Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
Fun for kids and adults: Pickin' Stix
Pickin' Stix (click opens iTunes) took me back to my childhood in the early sixties, when I had a little cylinder filled with colorful plastic "Pickup Sticks". You'd toss 'em in a pile, and then try to pick them up without disturbing the other sticks. Not only was it a great way to stay engrossed for a while, but it was also teaching me and my friends manual dexterity, as well as how to use our depth and relational perception to figure out how to move a stick without moving any others. Now Jonathan Tenkely has come out with his iPhone version, just the thing to pass to the kids when they're bored and you want to keep them out of trouble. Jonathan's wife Kelly is an educator who runs the great iLearn Technology blog, so it's not surprising that his first iPhone app is a combination of fun and learning.
With the US$0.99 Pickin' Stix, you shake the iPhone to "toss" the sticks, then use a finger to "pick them up". The better you do at tapping on the top sticks, the faster you'll get done. You lose points for tapping on sticks that are partially under other sticks.
The only complaint I have is that Pickin' Stix, currently in a 1.0 release, has no way to keep your best time or score, or to compare your time to others. I'd also like to see an advanced mode with more sticks to pick up for an additional challenge, and a way to pause a game. And if Tenkely can figure out a way to get a kid to give the iPhone back to you after you've let 'em play for a while, he'll have it made!
What other childhood favorites would you like to see on the iPhone and iPod touch? Let us know in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tom said 7:18PM on 5-16-2009
Did Pickin' Stix pay you to write that? It read more like an advertisement than a blog post.
Also, I understand the purpose of reviewing an app that adds an important feature (for example, an earlier review that focused on an alternative dialing program) but dedicating a full post to an unspectacular .99 game?
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Greg T said 11:42PM on 5-16-2009
I would love to see a "Merlin" or "Speak 'n Spell" Emulator for the iPhone as well as any Atari 2600 remakes like "Adventure." I love the LED game remakes that are out there as well ( i.e. LED Football).
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scobis215 said 12:31AM on 5-17-2009
why not just get kids real pick up sticks so they're not staring at a screen?
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john said 1:42PM on 5-17-2009
I agree that real toys are usually better than digital simulations, but I have a couple of simple games on my phone for the kid. It comes in handy when there's little else for her to do. It's not like my iPhone is her personal toy, but rather as a last-resort entertainment option to keep her brain occupied if we're stuck waiting somewhere.
carmatic said 2:50PM on 5-17-2009
this app would be great, if the iphone somehow had a volumetric display... right now it looks like some kind of MC Eischer optical illusion when the different sticks overlap over and under each other, mainly because it has no depth perception
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nvidia2008 said 1:55AM on 5-18-2009
Some sort of "Mancala" iPhone App game would be cool. It brings me back to the game of "Congkak" in Malaysia, which is a form of Mancala game...
Maybe you can do a review on some Mancala iPhone Apps?
Passed by my old elementary school today... Childhood memories... Ah, not a simpler time for me, just a different time.
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nvidia2008 said 1:57AM on 5-18-2009
What do you think of Mancala by FlipSide5? Reviews would be great.
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