Readers’ App Reviews – May 2012

Read about some great apps made by fellow readers!

Read about some great apps made by fellow readers!

This is a post by Reader’s Apps Reviewer Ryan Poolos, an iOS Developer and founder of Frozen Fire Studios. Checkout his latest game, Cyborg Livestock. Checkout his latest website, iHelp.

Its that time again! May came fast and we’ve got a ton of apps to show for it. You’ve all been very busy building some very fun games and useful apps.

This month there are a lot of super addicting games, making it very hard to actually write the reviews instead of playing. Sorry Ray! :]

You guys blew away Aprils record for submissions. Over 45 incredible apps came through my inbox this month. Thank you all for your submissions.

As you know by now there’s only room to post fifteen reviews per month. Remember its not a popularity contest or judging, this is just something we do to help out our readers and build community. As such, active readers, forum members, and those who submit all the required information gain priority. The apps are not posted in any particular order or rank. Make sure you check out the Honorable mentions to try out the apps I didn’t have room for!

So get ready to find out about some awesomely fun apps and games by fellow readers!

Bricks Trouble Origins

Bricks Trouble Origins is ultra addicting. You’re a space pilot named Jed, and you like to blow up groups of blocks floating in space.

Where’d the blocks come from you ask? Don’t ask questions private!

The trick is you have to convert uneven clusters of bricks into perfect rectangles so they explode, adding some fun strategy to the game.

Features Game Center and OpenFeint so you can compete with your friends for high scores as well!

• Author: Pawel Pieciak @2PGames
• Most useful tutorial: Introduction to In-App Purchases
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Particulate

Particulate is a a fun tool for creating beautiful particle systems on your iPhone.

It’s very fun to play around with but it’s also very powerful. It even has the ability to layer multiple particles from a single emitter!

Performance in my experiments was very impressive as I pushed my aging iPhone 4 to the limits with 6 or 7 layers at a time all with radically different settings ranging from lifespan to color to spin.

It has everything you’d expect from a particle emitter. You can email yourself a plist for your newly created particle or use iTunes file sharing to download it to your computer. I didn’t try it but I’m sure using your created particle in CAParticleEmitter or Cocos2d would be a breeze. So get out there and start making particle systems on the go!

• Author: Tertius Steyn
• Most useful tutorial: UIKit Particle Systems in iOS 5
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Blow Out Monsters

Blow Out Monsters is a great action/strategy game. You control a space ship with a powerful laser cutting through space. Your goal is to divide and conquer all the monsters, by cutting pieces of the board out so the monsters are trapped outside.

The twist is you can turn on and off your laser but when you turn it on you lose your shield and are vulnerable to the monsters attacks. This makes for a really fun game that requires good timing, and better strategy!

• Author: Ibrahim ALIZ @ibrahimaliz
• Most useful tutorial: Rotating Turrets: How To Make A Simple iPhone Game with Cocos2D Part 2
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Color Pad for iPad

Color Pad is a freestyle drawing application with a clean and fun interface that gives you everything you need to make art.

How great that art is will depend on you :]

You can pull in pictures from your iPad’s photo library to give your picture a realistic background. Once you finish you can save it off to your iPad Photo Library or share it with friends through email and Facebook.

Color Pad for iPad is one of the simplest drawing apps I’ve seen. It gets all the interface distractions out of the way so you can just draw. Great for kids or overzealous adults who like to touch every button :)

Good news: Abdul threw in an extra promo for you guys! Grab it quick: YP3P6M4KRPEL. If you snag the code, please draw Abdul a thank you and post it to the comments :) Happy Coloring!

• Author: Abdul Azeem Khan @Abdul_azeem
• Most useful tutorial: How To Create a Simple iPhone App on iOS 5 Tutorial: 1/3
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Gravity Pop

Gravity Pop is an ultra addicting puzzle game where you control gravity itself!

Simple swipes on the screen change the gravity of the game board. Use your new found power over gravity to tip the scales in your favor as you try to pop groups of colored bubbles.

With three exciting game types, three bonus power ups, and global high scores you won’t be bored anytime soon.

Beware, power over gravity is addicting and will ruin other games for you as you try to cheat with simple swipes in other games. I tried to swipe the gravity in Angry Birds but it didn’t work :[ +1 Gravity Pop! Angry Birds 0.

Good news: Jonathan was kind enough to throw in some promos for you guys too! M7MXY9A9NHN4,734K3JYE6EN3,3PNRH46RHFFR,WY4N9R9KNKE3

• Author: Jonathan Sibley @jonsibley
• Most useful tutorial: Beginning Turn-Based Gaming with iOS 5
• App Store Link: Check it out!

Video+

Video+ is a great app for recording video with effects. Some really really cool effects. Its like Camera+ for Video. Imagine that haha!

I didn’t count the effects but I’d bet theres over 30. And each effect has a full range of settings to adjust it. Some can be edited so far it’s almost a completely different effect.

After you’ve recorded your video it’s saved to your Camera Roll so you can do whatever you like with it. Including AirPlay out to your Apple TV. Definitely worth checking this one out.

• Author: Dawid Patek
• Most useful tutorial: OpenGL ES 2.0 for iPhone Tutorial
• App Store Link: Check it out!