February 26th, 2010 by admin

Just a quick post to let you know that Gameheart (of Guacamole / Smash Fiesta! fame) are giving away their iPhone  game - Hoppy  -  over this coming weekend. If you tried and liked Smash Fiesta, then you will love this game as well. But it is one of those super addicting games - so be warned.

You can get a taste for the game in the following demo:

demo:

And, as always - remember to share!

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February 19th, 2010 by admin

Just a quick post to let you know about a new free game that got the thumbs uo at the MacWorld event yesterday. The press release says it all:

Austin, TX (February 18, 2010) – Gendai Games, in conjunction with IDG and the Macworld Expo, is pleased to announce STUNT SQUIRRELS by Fire Maple Games as the Grand Prize winner of the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Stunt Squirrels, a fun new physics puzzler, features blasting death-defying daredevils safely to a goal, while navigating tricky mazes and high-flying obstacles.

The light version is free. We like to see new developers on the scene because that means new (and often free) and better games keep getting put out there. Check the game out and let us know if you agree with the judges decision.

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February 12th, 2010 by admin

Or is this better called: the case of the missing Guacamole?

iPhone game developer, Gameheart, report that they have been forced to change the name of their game - till now called Guacamole. Apple were contacted by a bevy of lawyers from “the world’s biggest toy manufacturer” and told to remove the game from the App store. Apparently they (the biggest toy manufacturer) own the name!

Now understandably, Gameheart are surprised to learn that the word  “guacamole” is owned by anyone.  But the iPhonegizmo team are even more surprised that we could find out so little about it.

Mattel claims that it is the world’s biggest toy manufacturer. So we figured it would be easy to track down the Guacamole game - or whatever - that they were so concerned to “protect” (more on this below). But - no luck. As you can see in the following image - a search of their site turned up nadda.

But, hey, why should we take Mattel’s word for it that they are the biggest? So we checked out the next two contenders: Hasbro and BanDai: “Nothing”!

But there is more to the mystery of the missing Guacamole, Batman!

Because a game of that name - from Mindware - is available at Amazon and also at Funagain.  However!!!! There is no mention of that game on the Mindware site!

We suspect that the “biggest toy manufacturers” lawyers beat us there! And that while suppliers are gonna sell out their stock (can’t you see Amazon giving them the finger? well, only a bit of a finger as their listing changed from “Guacamole” to “Mindware Guacamole” overnight!)  We fear that game won’t be seen again!

Well, you can’t keep a good game down - and Gamehart have smartly renamed their game as Smash Fiesta. Now the game used the ingredients of guacamole as the basis for their fun game - so it made sense to call it Guacamole.

But here is the truly sorry part of that tale. The game has only ever been rated by 170 odd people (and 7 out of 10 give the current version a 4 or 5 star rating). The sad truth is that it is a virtual non-entity. A David to the biggest toy manufacturers’ Goliath! The thugs of the commercial world are afraid of the competition from this tiny, obscure and barely know little app developer. Pathetic really.

But the mystery of the missing Guacamole goes deeper. Because like Gamehart, we were surprised that the name guacamole could be owned by anyone. So we took a visit to the US Copyright Office. There were some 3316 names listed for Mattel, 1723 names listed for Hasbro, and 645 names for BanDai.

And not one of them are called “guacamole” !!

Maybe they are keeping this on the down and low so we all won’t get peeved and NOT buy their game? There is bound to be a backlash - there always is when big boys play bully boys!

Anyhow, we suggest you all go check out what the “worlds biggest manufacturer of toys” is so afraid of that they had to send in their bully boys in to kapow, kabam Apple!

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February 6th, 2010 by admin

Electronic Arts is a game developer that has released over 40  games for the iPhone with great success. They were in at the launch of the iPhone with Spore:

(Spore original - now free - has been rated by a massive 130,000+ users at 3.5 stars)

And they have done so well that Apple invited them back to be one of three game developers to do a presentation at the recent iPad release as well! (And, of course, they used Need For Speed - one of their most downloaded games - to show us just how good games will be on the new platform)

And they are a generous company - at least where potential iPhone  and other mobile users are concerned. Of the 38 EA iPhone games that have a price tag there are also free (basically demo) versions of eight of those games as well. Not enough, you reckon?

Well, we have some good news for you. The iphonegizmo team have discovered a free demo game player where we can try out the demo version of another 12 of the EA iPhone games, including: Need For Speed™ Undercover, American Idol: The Game, Clue, Madden NFL 10, Scrabble, The Sims 3, Star Trek, Tetris, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, Wolfenstein RPG, and Yahtzee. As you can see in the following image, the screen for the demo is smaller than the iPhone screen - and the accelerometer feature is not available.

But, as many of the games in this list are in the top price bracket for EA games - we figure its definitely worth it to trial the game first. So we are pretty pleased with ourselves for finding a way to help you all to do that.

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February 2nd, 2010 by admin

We have so far avoided the hype around the iPad - but the question has to be asked:

“Just where does the iPad sit on our must-haves list?”

After all, most of us have a laptop and/or desk top for use at home and an iPhone/iPod Touch for use on the move. For most of us, the iPad would just an unnecessary extra something to haul around, without really adding any useful functionality for that extra inconvenience.

But it does offer some neat features - and amongst the most exciting, we think, is the gaming fun it will provide:

Neither the laptop nor the iPhone really compete with this. The laptop because it does not have an accelerometer!! and the iPhone because it does not have the size. We think that the gaming feature is its real strength and that it is going to be a significant competitor with the X-box and the PS3. You can be sure Apple is hoping so.

Of course, Apple are saying that the device is an alternative the the Amazon Kindle (which reported massive sales over Christmas). And so it may be. But the vote from the iPhonegizmo team is that its just too big and clunky to really attract book readers to shell out 500 bucks to use it - even with its extra features. The Kindle - at $259 - kinda makes it as a not-too-expensive Christmas gift. BUT, only the most basic iPad will cost the $500.

Well that’s the iPhonegizmo teams take on the iPad. We think it might just be the first Apple clunker - but that the gaming feature might just save it from that fate!

PS: The high quality movie watching feature is a nice extra - but not, we reckon, a deal maker. Especially as sites like Hulu will NOT run on the Ipad (because Apple continues to refuse to allow flash content). The  iPad will go on sale at the end of March. So I guess we will see just how pumped the market is to buy this expensive - but not really necessary - extra device.

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January 14th, 2010 by admin

Currently there are some 3700 plus free games listed in the US iTunes App store.That’s a lot of free games for us to play!

But which ones do we choose? How can we possibly find our way through that many opportunities? Well,  each game can be ranked (not all are - usually because they have had too few people try them out). Rankings do provide some help - we can check to see how many people gave the game a 1 to 5 star rating.

iTunes does also provide a list of the top free games - but the rankings are often old and, in our opinion (the iPhonegizmo team), do not represent the best games on offer.

Well, we decided to find out!  We have a very quick quiz we would like our readers to do. Just one word (usually) is all that’s asked! We want you to tell us (and, eventually, all other readers) what your fav iPhone game is. Just click the image below to let us know:

In case you don’t know how to find all the free games, we will go through two quick ways to find them:

1) Click on the “store” tab at the top left of iTunes.  In the drop down menu  click on “search”.  Then click on all results and choose applications from the drop down menu. A new window will open. Click on categories and choose games from the drop down menu. Make sure you also put a tick in the “search only for free applications” box. When the results come up, click on “show all”

All game results are shown as an icon. The advantage of this is that you can see at a glance the type of game on offer. But it is also a bit tedious as there are only 180 icons per page.

2) An alternative method is to go to the iTunes home page. In the top right hand side column you will see  the “browse” option.  Click on that and when the new page comes up click “App store” - then “game” under category, then “all” under subcategory (or choose the game genre you like).

Now these results can be organized according to various preferences. Because we want all the free games, click “price” to get the list ordered in with the free games at the top. If you scroll down you will see that there are 3709 free games!

Now you can see the problem. So many games, so much choice - arghhh.

So check back for the results of our quiz to get the heads up on which free games are the best!

PS: Click on the game icons above to check out these two complete newbie games - not even been rated yet as they are so new.

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November 28th, 2009 by admin

Recently released and now free - for 33 hours - is the cute game called 9000bc. It began life in September priced at $2.99, had a few upgrades - which eventually saw the price pushed to  $4.99 on Nov 25.

But it is currently FREE, folks, so go grab it while the opportunity lasts - as this one is fun.

Or, you can first preview the game in the following official demo:-

The team here at iPhonegizmo  agree that this is a fast paced, creative control game that make it well worth playing.

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