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Software Reviews

Retrica review

8 Comments
Posted by Andrew Martonik on 19 Aug 2014 11:50 am
Retrica
Filter fanatics will enjoy this simple app, but serious photographers will have to look elsewhere There are plenty of ways to put funky retro filters on your photos, but many focus on tweaking after the fact rather than doing it on the fly. Retrica is one camera app that's picked up a sizable following for offering a huge set of neat and artistic filters that are applied to the viewfinder live...

VSCO Cam review

17 Comments
Posted by Andrew Martonik on 12 Aug 2014 12:12 pm
VSCO Cam
A great photo editing app awaits you at the top of a steep learning curve There are an uncountable number of photo editing apps available today, each with their own experience, editing tools and social engagement mechanisms. There are the big names like Instagram, Snapseed and Photoshop — but another app with a passionate following for a long time on iOS called VSCO Cam (derived from the name...

Sorcery! 1 and 2 review

20 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 8 Aug 2014 5:33 pm
Steve Jackson's Sorcery 1 and 2 review Android EVGA Tegra Note 7
Back in the early eighties (before videogames became so ubiquitous), a game format emerged that bridged the gap between role-playing games and books. These "gamebooks" allowed readers to read along by themselves while making choices that would influence the outcome of the story. In the US, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series entertained millions of young readers. Europe had the "Fighting...

Transport Empire review

2 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 1 Aug 2014 1:36 pm
Transport Empire for Android EVGA Tegra Note 7
European publisher Game Insight knows a thing or two about city building games. We've covered several of the publisher's genre entries in the past. Each one distinguishes itself by setting and premise most of all, with The Tribez & Castlez having a cheerful fantasy setting and 2020: My Country delving into light science fiction. Game Insight's latest free to play city builder for Android...

The Rhythm of Fighters review

1 Comment
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 28 Jul 2014 10:51 am
The Rhythm of Fighters for Android EVGA Tegra Note 7
SNK Playmore's King of Fighters series is a long-running and fairly well known series of fighting games that prides itself on huge and ever-changing character rosters. Now the game itself has changed genre in the new spin-off The Rhythm of Fighters for Android. ROF is a rhythm game featuring music from a variety of classic SNK games. As you tap along to the music, your character will slug it...

Winning Kick review: Kick some soccer balls for charity

1 Comment
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 16 Jul 2014 1:34 pm
This year's World Cup ignited an unprecedented love of soccer/football in normally apathetic places like the USA. If you're a lapsed or casual fan of the sport, then serious soccer games like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer might be too complex to pick up and play. Luckily, Global Gaming Initiative and React Games have a footie game that anyone can learn in seconds: Winning Kick. Winning Kick is...

TransWorld Endless Skater review

7 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 14 Jul 2014 12:20 pm
TransWorld Endless Skater
You can't throw a rock without hitting an endless runner nowadays. Endless gameplay works well on mobile. But once a genre gets crowded, new games need something to set them apart from the Temple Runs and Jetpack Joyrides that have come before them. SuperVillain Studios has found a way to do just that with its new release: TransWorld Endless Skater for Android and iOS. TransWorld Endless...

Pac-Man Monsters review – The Pac attacks in an amazingly addictive puzzle RPG

16 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 1 Jul 2014 11:54 am
Pac-Man Monsters review EVGA Tegra Note 7
Pac-Man Monsters from Japanese developer GREE is a free to play puzzle-RPG, not unlike Puzzle & Dragons and Doctor Who: Legacy. But GREE's take on the genre has a lot to differentiate it from other puzzlers. For one thing, it's not a match-3 game! This one has a totally fresh puzzle mechanic to keep the battles interesting. It also features hundreds of Pac-Man characters and guest stars...

Elemental Kingdoms review – Collect cards to save a kingdom on Android

5 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 24 Jun 2014 12:56 pm
Elemental Kingdoms Android EVGA Tegra Note 7 photo
Collectible card games are a great fit for mobile devices. You can play them in small doses, and the quest to find more cards will keep you coming back from day to day. One such game that has kept me hooked lately is Elemental Kingdoms from Perfect World Entertainment and Time 2 Play Studio. What Elemental Kingdoms lacks in mechanical complexity it more than makes up for with a lengthy story...

Doctor Who: Legacy – comprehensive review

15 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 5 Jun 2014 9:17 pm
Doctor Who: Legacy Android EVGA Tegra Note 7 photo
Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction program on television. But until Doctor Who: Legacy came along, you’d have been hard pressed to find a videogame adaptation that came anywhere near the series’ quality or one that properly reflected the decades-spanning scope and wealth of characters that make up Doctor Who. This free to play puzzle game from Tiny Rebel Games will wow fans with...

Cloud Raiders review: a cross-platform competitor for Clash of Clans

7 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 4 Jun 2014 12:09 pm
Cloud Raiders Android EVGA Tegra Note 7 photo
Looking for an alternative to Clash of Clans? Android offers several fine multiplayer raiding games/clones to choose from, including Castle Clash, Galaxy Siege, Total Conquest, and more. But the Clash-like game that has won my heart is Cloud Raiders from Game Insight. Cloud Raiders offers a lot of polish (though Clash is still smoother), including AI battles, clan support and chat, and a very...

Slingshot Braves review: Role-playing game battles with some pull

19 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 5 May 2014 3:50 pm
Slingshot Braves Android EVGA Tegra Note 7
Make a quick search for RPGs on Google Play and you’ll find numerous quality Japanese RPGs (JRPGs) from publishers like Square-Enix, HyperDevbox, and Tecmo Koei. Although pretty much every RPG fan knowsthe Final Fantasy titles by heart, it can be difficult for even genre enthusiasts to tell the mass of mobile JRPGs apart. COLOPL, a Japanese developer who specializes in mobile games, has found...

Flop Fu: Physics Fighter Review

7 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 10 Apr 2014 10:47 pm
Flop Fu Physics Fighter for Android
Fighting games can be difficult to adapt to touch-screen play. Developers either have to implement imprecise virtual controls or greatly simplified control schemes in order to make them work. But what if a fighting game maker actually made the controls unwieldy on purpose, kind of like Octodad: Deadliest Catch on PC? Then you’d get the very silly Flop Fu: Physics Fighter from GREE and G-labs....

Polar Bowler review: The coolest bowling game on Android

9 Comments
Posted by Paul Acevedo on 4 Apr 2014 9:17 am
Polar Bowler for Android
Last year, WildTangent Studios released its first mobile game: Polar Bowler 1st Frame. A lighthearted bowling simulation, it starred a polar bear named “PB” and his penguin sidekick “J.” Fast forward to today: WildTangent has just launched the full sequel to 1st Frame, simply titled Polar Bowler. The new game features a vastly expanded array of fantasy-themed arctic bowling courses and special...

Magazine Home review

11 Comments
Posted by Anndrew Vacca on 11 Mar 2014 12:17 pm
Samsung's built-in newsreader has grown up, but still has room for improvement When the Galaxy Pro line of tablets was first introduced in January, all eyes were on Magazine Home, Samsung’s brand new UX that fans and critics alike were dubbing the TouchWiz killer. Likened to a Google-ized version of Windows 8, Magazine Home was said to be a major shift away from TouchWiz as we knew it. That...

EverythingMe Launcher review: You just don't know me

39 Comments
Posted by Andrew Martonik on 11 Feb 2014 12:22 pm
EverythingMe Launcher
Sometimes predictions are great, but usually you just want your phone to look the same every time you unlock it. As the current phrasing goes, when it comes to software and services, "context is king." Being able to look at your habits, usage patterns and tendencies to then make smart decisions on what you'll want next is being trumpeted as the next frontier of mobile computing. We're seeing...

Beats Music review: Yet another music service, and one that still needs some work

52 Comments
Posted by Andrew Martonik on 31 Jan 2014 10:20 am
Beats Music
Beats is trying something new, for sure, but it's got room to improve Beats is a name that is synonymous with hip-hop music and iconic (and expensive) audio gear (and, at one time, HTC smartphones), but not exactly with streaming music. The company showed its intention of getting into the space in 2012 when it purchased MOG Music, and finally killed that service when it launched its self-...

Zombie Tycoon II: Brainhov's Revenge now available for the Nvidia Shield on Google Play

8 Comments
Posted by Jerry Hildenbrand on 21 Nov 2013 1:52 pm
Zombie Tycoon II
This PS3 port shows just how powerful Android and the Tegra 4 can be If you picked up an Nvidia Shield it means one thing — you're a gamer. You might do other things on your Android, or maybe even have another device you use for messaging or social networking or web browsing, but you like to play serious games. Now you have another serious game to add to your list. Zombie Tycoon II is a...

The Blur app will give your home screen wallpaper a fresh new look

24 Comments
Posted by Jerry Hildenbrand on 13 Nov 2013 3:55 pm
Blur
Use your own pictures or ones borrowed from the Internet as a fancy blurred background on your Android Want a really cool effect for your home screen wallpaper, but aren't a PhotoShop guru? If so, you need to check out a new app called Blur in Google Play. Blur allows you to take any picture and apply an adjustable blur effect and set it full resolution as your home screen wallpaper. It's...

Samsung's Pen.UP is a great social network for people who love to create digital art

35 Comments
Posted by Jerry Hildenbrand on 10 Nov 2013 12:37 pm
PenUp.
Whether you're sharing or just looking, Pen.UP is filled with great art from people just like you and me The folks at Samsung love the S Pen on the Note series. If you've tried one, you can probably understand. It;s not a stylus, it an integral part of the device that can do some pretty wonderful things — including create some excellent digital art.  To showcase all this great work, Samsung...

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