TuawsDailyIphoneApp Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPhone App: Blot

by Mike Schramm (Jan 30th, 2012)

There's a lot of buzz around cloning apps lately. Zynga recently received some flak for making a clone of Tiny Tower, and there's a big lawsuit around Triple Town and its clone Yeti Town. I would argue that there's a right way and a wrong way to clone an idea. Blatant rip-offs are obviously wrong. ...

Daily iPhone App: Infinity Blade 2

by Mike Schramm (Dec 1st, 2011)

Yes, it's out. Go get it right now. Oh, you're still here? Well then I guess I'll tell you that Infinity Blade is even bigger and better than before. There are now multiple classes and play styles, including dual wield and two-handed in addition to the standard sword-and-board hack and slash ...

Daily iPhone App: Sea Stars

by Mike Schramm (Nov 28th, 2011)

Sea Stars is Hothead's latest game on the App Store, and it's really good. You play as a little fish who can swim and jump through water with a touch of the screen. Your goal is to swim as far as possible while avoiding obstacles. It's quite fun and well done. There's just one big issue: The ...

Daily iPhone App: Asteroids Gunner

by Mike Schramm (Nov 16th, 2011)

I launched Asteroids Gunner with low expectations. Asteroids is one of the oldest games around, and it's hard to see how even Atari can squeeze anything more from this relic. But lo and behold, it has. Asteroids Gunner is a remarkable freemium dual-stick shooter, turning the top-down 2D ...

Daily iPhone App: Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls

by Mike Schramm (Nov 8th, 2011)

I'm torn on spotlighting Wizardry here -- on the one hand, it's a pretty successful rendition of the old computer role-playing games made for the Apple II and other platforms. Once you figure it out, the turn-based gameplay is nicely complex and provides for some pretty fun dungeon crawling, ...

Daily iPhone App: Gem Keeper

by Mike Schramm (Nov 3rd, 2011)

Gem Keeper is a relatively new game from developer NCSoft, which usually makes Korean MMO titles for the PC. The company has released a couple of apps for iOS, but this is the first full game made for North American audiences -- and it's a good one. It's a pretty basic tower defense title, but ...

Daily iPhone App: Fara

by Mike Schramm (Nov 1st, 2011)

Fara is quite a game. The gameplay itself new -- in fact, the script even jokes that the hack-and-slash, Zelda-style title has been done before (by a guy in a green cap). It's Fara's style that's special. The backgrounds and characters are all hand-painted, and the script's self-referential ...

Daily iPhone App: Dark Meadow

by Mike Schramm (Oct 28th, 2011)

Dark Meadow isn't really my kind of app -- it's a little too scary for my tastes, and I tend to gravitate away from scary games in general. But we did mention it as a quality app in our recent Halloween roundup, and a new update for the app increases the game's level cap, adds a New Game+ ...

Daily iPhone App: To-Fu 2

by Mike Schramm (Oct 27th, 2011)

To-Fu 2 (universal) is the sequel to Tofu: The Trials of Chi, an app that we covered not too long ago. This one features similar puzzle-esque tofu throwing, some new moves and 100 all-new levels. There's also a new time trial mode, in which you must collect as much Chi as possible. Game Center ...

Daily iPhone App: Pop Kingdom

by Mike Schramm (Oct 26th, 2011)

Pop Kingdom is a delightful game and similar to Bubble Bobble and Snood. The goal is to shoot orbs to the top of the screen, matching colors in chains of three or more before they fall to the bottom. But there's a twist, in that Pop Kingdom offers RPG elements. You play as either Will or Kate ...

Daily iPhone App: Age of Monsters - Rock Paper Scissors

by Mike Schramm (Oct 24th, 2011)

Jeff Matsuda is the award-winning creator of the cartoon series The Batman, and while his style doesn't appeal to me personally, it is quite distinctive, and can make for some really cool looks. Matsuda has put his skills to work in Age of Monsters - Rock Paper Scissors, in which monsters ...

Daily iPhone App: Mage Gauntlet

by Mike Schramm (Oct 21st, 2011)

I'll be straightforward on this one: Mage Gauntlet is one of the best iOS games of the year. It's a throwback RPG to the 16-bit days of Secret of Mana and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, put together by Rocketcat Games, the folks responsible for the great Hook Champ and subsequent Hook ...

Daily iPhone App: Magic Defenders

by Mike Schramm (Oct 20th, 2011)

Magic Defenders isn't new, but it has claimed a lot of my iPhone gaming time lately. It's a tower defense game, so if you like that genre, odds are that you'll like this one. Instead of building towers, you play the game as a mage that's casting spells against waves of attackers. The game ...

Daily iPhone App: Scribblenauts Remix

by Mike Schramm (Oct 13th, 2011)

I remember hearing way, way back that Scribblenauts might be headed to iOS, but when the dust finally settled on the iOS 5 transition yesterday, among the (many -- we'll see more in the next few days) great new releases on the App Store, this one definitely stood out. Warner Brothers and ...

Daily iPhone App: Aiko Island

by Mike Schramm (Oct 12th, 2011)

Aiko Island is a physics puzzler with a little different take than usual -- instead of flinging cute little guys around, you're instead working to keep them from falling off of the screen. The idea is that there are little blue creatures and little red creatures, and by deleting some of the red ...