Our Rating: 9.1/10 [Screenshots]

Version Reviewed: 1.2
Developer: Electronic Arts
Price as of Review: $6.99
Current iTunes Rating: 4.5/5

Need for Speed Undercover is a racing game concocted by one of video gaming legend’s, Electronic Arts.  Although this is probably one of fifty racing games on the iPhone, iPhone App Reviewer could not resist reviewing it.  It’s outstanding graphics and gameplay make it shatter the competition.  With multiple gameplay modes and enough storyline and challenges to let you play for days, Need for Speed Underground is an addicting pleasure.  Not only are the graphics outstanding, but there’s tons of cars and maps to choose from, and all cars have a certain level of customization.

Although I could stop the review right here, there’s more to go.  The graphics are entirely 3D, even the menu has a 3D model car (your current tricked out ride) in the background.  Unfortunately the graphics and high detail considerably affect stability, specifically on loading the game.  Before version 1.2, you’d generally have to try quite a few times just to get the app started (even after fresh restart).

Once you get playing it shouldn’t be a problem, except for the unfortunate parts where you’re facing off against multiple cars at very high speeds.  Even with the customizable cars, the game lacks settings, I’ve yet to see a racing game with customizable environment settings such as friction, drift ease, wind resistance and so on.  Not to mention that there’s only a few basic car customizations.  After that, just appearance.

If you’re looking for a single player racing game that will last for hours on end, look absolutely no further.  Unfortunately, iPhone App Reviewer has found a few down falls to an otherwise perfect racing game, just scraping it away from that perfect 10 rating.  Maybe later they’ll add more maps and multiplayer modes…perhaps… (EA has a history for not updating their games features much).

Final Ratings:

Gameplay: 9.2/10  – Everyone loves a good racing game, Need for Speed Underground has multiple gameplay modes and an awesome amount of maps.

Enjoyment: 9.8/10 – Without doubt it’s in the top 10 games on iPhone App Reviewer’s list.

Graphics: 9.5/10 – Just at the level where it won’t slow down the game entirely, perfectly detailed and high res.  Just anti alias a little more.

Sound: 8.5/10 – Love the sound track, unfortunately it can be a bit distracting and not of a majority of the users taste.

Technology: 8.5/10 – Just improve performance a tad, luckily the 1.2 update fixed several errors…keep it up Electronic Arts.

Replay Value: 9/10 – A huge storyline mode that as mentioned above, will leave lots to play.

Final Rating: 9.1/10

Further Improvements:

• Multiplayer Mode
• Environment Settings
• Performance Enhancement

More screenshots here.

Other Reviews on Need for Speed Undercover for iPhone and iPod Touch:

• Need for Speed Undercover Review on IGN
• Need for Speed Undercover Review on PocketGamer
• Need for Speed Undercover Review on VideoGamer
• Need for Speed Undercover Review on Slide To Play
• Need for Speed Undercover Review on AppVee

Why does iPhone App Reviewer link to other reviewing sites?  Because if you’re not 100% satisfied with the quality of our review, then we encourage you to go elsewhere.  The point of iPhone App Reviewer is to give you an honest, open opinion of the application.

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Our Rating: 7.2/10 [Screenshots]

Version Reviewed: 1.2
Developer: Tiger Shark Games
Price as of Review: $0.99
Current iTunes Rating: 3.5/5

Soldier Ants is a concept that’s been done numerous times on Internet flash games; the concept will live on throughout gaming forever, probably.  Soldier Ants is a 2D game where you face off against computer or human ant army opponents.  Armed with several cartoon ants and a large variety of weapons you’ll go around the poorly rendered maps battling it out.  Game modes are customizable allowing for probably about a week of gameplay before getting completely bored out of your mind.

The gameplay of Soldier Ants is what makes it outstanding as a game, and really, about the only thing that makes it worth buying.  With tons of weapons ranging from close range to long range and explosive to subtle there is fun to be around here.  Although the graphics aren’t much on the eyes, nothing beats torching your opponent to the ground with acid or a flamethrower.  Gameplay is on a turn by turn basis – [here is when I'd normally say "Soldier Ants has a just-one-more-turn addiction to it" but I'm afraid it doesn't make the cut].  Between the weapon drops and explosions the map will dynamically change, similar to the sort of deteriorating map effect found in iShoot [iTunes Link].

Although the gameplay sounds nice, it’s bogged down by poor graphics, horribly inaccurate controls, and a deplorable amount of stability.  One of your ants may be able to jetpack across the map but I’m afraid you won’t be able to.  If you’re a fan of 2D platform team vs. team style games, you should check out Soldier Ants at a relatively fair price of $0.99.  There’s a lite version available for free here [iTunes Link].  All in all, if you can get past the immense amount of severe annoyances, Soldier Ants does well for a quick pick up and play game.  Otherwise, stay away.

Final Ratings:

Gameplay: 8.7/10 – Lots to the gameplay, variety of weapons.

Enjoyment: 6.5/10 – Needs a lot of improvements before I can seriously enjoy this game.

Graphics: 6.5/10 – Very colourful but the graphics look like they were done very lazily and on a much lower resolution then the iPhone’s 320×480

Sound: 8/10 – Nothing to complain about here.

Technology: 6/10 – No use of the accelerometer, touch controls are hella buggy.

Replay Value: 7/10 – Because of the many gameplay modes and customization per game this can be fun to come back to, but not for very long.

Overall Rating: 7.2/10 -

Further Improvements: (Note to the developer)

• Fix unresponsive touch controls
• Fix misc. glitches
• Wi-fi multiplayer mode
• Bring graphics up to the capability of the iPhone
• What about some accelerometer madness?

More screenshots here.

Other Reviews on Soldier Ants for iPhone and iPod Touch:

• Soldier Ants Review by iPhoneApps-Review

Why does iPhone App Reviewer link to other reviewing sites?  Because if you’re not 100% satisfied with the quality of our review, then we encourage you to go elsewhere.  The point of iPhone App Reviewer is to give you an honest, open opinion of the application.

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• myMeditation
• Balls Up
• Iron Fist Boxing

myMeditation [iTunes Link] – [Screenshots]

Current Price: $2.99
Category: Health & Fitness
Developer: BLT Helps
Current iTunes Rating: 4/5
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Looking to learn meditation or want a guide to your already novice skills?  myMeditation is an all in one iPhone meditation tool.  It includes learning resources and an advanced timer with alert sounds.  BLT Helps amazingly developed this application, it can be customized in so many ways.  Especially with myself, meditation is a great thing and this app got me started.  I’d recommend a great set of noise cancelling headphones.

Definitely check out myMeditation if you want an outlet to relaxation.  Not to mention it’s on your iPhone or iPod Touch so if you want to meditate on the go, let’s say on the bus, myMeditation is there for you.

Final Rating: 8.2/10

Balls Up [iTunes Link] – [Screenshots]

Current Price: $0.99
Category: Games
Developer: Games
Current iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Balls Up goes on a classic gaming paradigm of getting the highest score possible.  In this case you must bounce a soccer ball for as long as possible, aiming to beat your high score, as well as the online leaderboards.  Unfortunately there is no customizing available for the application which leaves you with the same dry concept over and over again.  It’s addicting enough that for a dollar why not give it a try?

It’s continuous gameplay style allows you to put it away and pick it up whenever which is ideal for mobile cell phone gaming.  If you’ve been looking for a game like this on the iPhone, you’re pretty much limited to Balls Up but it’s a good choice.  Wondering if this is for you?  Fans of Scoops, Sky Burger, and Frenzic, or any other highly addictive game should enjoy this.

Overall Rating: 6.7/10

Iron Fist Boxing [iTunes Link] – [Screenshots]

Current Price: $3.99
Category: Games
Developer: Realtech VR
Current iTunes Rating: 3.5/5
Version Reviewed: 2.0

Iron Fist Boxing is the first impressive looking virtual boxing game on the iPhone.  The graphics and gameplay are awesome but unfortunately the game is seriously bogged down by a poor touch response system.  The control scheme has potential but is very glitchy.  The whole app itself has some serious stability problems.  Luckily I don’t think boxing game fans will be discouraged by these faults, $3.99 is just around the perfect price so hopefully quite a few will give it a punch (eheh, that’s the first but last lame pun).

Besides stability the application was well developed and as you can see in the screenshots Realtech VR put some serious time into rendering and drawing the graphics.  Iron Fist Boxing tried to use a bunch of the iPhone’s capabilities but failed enough to put a serious drawback to the app.

Final Rating: 7.1/10

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Figure 1

An accelerometer uses tiny weighted springs which pressure or other sensors read their level.  Gravity will push each axis’ spring which is loaded with a specific mechanical resistance.  The iPhone then reads the levels of each sensor to find out what direction the iPhone is facing, how fast it’s moving, and what angle it’s tilted at.  See Figure 1 for a small diagram on how this works.  Anyways, by reading different combinations of the axis’ values, the iPhone’s firmware can then send presets and exact information to applications.

Figure 2 - Image from and owned by Spark Fun (http://sparkfun.com)

Even though this may sound like a complex process, the hardware inside the iPhone can process it in milliseconds.  And yes, this works the exact same for the iPod Touch.  You can see a picture of what an accelerometer looks like (probably not the one in the actual iPhone) in Figure 2.  Hope you enjoyed the post!

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