Review: Groovy Beats

Groovy Beats is a DJ loop creator that'll let you create phat beats to drop on the kids or something. I'm not a big music guy, so I'm not really up on the lingo. However, I'll try to explain things as best I can.

Groovy Beats gives you eight tracks 16, 32, 48, or 64 beats in length depending on how much space you need. You pick a sound for each track like a percussive sound, or a single piano tone, choose the beats where you want the sounds to play, then let 'er rip. You'll be left with a music loop of around 1 1/2 to 17 seconds, depending on the tempo you choose.

UI
Clean, and nice to look at. By necessity, there's a lot of stuff on the screen at once, though, so if you have fat fingers like I do, you may end up with the occasional mis-tap. Also, it can lag a bit every now and then. Overall, it's a very effective setup.

Usefulness:
It's not the deepest or most robust loop creator out there, but it gets the job done. Unfortunately, the free version doesn't give you any way to save your work, so that costs it a fairly large chunk of its usefulness.

Reusability:
Near infinite. If you ever need a music loop for a project, or even if you just like making them, Groovy Beats will have you coming back over and over again. The free version comes with over 100 sounds to choose from, and you can purchase hundreds more.

What I Liked
-Plenty of sounds to choose from.
-Easily-adjustable tempo and volume controls.

What I Hated
-Fat fingers can cause a few mis-taps.
-No auto-save.
-No way to mute a single track.
-The save feature isn't free.

Final Verdict:
Groovy Beats will certainly let you create some groovy beats, but it has a few quirks, and you need to lay down a buck if you want it to be really useful.

Groovy Beats is available for free with in-app purchases from XLabz Technologies Pvt Ltd on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: Stick Tennis

Stick Tennis is perhaps the best tennis game for mobile devices that don't end in DS or SP, but is it actually any good?

Graphics:
The UI is very well done. It's slick, it's clean, and it's shiny.

The characters are similarly well done, and the animation is smooth for the most part. There's some slight jerkiness when moving between running and swinging the racket, but I'm not expecting incredible motion interpolation from a 2D mobile game, and the speed of the action hides it pretty well.

The backgrounds, and the courts all seem to be built out of the same basic parts. They look good, but they're not overly impressive.

Sound:
No music that I could find. There's a little bit of cheering and groaning from the crowd, and the umpire is suitably cold and impartial. The few grunts you hear from the women get a little annoying after a while, and there only seems to be one racket swing and one ball hit, both of which get old really fast. The fidelity is fine, and overall the umpire's sounds make up for the lack of variation in everything else.

Gameplay:
This is where Stick Tennis really falters. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the platform, there's only so much you can do. You can tap, and you can swipe. In this case, you tap to toss the ball up on a serve, and you swipe to hit it. Changing the direction of your swipe has a moderate affect on where the ball goes, but sometimes it doesn't seem to make much difference. You have no control over the movement of your player, or the power of your shot; both are automatic. I found myself getting incredibly frustrated at my player's inability to put the ball where I wanted it, or to even get to the ball.

The timing on returns is very harsh. You have a very, very small window in which to hit the ball, and since you have no way of controlling when your player will (or even if they will) be near the ball, there's far more guesswork involved than I'd like. With a little practice, I was able to return the ball with some regularity, but I still experienced far more missed swipes of the racket than I was comfortable with.

There are seven ways to play: Four tournaments, a daily challenge, practice mode, and world domination, where you take on some of the all-time greats to prove your worth. They all seem to be more or less the same, though. The ball may move a little bit faster on grass courts than on clay, but I couldn't really tell the difference. All the opponents seem to play pretty much the same, too. Then men serve faster, and overall, the higher-ranked players seem to hit the ball faster, but there doesn't seem to be any discernible difference between their ability to get to the ball when it's on their side of the court. Having a lot of options is nice, but you're mainly choosing between playing on a blue background or a green one.

The free version gives you access to the first round of each tournament, and you can pay $2.99 to unlock the rest. But, I fail to see how games in the second round would be any different from those in the first.

What I liked:
-The UI is excellent.
-The animation is more than sufficient.
-The umpire is a cold, unfeeling bastard. Just as he should be.

What I hated:
-When playing in a tournament, you have to wait a few seconds for the game to calculate the results of the other brackets before you can get to the action. Seems unnecessary.
-Most rounds feel exactly the same.
-Window in which to return the ball is very small.
-Incredibly limited controls make for frustrating gameplay.

Final Verdict:
Stick Tennis is a slick production with a lot of time and effort behind it, but the limited controls and lack of variation in the gameplay mean the game just plain isn't much fun. Tablets and phones just aren't the place for a tennis game, unfortunately.

Stick Tennis is available with in-app purchases for free from Stick Sports Ltd on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.1.1

Review: Space Worm

There's a worm in space! A space worm! It needs space fruit, and it's your job to help it get some.

Graphics:
Nice backgrounds showing the majesty that is outer space. The space worm itself is nicely drawn, and the skulls are appropriately skully.

Sound:
None.

Gameplay:
Tap or drag on the screen to collect fruit(and onions for some reason) while avoiding skulls. Very limited. Very repetitive. Over very quickly, if you want to get in a quick round of something.

What I liked:
-You can submit your scores to a high score list. I don't do that sort of thing, but it's nice to have the option.

What I hated:
-When you reach certain scores(I think) the screen will inexplicably turn black.
-The space worm moves slowly, and eventually the game becomes entirely based on luck.

Final Verdict:
Space Worm's graphics far outweigh any of its other qualities.

Space Worm is available for free from DS Effects on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 2.0

Review: Optical Illusions Free

You want optical illusions? You got 'em! Well, you got five of 'em.

UI
Surprisingly well done. The buttons are large enough to use easily, and very responsive.

Usefulness:
Not at all useful. Shows you five optical illusion images, and that's it.

Reusability:
Once you've seen the five illusions it has, you're probably not going to want to use it again.

What I Liked
-Each illusion comes with an explanation of how it works.

What I Hated
-Buttons I thought were for emailing or tweeting the illusion are really just to email or tweet about the app.

Final Verdict:
Well done, but very limited. If you like illusions you might want to upgrade, but it's nothing you can't get for free on 100 websites.

Optical Illusions Free is available for free from ADDENDUM SOLUTIONS on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: Over10Levels

Over10Levels has more than ten levels. How many does it have? You won't care because they're all the same, and they're all terrible.

Graphics:
Terrible backgrounds fronted by coloured circles with numbers in them. The numbers aren't even centred.

Sound:
None.

Gameplay:
Tap the circles with the highest number you can find, I think. The instructions weren't exactly clear.

What I liked:
-Nothing

What I hated:
-The graphics are lousy.
-Even with minimal graphics and no sound, it still has a 59mb install size somehow.
-Instructions were very poor. They seem to have been written by someone for whom English is a second language. While I don't expect everyone to speak English, I at least expect their translations to make some sense.

Final Verdict:
Over10Levels is one more piece of Android garbage. Stay away from it.

Over10Levels is available for free from Apportunity on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: WordStone

WordStone is a game of swapping. Swapping stones to make words. Hence the name: WordSwap... wait, that's not right.

Graphics:
They've gone for a kind of ancient civilization motif, which I like, although it doesn't lend itself to a lot of colour in this case. In general, the graphics aren't terribly impressive, but that's not really necessary for a game of this type.

Sound:
One looping music track and a few effects. Everything seems to fit within the ancient civilization theme, and while they're limited, the effects work relatively well. The music and effects have independent volume controls, which I always appreciate.

Gameplay:
Swap letters around to form words and remove tiles while the board slowly builds, line-by-line towards the bottom. There are a few random tiles like bombs and immovable letters that mix things up a bit, but overall the gameplay's pretty simple. As you proceed, things speed up, and it takes more words to clear the board. Pretty standard.

What I liked:
-The dictionary appears to be reasonably comprehensive.
-The game design has a theme. It's a bit cliche and overused, but a theme is a theme.
-Multiple ways to swap letters.
-Comprehensive instructions. Never underestimate the importance of instructions.

What I hated:
-Instructions contain rules for the PC version as well. Would it have been so tough to make two builds
-No unlimited mode. I could be using those precious seconds that it takes me to start a new round to play!
-Sometimes it's just impossible to make a word. I had a situation where there was nothing I could do but quit or wait for the level to end. That's always a bummer.
-I think I found a few bugs.

Final Verdict:
A few refinements, and this would be an excellent way to pass the time.

WordStone is available for free from Ocean Breeze Games Inc. on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: Word Fury

Word Fury is a furious word game. Furious in terms of speed and excitement, not anger.

It features support for RIM's Scoreloop score-tracking thingy, but I'm not into that.

Graphics:
Simplistic, but appropriate. The letter tiles are of sufficient size to be hit without difficulty, and the backgrounds do not furiously detract from the overall experience.

Sound:
One looping music track and a few sound effects. Both the music and effects can be turned on and off independendtly, which should be standard practice by now, but isn't for some reason. This makes me very angry. Furious, you might say.

Gameplay:
Fairly repetitive. You tap the letters to spell words, and earn points based on how long the words are. As a twist, you can only use letter tiles whose colour corresponds to the tile colour in your word bar at the top of the screen. Sometimes the letters will be worth more than one point, and sometimes you'll enter "Double Point Mode", but this seems to be random.

What I liked:
-The dictionary seems to be fairly large.
-A lot of replayability.
-Fury!

What I hated:
-The letters you can't use don't fade out quite enough, so it's difficult to tell what you can and cannot use.
-Difficulty doesn't seem to increase as you proceed. Level 21 was no more difficult than level 1, it just took longer.
-No unlimited mode. Sometimes a guy just wants to play without limits.
-Sound effects and music seemed to cut out randomly. I wasn't able to reproduce this consistently, though, so it's just a minor quibble.
-Asks you to accept or reject the Scoreloop TOS at every launch (at least if you don't accept it), and crashes out if you don't respond quickly enough.

Final Verdict:
A fun time-waster with a few quirks that keep it from being truly great. Unleash the fury!

Word Fury is available for free from Fakehalo on BlackBerry App World
Reviewed version 2.1.0.2

Review: Fire Engines Lite

Fire Engines Lite promises you fire engines, and that's what it delivers. No more, no less.

Graphics:
There really isn't much to say about the graphics. The start screen is white with three words and a photo of a fire engine. The only other screen is black with flames at the bottom and consists mainly of fifteen small photos and images of fire engines, one of which is actually a duplicate of an earlier image with the drop shadow erased.

Sound:
Three fire engine sounds, each about two seconds long. They're of relatively good quality, although I did hear a few pops in one, and another sounds as if it was cut off at the end.

Gameplay:
No real gameplay to speak of. Although this was placed under the games section, I'm not sure how it qualifies. You tap on the small pictures of fire engines. Those on the left will spin, those in the middle will fade out then fade back in, and the ones on the right will move off screen to the left and then move back. That's it. Oh, and some of them will play a sound when you tap. Some, not all.

What I liked:
-It's free.

What I hated:
-The UI (such as it is) is unresponsive.
-The graphics are mainly terrible.
-There are only three sounds, despite the existence of 15 different fire engines.

Final Verdict:
Fire Engines Lite is yet another piece of awful Android port garbage. You should avoid it unless you really, really like fire engines. Like a lot. Like in a way you don't want your parents to find out about.

Fire Engines Lite is ad-supported and available for free from Riverside Studios on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.1

Review: Tabla

The tabla is an Indian percussion instrument, and Tabla gives you one on your PlayBook. Sort of.

Graphics:
Three images: A small tabla and two backgrounds. One of which appears to be an out of focus photo of a rug. Also an icon in the top right that gives you a little info.

Sound:
Three different tabla sounds. Not sounds from three different tabla. Three sounds total. They're of decent fidelity, though.

Gameplay:
None to speak of. You tap the tabla and it plays one of three sounds, depending on where you tapped it. That's it. Another miscategorized app.

What I liked:
-Different background depending on the orientation of your tablet.

What I hated:
-Instrument is tiny and it's therefore difficult to play the tone you want.
-After 32 taps, the instrument becomes unresponsive.
-Only three sounds. How the heck am I supposed to play MacArthur Park with only three sounds?

Final Verdict:
The info box claims updates will be coming soon, but as it stands, this is just one more piece of useless Android port trash. Go out and buy a second-hand tabla for a few bucks and learn to play it instead of downloading this app.

Tabla is available for free from SOLVER LOFT GPS MAPS on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: The Thinkers

The Thinkers is a Canadian political comic strip by Lore Santos, and now you can get it on your BlackBerry PlayBook. Aren't you lucky.

Each strip features one or more bookends in the shape of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, and associated speech bubbles.

UI
No buttons to speak of, just text on the top and bottom that you can click. Regardless of orientation, the whole app won't fit on your screen, so you have to scroll around to get to things.

Usefulness:
It lets you read what I assume are all the comics. That's fairly useful if you're into The Thinkers.

Reusability:
Although it was released in March (but only popped up on the new releases list today), the latest comic is from August 2011. While more are promised, with only around 30 comics included, you'll burn through things pretty quickly.

What I Liked
-Someone else is interested in Canadian politics. I thought I was the only one.

What I Hated
-Many of the comics have typos. I'm sure I make them all the time as well, but I'm not a fan either way.
-The comics aren't resized to fit the screen, so you have to scroll the image to see everything. That's just inexcusable.

Final Verdict:
This one needs a little bit of work and a lot more content before it's worth your time.

The Thinkers is available for free from swcrusade on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.0

Review: Modern Postcard

Modern Postcard is an Android port that allows you to design fancy postcards or greeting cards to send to your friends and family. Or your enemies and strangers if that's your thing.

You begin by choosing one of dozens of colourful backgrounds, then you can add text and clip art, and email it to whoever you want.

UI
Seven large, bright icons on the bottom of the screen make up the UI. They're responsive, although they don't give you any indication that you've successfully clicked them. As an Android port, it requires you to click the soft Back button that the PlayBook lacks, which can be a bit annoying.

When you add text, there are buttons to enlarge and shrink the font, and you can change the text box size with a multi-touch gesture.

Scrolling through the list of backgrounds and images is relatively smooth, but can take a long time since there are quite a few.

Usefulness:
The postcards it creates are fairly nice, and there are dozens of options to choose from, so if you're into making cards, or if you need to bang something out quickly for a friend whose birthday you forgot, then this app is perfect.

Reusability:
With backgrounds for a variety of holidays and occasions, you'll be able to use Modern Postcard over and over again.

What I Liked
-Plenty of variety to the backgrounds and clip art.
-Ads are fairly unobtrusive.
-Direct way to send your work to the recipient.

What I Hated
-The list of clip art images isn't organized for quick and easy access.
-Resizing the text boxes requires a two-finger touch, and regardless of positioning, the second finger resizes the box from the bottom left corner.
-There doesn't seem to be a way to change the font.
-One of the icons doesn't seem to actually do anything, and another just gives you a slightly smaller view of the card you just created.
-No clear way to save your work.
-Only works in portrait orientation, when most postcards tend to be in landscape.

Final Verdict:
It's far from perfect, but Modern Postcard is a pretty good way to make a quick card when you need one.

Modern Postcard is ad-supported and available for free from kidgames on BlackBerry App World.
Reviewed version 1.0.0.1