Check out the latest and greatest in apps for your IOS with our monthly app roundup.
Zombie Carnaval
An endless runner that stands out above the hoard.
There are few game themes more clichéd these days than zombies. Likewise, there are only a few game genres on iOS more overplayed than the Canabalt/Jetpack Joyride endless runner. Yet Zombie Carnaval has produced something polished enough to shamble with the big boys.
Polished enough to scramble with the big boys.
One difference is the fact that you aren’t a single player in this game. You start as a single zombie, but as you progress, you’ll find countless humans waiting for consumption and subsequent zombification, increasing the number in your horde. No matter what befalls members of your zombie troupe, as long as there’s at least one zombie left, the game will continue. Additionally, bigger hordes can break into cars and buses, further adding to your brain count.
Part and parcel of releasing games these days, of course, is inbuilt addiction generators. All the standard ones are found in this game: leaderboards; a never-ending, yet staggered, list of missions and rewards for completing them; a store to spend (or purchase) those rewards; occasional random rewards; and just like a poker machine, no real end to the game.
Despite this, though, there’s barely a game out there that doesn’t throw in a few tricks of psychology to keep the user engaged, and frankly, I don’t fall for such things anyway.
99c > Mobigame > Get it here
PDF Expert
Mobile browsing has become the norm these days, but there are still some things you often can’t do without a fully-fledged PC on hand. One common boon of the iOS netter is PDF support. PDF Expert allows you to access, annotate (including highlight text, make notes or draw with your finger) and fill out PDF forms from your iOS device. Better yet, it supports grabbing documents from email, iDisk, Dropbox, Google Docs and other online services, as well as via USB or Wi-Fi.
$10.49 > Readdle > Get it here
Exponential Invasion
This is a visually minimalistic, yet interesting, take on the classic (and rather common) tower defence game. Rather than using images to display the different towers/soldiers, Exponential Invasion displays them as numbers. You capture the enemy’s towers by putting together a higher number (much the same as in every tower defence game). The trick is to combine numbers as efficiently as possible, as resources are limited. It’s a little too short, but hopefully that will change in the future.
$2.99 > Danny Perski > Get it here
BounceMyX
A cheeky little app that allows you to filter out annoying pen pals by sending a fake ‘bounce’ email in response, meaning you can pretend that you never received that awkward invitation to cousin Henley’s accordion recital. To make it seem that much more plausible, you can even choose from three bounce types: 550 User Unknown, 553 Host Unknown or 554 Mailbox Full. Unfortunately, it only works on IMAP email accounts, so if you’re a POP3 type, you should go buy earplugs instead.
99c > C2SaaS > Get it here