App of My Eye » Puzzles

Mahjong Fairyland

Art — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:28:10 +0000

Growing up in the U.S., you hear about mahjong one of three ways: your Jewish friends, your Chinese friends, or, barring that you are from either of those two groups yourself, your “other” Asian family. While I do fit this last category, I must tell you that everytime I have seen other people play mahjong, the rules are different or has some mind-numbing variations. Yet, all in all, the game is usually played like gin rummy where you hope to get sets of three of a kind or three consecutive numbers in the same suit by drawing, discarding, and/or saving your opponents’ discards. It’s definitely a fun and exciting game requiring both a hint of luck and some skills, which you can improve over time. However, looking for a similar translation in videos games has been difficult as most mahjong games are puzzle/solitaire games, which are not at all the familiar game I know and love since I was a kid. Enter the iPhone: Taiwan-based Joymaster Corp.’s Mahjong Fairyland was released earlier this year, but with marked improvements in their updates as a result of listening to their userbase, the game is now to a point where anyone can learn how to play it in mere minutes. With a fairy tale theme with cute characters, play the classic 16-tile game, which is popular in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, and parts of Southeast Asia. Excellent graphics, smooth touch and swipe controls, and some light customization will keep any level of player engaged. Price: $1.99.

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outWord

Art — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:26:15 +0000

Are you looking to spice up your library of word games? Yes, I said ‘WORD GAMES!’ Millions of people cannot be wrong, right? If I hazard to guess, there are probably more people playing crossword puzzles, word search, Jumble-type, and Scrabble-like games around the world than World of Warcraft and any combination of the current Top 10 video games regardless of platform… Is that sweat on my brow? I must be feeling the heat of Tetris, but I still stand my ground. Do I have evidence? C’mon, I run a self-funded indie website with friends. Yet, deep down inside, you know I speak the truth. So let me throw some more knowledge at you: Yes, you can spice up your word game library with this little gem from Phonagle, outWord. In this game, your location determines how close or far you are from letters that you can use to create words. Play against other users in your vicinity who can also pick up desired tiles. So you must be quick when obtaining desirable letters as you never know who lurks. On top of that, using red letters and creating long words helps you score big to outdistance your previous high scores or those of others. Overall, a fun original game born out of an excellent concept and well executed. Highly recommended. Price: Free.

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Darkest Fear

Art — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:41:09 +0000

When I first saw this game a couple of years back on a BREW device (yes, believe it), I thought it was one of the best games you could hope to play on mobile. Back then, Darkest Fear by Finnish developer, Rovio Mobile, had a light, yet compelling story, the graphics were excellent and added to the overall horror-survival motif, and the puzzles were pretty challenging. But the question is: does it translate well to the iPhone? Well, since FISHLABS was able to take what I thought was THE best game on mobile in Galaxy On Fire 5-6 years ago and bring a perfect translation with some added bells and whistles to the iPhone, then there should be no doubt that Rovio Mobile can do the same… And they did! The technical capabilities of the iPhone obviously improve the graphics of the game, which makes an already eerie game even more eerie as the shading for the shadows perfectly adds to the heart-thumping excitement. On top of all that, considering it is set in a hospital, the glow of the lights reminds one of The Shining or even Saw. As one colleague put it years ago, “It’s one of the scariest mobile games I’ve played because of the sheer anticipation alone.” It’s true now on the iPhone as it was back then. Check it out! Price: $3.99.

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