trains to their numbered tracks. You do this by tapping and dragging your finger to move the trains from track to track. You’ve got to be quick. If the trains collide you’ll have to begin all over again. You will earn points for successfully delivering trains and you will lose points for sending them to the wrong track. The game has five locations (all in Australia) and as you earn experience points you are able to unlock them. There is also a “Ghost” mode which you takes place at night. The ghost trains do not collide but they also do not stop and they move quickly. I actually enjoy playing the ghost trains more than the regular mode. I think it’s the not crashing thing.

Train Conductor is easy to learn but tough enough to master that you’ll find yourself coming back and back. It’s one of those games that appeals to adults as well as kids. Younger players will probably find it frustrating because the pace is quick but older children will enjoy it. The game is Plus+ enabled which means there are special achievements to unlock and you can keep track of your progress through their service. Visit the Plus+ website to learn more, I know my description isn’t doing it justice.

I love Train Conductor and if you read the reviews in the app store you’ll find I’m not alone. Everything is extremely well done – from the game play, to the graphics to the music. Terrific, terrific app.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 – This is the 50% off price.

Seller: The Voxel Agents

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Frozen Bubble 2 is a game where you shoot colored bubbles onto a playing board. When you’ve arranged the bubbles in groups of three or more they’ll pop. Your goal is to clear the board so you can move on to the next level. As you are playing the ceiling will begin to lower and you’ll need to pick up your pace. Launching the bubbles is easy, all you need to do is tap on the screen where you’d like them to end up. If you’re lucky they’ll make it there. If you’re not they may bounce around and end up stuck somewhere you’d rather they not be.

This is one of those games that’s based on a simple concept so kids can play, but as it advances it becomes addicting to adults. There are 100 levels to play in Frozen Bubble 2 and you can always come back to the level you were on when you quit the game.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Erich Bratton

These two I Spy apps (Spooky Mansion & Riddle Race) bring the concept of the Scholastic I Spy books to your iPhone. The idea is to search a picture and locate all the objects mentioned in a riddle.

In I Spy Spooky Mansion you are going to search for objects to solve twenty-one riddles. You’ll earn keys that will unlock a gate keeping you inside the spooky mansion. The riddles are read aloud and then you’ll want to use your finger on the screen to zoom in and pan around trying to locate what is asked for. When you’ve found a hidden object,  tap on it and it’s name will be highlighted in the riddle. I Spy Riddle Race is a bit different. It has two modes, “Practice” or “Race”. In “Practice” you can take your time solving a riddle and finding everything hidden in the pictures. This is a good mode for younger players. In the “Race” mode you’ll be trying to solve three riddles and a bonus round within ten minutes. As you’re doing this you’ll be earning points and at the end you can keep track of your high scores.  There are twenty different race game boards, each with three riddles. Here you can also zoom in and pan around the picture using your finger.

One problem that I had with these apps was the time it took to register a found item. I’d tap on something and it took a second for the app to record my finding. Then I had to wait while it was read aloud. This is great for kids that don’t know how to read but it slows things down on the Riddle Race when trying to beat the clock.  Having the option to turn off the voice over would be nice.

Between the two apps I enjoyed Riddle Race the best. I have to admit though that I was never able to finish a game board in under ten minutes. I always managed to get stuck trying to find one elusive object or another. I feel that these apps will be too difficult for younger players and too easy for older ones. In my opinion they are best suited for players between 5 and 10. Take that for what it’s worth because it’s based on nothing other than my opinion and how my own kids handled the apps.

Overall I thought the apps were well executed and if your kids are into the I Spy books you’ll probably want to check them out. They are the same price but you’ll get more puzzles for your money with I Spy Riddle Race.

Price when Reviewed: $3.99 (both apps)

I Spy Spooky Mansion

I Spy Riddle Race

Seller: Scholastic Interactive, LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

A while ago I posted about how excited I was to see the Lego video game folks joining forces with the Rock Band empire. We’ve never brought Rock Band or Guitar Hero into the house because I’m not a big fan of the avatars and the lyrics in many of the songs weren’t great for our kids. It seemed like each version would have a handful of songs we were okay with,  but overall this wasn’t worth the purchase.  So when I took to my site and proclaimed my excitement over the thought of Lego Rock Band the PR company behind the game read about it and asked me if my family would like to review it. This was a pretty easy decision but the difficult part came when I let the news slip to my kiddos. We had several weeks where my trips to retrieve the mail ended with interrogations over when the game would arrive.

It finally came a little over a week ago and we’ve been doing a very thorough job of  testing it out. The game is sold alone, not bundled with any instruments but my husband was thrilled to have an excuse to go out and make that purchase. I’m sure they’re selling the game on it’s own because they figure most everyone already has the instruments but I’ve got to imagine that there are some folks like us who haven’t hopped on the bandwagon until now. Or are we really the only holdouts in the world? After playing and playing and playing some more the verdict is that my kids have been completely sucked into this game. They’ve been playing every chance they get  and I’ve hopped in on plenty of numbers myself. It’s been a lot of fun playing a video game all together.

The Lego Rock Band premise is similar to the other Rock Band games – or at least what I know of them second hand, as this is the first version I’ve played. Playing the songs is just like Guitar Hero and the other Rock Band games so if you’ve done that before there are no real surprises. With this version we like being able to choose “Super Easy” as a level of difficulty. My son discovered that when you do this you don’t need to hold down the guitar’s colored buttons and strum at the same time. You can only do the strum and it will still count. This is a great feature for the younger players. Or for others like me who are somewhat rhythmically challenged. As you play you create a band and play songs earning Lego Studs to spend on things for your Rock Den, outfits for your characters, new vehicles, etc. The characters in the game are Lego people. They can be customized by changing up hair, heads, bodies and legs.  The better you get at the game the more customizable options you’ll unlock.  For fun, certain songs have set Lego characters that you’ll use. For example, when you’re playing a song by Queen you’ve got a Lego version of Freddy Mercury as your lead singer. My girls have been getting a kick out of trying to earn plenty of Lego studs to buy new outfits for their Lego people. My son was very pleased with himself when he earned enough to upgrade from a rock van to a rock mini-bus.

So what did we think about the song choices? Overall, most were pretty kid friendly. “Kung Fu Fighting” and “We Will Rock You” have been the big hits here but my seven year old has fallen in love with “Crocodile Rock”. We have run into a few with questionable lyrics but we’ve told the kids they’re getting a “set list” of ones they can sing. The rest must only be played with instruments.  Yes, we know we are mean. There’s a feature we haven’t tried out yet, but according to the product description you can download additional family friendly songs for the game.

Hardcore Rock Band players might not completely love the Lego version but I think it’s absolutely perfect for families with younger kids. The essence of Rock Band is here along with the fun and humor of Lego video games. This would be a great gift for Santa to slip under some trees this year.

My one suggestion is that since this version of Rock Band is geared towards the kids, drum silencers should be included with every video game purchase. After a week of having these lovely drums in the house I’ve put down my foot and they can no longer be played between the hours of afterschool and dinnertime.  The Rock n’ Roll lifestyle will just have to wait until mom’s nerves have made it through that grueling part of the day.  If I make it through those dreaded hours then the kids can go ahead and get crazy and rock on.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this video game for review purposes.

Here’s another app that’s just plain old fashioned silly fun. Penguin Break has two modes. In “Escape”, Penguins are filling up your iPhone screen and it’s your job to get rid of them by throwing snowballs.  Tap on the penguins and a colored snowball is launched in their direction. If it hits a penguin of the same color then the penguin will disappear. Watch out though, penguins are constantly tumbling down from the sky. There are special power-up snowballs that you can earn for extra help. In “Frenzy” your screen is already full of penguins. You have a set amount of time to clear as many off the screen as you can. The same rules apply – snowball colors have to match penguin colors.

Penguin Break starts with three penguin and snowball colors. As you advance you’ll work your way up to four and five colors.  The app has the capability of connecting to Facebook and creating a friends-only leader board but I didn’t try this feature out. This is one of those games that takes only a minute to learn but will suck you in. It’s perfect, mindless fun when you’ve just got a few minutes to waste. Like moms ever get those right?

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: GameFlow Entertainment, LLC.

Rejoinder is wild! I would not recommend giving it to your child unless you completely trust their grip on your iPhone. This is another game that makes a case for an iPhone wrist strap. Duct tape and a rubber band might work too. The object of the game is to follow the commands on your screen. The faster you respond the more points you earn. Sounds easy enough but those commands have you interacting with one of four characters. You start with a rabbit. Rejoinder asks you to flip him so you flip your iPhone. It asks you to make him jump so you make your iPhone “jump”. It asks you to stretch him so you use your finger on the screen to stretch him out. Lastly it asks you to give him a tickle with your fingers. If you fail to respond, or respond too slowly the rabbit gets a bit cranky. With each level that you pass the commands increase and the amount of time you’re given to respond decreases. Yikes!

I enjoyed playing Rejoinder, it was a nice departure from the other games on my iPhone. But it’s definitely not an app I’d give my young kiddos. Unless I was looking for a quick way to justify an upgrade to a 3GS.  So moms, dads and trusted children have fun with this one!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Digital Dandelion

Mercutio is a simple, enjoyable app that’s great for killing time. It’s the kind of app you can pick up and begin anytime you’ve got a few extra minutes in the carpool. The goal of the game is to score the most points by creating groups of different colored tokens. There are four different colors and a group must have one token of each color. You are given a line of tokens at the bottom of the screen and they must be placed one at a time into a space that’s next to the last token you played. I liked how Mercutio helped me out with this – the available spaces for a move are shown so I just had to pick the one I liked the best. Each game has six trays of four tokens, twenty-four tokens in all. Once these have been played then the game is over.

The scoring involved math so needless to say, it went over my head. It involves squaring the number of color groups a token is included in.  Lucky for me this number showed up on the token and I didn’t have to stretch my mental abilities too much. As you progress through the game you’ll be given powers that let you change the color of your tokens. The levels will become more complex and the number of powers you’re given will increase. Mercutio is also available for social gaming through OpenFeint. I’m not a big social gamer so to be honest I didn’t test this feature out.

I found Mercutio to be a fun game and I really appreciated the thorough help section. It was well done and did a great job of explaining how the game was played.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Aaron Cohen

Cooking Dash arrived on my iPhone in the middle of a crazy, chaotic week. Not that my weeks are usually very peaceful, relaxing or even productive for that matter. But this week was worse then usual. Anyway, I was given this app to try and I kept putting it on the back burner. Then one night I was having trouble turning my brain off so I decided to play Cooking Dash. This turned out to be a big sleep mistake because I found myself HOOKED. Seriously hooked. As in, it’s 1:30 a.m. and I’ve got to get up in five hours but I can’t put this iPhone down hooked. I finally found enough will power to stop playing but the next night I was right back at it again. So on a week when I desperately needed some sleep I found myself sucked into this ridiculously fun app.

Cooking Dash has you helping out in several restaurants around town. Through tapping and swiping on the screen you seat customers, cook their food, serve it up and then clear them out – hopefully earning a tip. The customers come with different personalities and you’ve got to pay attention because some of them will likely walk out of the restaurant at any minute. Each level gives you a goal to meet and you earn points as you play. At the end of the level if you’ve met your goal you can use your points to buy upgrades for your restaurant. If you didn’t meet your goal then you’ll have to begin the level again.

So far I’ve only made it about halfway through the levels for the first restaurant. There are five restaurants to try and over fifty levels total. Some things I like: Cooking Dash allows you to listen to your own iPod music while you’re playing. It also lets you create more than one player profile. I really liked this feature because my kids and I can both have saved games. Lastly, the app begins with an excellent tutorial. It walks you through the game and really explains things well.

I am really getting a kick out of Cooking Dash. It’s silly fun but it’s completely addicting and a nice way to focus on something besides my ginormous to-do list at the end of the day. Overall it’s a very well done, very smooth and very entertaining app.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: PlayFirst, Inc.

Sparkz is currently my son’s favorite iPhone game and quickly becoming one of my favorites too. It’s one of those simple concepts that’s executed well and will totally suck you in. The design of the game is reminiscent (that’s a big word for a tired mom) of classic arcade games.  You begin in an arena (a solid colored rectangle covering the screen) and you control a diamond shape, the Stix, by dragging your finger around the screen or tilting your iPhone. As you move your finger a line is drawn on the screen.  When the line connects with a side of the rectangle the arena that’s inside that shape disappears, revealing part of a nature picture. You continue doing this until you’ve gotten rid of the entire arena/rectangle. BUT while you are chipping away at the area there is a twirling set of lines called the Squix that’s moving around. If your Stix runs into it the Squix then your turn is over. It’s trickier then it sounds and you’ve got to consider the timing and location of your lines. As you progress through the fifty the levels progress there are additional challenges that appear to make the game more difficult.

Since Sparkz has been on my iPhone it’s become my son’s go-to game and I’ve found it extremely addicting as well. Well done Sparkz.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Codengineer

How many of you out there are on Facebook? I am and I think it’s a nice way to kill time and stay in touch with folks. I’ve reconnected with old friends from college and high school, even elementary school. I’ve also found a way to keep tabs on my siblings even though we’re spread out and all in different phases of life. The Facebook app on my iPhone has been one of my favorite ways to kill time when I’m waiting somewhere in the car. Waiting for soccer practice to be over? Let’s see what my brother’s got going on. Oooh, he just got the new Rock Band so I know his evening will be more exciting than mine. I need a life, I know. I didn’t have a problem with the old Facebook app. It functioned. But I’d heard all the hype and Twitter chatter about the new Facebook 3.0 so I was curious to give it a try. It’s almost like an entirely new app. Still Facebook for the iPhone/iPod Touch but much cooler. Here are the things I like about the new Facebook 3.0

1. The ability to “like” someone’s status or photo or wall post. You could “like” all of this on the website but not on the old Facebook app. Sometimes I appreciate someone’s clever status but I have nothing witty to add as a comment. That’s when I use the “like” choice. I can like what you have to say without saying anything in return. Now I can do that from my iPhone.

2. Favorites – Now I can select friends who are my “Favorites”. They’ll show up on a screen of their own and I can tap the one I want to peek in on. I don’t have to search through all my friends to find these lucky folks.

3.Notifications show up on the main screen and they’re easy to see. Tap it and I see a list of my most recent notifications. If that elementary school friend left me a warm and fuzzy comment earlier in the day and I need a pick me up, I can tap on that notification and read it all over again. Easily.

4. The news feed is cleaner. Underneath posts you can clearly see how many comments or “likes” there are. All I have to do to add my two cents is tap the plus sign next to a post. Then I have the choice to like or comment.

5. On the Friends screen I can see my list of friends and the list of pages that I’ve joined. I am a fan of Mr. Darcy and now I can visit his fan page while I’m on the go and read what’s going on with that group. Did you know that women regularly comment about Mr. Darcy, as if he is a real person? Which he is to many of us, whether we want to admit it or not.

6. Now I can see and write notes in the app. All those silly tags and did you know such and such about me are there.

7. On the news feed I can easily sort what I want to see. If I tap the button in the top right corner of the screen I’ll get some choices. I can roll through and choose to see only updates from pages, status updates, photos, etc. I make my selection and get the filtered list.

8. I can zoom into photos. Not always a good thing to do but I can do it.

9. It works in landscape mode.

10. You can visit links in a window that opens up within the app. So if you click a link it’s not going to take you out of Facebook. When you’re done with the link it’s easy to get back. No more pressing the home button and starting over.

11. It just looks sharper all around.

I’m sure there’s much more that I haven’t discovered about this app. I don’t go for all the games or trading goodies back and forth. I have no idea what Farmville is. I use Facebook to communicate with my friends and family and the Facebook 3.0 app has made that an easier and slicker experience.

If you haven’t updated to the new version click here and get on it!