iPhone Street Fighter 4 Released

The wait is finally over and all you street fighter fans out there can finally start kicking butt on your iphone!

The Game Developer’s Conference is currently underway in San Francisco this week and during last night’s super secret Street Fighter event, Capcom pulled the switch and put Street Fighter IV onto the App Store.

Street Fighter IV will cost you $9.99 and feature 8 out of the 19 characters from the console versions.  A new ‘Dojo’ mode is also available on Street Fighter IV iPhone, which serves as a way for players to practice simple moves, to more advanced ones.  Multiplayer is possible as well via Bluetooth, so traveling street fighters can take on everybody no matter where they go.

This game is awesome and has some pretty cool graphics and responsive game play that all street fighter fans will enjoy!

Assassin’s Creed II For Free

The free price is only for the first 48 hours and it started today so if you are or aren’t into this game download it any way and check it out.  Its actually a pretty fun game.  You get to sneak around trying to assassinate other players, what could be funner than that.  Since it is free you and all your iPhone toting friends could all download it and have some pretty fun battles.

A multiplayer follow-up of sorts to last year’s Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery, Multiplayer features online multiplayer from a top-down perspective. Your goal is to find the appropriate hit contracts and defeat the corresponding assassins, which are controlled by other players.

Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer’s nominal price is $2.99, but it will remain free for the first 48 hours after its release. Even if you’re lukewarm on the concept, doesn’t seem like a bad idea to go and pick it up regardless. Check it out in the iTunes App Store.

Final Fantasy App Released

If you love classic NES game you will love the latest app available in the App store.  You can now relive the 8o’s iPhone style with the latest release from Square Enix.

Classic role-playing games Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II have been released on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Publisher Square Enix announced both games are now available in Apple’s App Store for $8.99.  I wonder what the price of the original game of NES was back in the 80’s.

Both titles, which were originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late-1980s, include specially designed controls tailored to the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as additional dungeons not featured in the original release.

So bring back memories and enjoy a few new adventures with these all time classic games that forever changed the face of gaming.  Make sure to check out the comments in the app store they are hilarious.  Some people claim to be so excited that they defecated in there pants while other now love their iPhone more than their children.

NASA Releases iPhone Game

NASA has released its first iPhone game, as the agency continues its relentless conquest of new media

Starting Monday, you can virtually drive a fictional Lunar Electric Rover on a future lunar outpost. The game is free and available through the iTunes store.

Noted for its use of Twitter and educational iPhone apps, NASA has been at the forefront of government engagement with new media of all types. This one grew out of the agency’s video podcast show, NASA Edge.

“We wanted to make this a cool game instead of an app where you just retrieve information,” said Chris Giersch, the host of NASA EDGE.

The game is very simple. As the game review site Krapps notes, the gameplay is a bit “Pacmanish.” Beyond driving around the rover, you can also see images from the proposed lunar outpost and learn more about what life on the Moon might be like.

For the first iteration, NASA decided not to go too extravagant. “We thought about going high-tech and going really jazzy, but for this first version, let’s just keep it basic,” Giersch said.

The Lunar Electric Rover in the game is based on a prototype tested at the Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona. It would have been part of a planned lunar outpost under the old NASA Constellation solar system exploration plan.

The game was developed by Analytical Mechanics Association at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Hour Face App Review

A disturbing new iPhone app called Hour Face is freaking out young and old… by making the young look old. Hour Face is an iPhone app created by Motion Portrait inc., a software firm located in Tokyo’s Shinagawa ward. The app utilizes some of the iPhone’s more advanced capabilities to turn the popular smartphone into a virtual time machine of sorts.

Unfortunately, Hour Face’s version of time travel only involves making your face look older… and older… and the process is so realistic that watching it can be quite distressing. Check out the following short video in which an unlucky female reporter for Japan’s NTV “Zoom In” morning show visits Motion Portrait’s head office to try out Hour Face. Check it out here :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvITBdsBbUo&feature=player_embedded

Hour Face has enjoyed over 100,000 downloads in Japan alone and it costs 350 yen (about $3.90) there. It’s also available on this side of the pond for only $1.99 per download.

Zane Savage conducts a video review of Hour Face that points out some of the lesser known features. For example, once you age an image to the max and shake your smartphone, the on-screen oldster has a short coughing fit. Watch Zane ’splain here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goNos4yzOyo&feature=player_embedded

In a nutshell, take a photo of your face with your iPhone and save it (you can save multiple faces), then start the Hour Face app. Your phone will send the image to a remote server which then sends the image back to your phone as a pseudo 3D image – kinda weird as the image shifts his/her head and blinks.

The freak show is just getting started, though. A scroll bar at the side of the screen allows you to age the image, taking you from the present day to the far future faster than you can say “flux capacitor”. You can also de-age yourself, which doesn’t work nearly as well – don’t expect to morph into your baby pics. (via Japan Probe)

Mercury App Review

Developer iLegendSoft has this iPhone app that acts as a web browser. It’s a good app, although it can take its toll on a first-gen iPhone’s hardware. We’re not surprised Apple is now allowing other web browsers to work alongside its Safari browser on the iPhone. What we’re surprised by is the app’s description, which says that Mercury Browser has features that make it “the best replacement for Safari.”

Apple is known to protect its products and trademarks at all costs, and Safari is one of them. For a long time, the company denied web-experts like Opera the ability to throw in the iPhone version of their web browser. For one reason or another, the Mac maker later decided that it would allow mobile web browsers to compete with the mobile version Safari, and so Mercury, and other similar apps, were approved. However, its description doesn’t seem to fall in line with Apple’s policies

Mercury Browser is described as a “Fullscreen web browser with Tabs for iPhone and iPod touch. The clean UI and rich features make it the best replacement for Safari,” according to iLegendSoft, its creator. It is surprising how Apple approved Mercury with that description in the first place, let alone the fact that it continues to leave it untouched, as iLegendSoft submits updates, improving it.

Going by a developer’s recent talks with Apple’s reviewing board, “Apple doesn’t like it when developers mention Android in their app descriptions.” Google’s mobile operating system is known to be in direct competition with the iPhone OS. In this case, the Mac maker kindly asked the developer to tweak up his app’s description a bit, which he did, and now everybody is happy. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear iLegendSoft received a similar letter from Apple in the nearby future, instructing the developer to shake that comparison with Safari.

With that out of the way, one thing I like about the Mercury web browser is that it allows you to make the address bar disappear for as long as you’re browsing back and forth. When you need to type in a new address, there’s a small, green arrow pointing downwards, which you can use to make the bar pop out again. Surprisingly, a button living in the inferior side of the screen (resembling the “full-screen” command typical to YouTube videos) serves the user for the same function. This command, however, keeps the bar present on top at all times. Unnecessary, to say the least.

The tabs are also a nice touch, although the iPhone is clearly not ready to handle the workload (at least not my first-generation unit). The app runs slowly, and it’s graphically glitchy, especially when switching from portrait to landscape and vice versa.

There’s a free version and a paid version of Mercury, although the description fails to make it clear exactly what the paid app does that the free one doesn’t. In any case, you may want to download the app now, considering Apple may decide to yank it altogether at some point.

Word Pops

If you enjoy Scrabble or other word games you are going to love the game I recently found in the app store thanks to the good old genius recommendations.

Word Pops Free is a fun fast paced spelling game.  In Word Pops letters are inside bubbles at the top of the screen in rows of five.  The game starts out with two rows of bubbles and then one bubble at a time rises from the bottom of the screen up to start a new row of bubbles.  You must use the letters inside of each bubble to spell out words.  when you successfully spell out words you pop the bubbles of the letters that you used.  The object is to spell as fast as you can before your screen fills up with bubbles and the game is over.

Word Pops is easy to play and full of fun.  Some of the bubbles have special features that may freeze the game so you have more time to spell or blow up more bubbles around the word you spelled.  Word Pops also has some game customization such as sound and speed of the game.  Word Pops also allows you to track your high scores and even share them with your friends via twitter or Facebook.

If you love word games make sure to check out Word Pops!

Give TSA A Piece Of Your Mind

With airport security tighter than ever these days, anyone passing through an airport will almost certainly get up close and personal with the Transportation Security Administration. A new iPhone app lets you easily and instantly give the TSA a piece of your mind without the nuisance of being dragged into an interrogation room while handcuffed.

Did your loafers get lifted during the shoeless security strut? Drop a dime with the flick of a finger. Upset that the guy watching the body scanner laughed at your Mickey Mouse boxers? Let the higher-ups know quickly and anonymously. Survey on the Spot, from Boston-based On the Spot Systems, uses GPS to identify the airport you’re in and instantly reports your review to TSA officials. Think of it as Yelp for traveling. Just make sure to turn that phone off before takeoff.

“The application is very easy to use. It can identify which airport you are flying out of, allowing you to provide the TSA with feedback immediately,” company president Ken Kimmel said in a statement. “Our hope is that the feedback gathered through Survey On The Spot will help the TSA improve its current system.”

Think you’ve caught a potential security breach? Report it to a TSA agent, then send a photo of that propped-open baggage room door up the chain of command. Well, soon, at least.

“Given the holiday timing, we have not been able to confirm specifics with them, but felt compelled to make Survey On The Spot available to the TSA and travelers in the U.S. as a public service, particularly given recent airport security concerns,” Kimmel said. Company spokeswoman Lori Moretti told us the survey data will be reported to the TSA “within the next couple of weeks.”

Having experienced everything from rude screeners who barked orders at passengers to those who mindlessly wave people through, we’d love the chance to offer our thoughts to the bosses.

Most Addictive Game!

Most Addictive Game Free is exactly that.  This game is so simple and looks like something you might find on Atari but it also drives you into a frenzy of moving a little red square around your iPhone as long as you can.  My wife and I have both spent countless hours trying to beat eachothers scores in this addictive game.

Most Addictive Game Free is a very simple game.  The point of the game is to move the little red box around inside the white box without touching the blue boxes.  Sound pretty easy right, wrong.  The blue boxes of all different shapes and sizes not only bounce off the walls at weird angles but increase in speed based on the length of time you have lasted in the game making each second increasingly difficult.  One of the other main difficulties in the game is your own finger!  Your finger tends to block the line of sight of the blue boxes and they offten sneak up on your red box from behind your finger.

If you have never played the game you have to try it.  You can compare your scores with the rest of the world or just with yourself.  Warning:  people may think you are crazy if they see what you are playing, but if you let them have a turn, they will not want to give you back your iPhone!

ESPN ScoreCenter Review

After a great weekend for Seattle sports, Seahawks beating the Rams 27-17 and the Huskies beating the Cougars 30-0,I began to enjoy my ScoreCenter app with a lot more fervor.  ESPN has created a really nice app that gives you the look and feel of the hit sports highlight show SportsCenter.

The app is easy to navigate and lets you slide between different sports.  This app is really feature heavy and lets you custimize your experience in a way that no Sports app I have used allows.  In ScoreCenter you can choose which sports you want to follow and even chose your favorite team for that specific sport, so that your teams scores are always at the top of the page.  You can also choose which order you would like to see the sports you have chosen.  A good example for that, is now that baseball season is over I won’t be checking the scores daily, but only checking in on trades, so baseball will be the last sport that I slide to and Football will be number one since it is that season.

As you see the score of the game that you were looking for, you can easily get more information about that game by pressing on the the score.  When you select the game a new screen pops up giving you box scores, how and when each score was made, and a quick synopsis of the games stats leaders.  If you would like more info, you select the ESPN Mobile Web Preview and you will get the news story from ESPN.

One of my favorite features of this app is the running headlines at the bottom of the app just like on the tv show.  The headlines show up fast and are always accurate and up to date.

I have been using this app for almost a year now and have not had any bugs or issues and ESPN continues to update ScoreCenter adding new features.

All in all this is a great feature loaded free app from the number one sports company in the world and I would expect nothing less from ESPN.  If you love sports or you just occasionally want to check out the scores this is a great addition to your iPhone.

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