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With a simple push of the button, Game Stew Studio hopes to show you a “Reel” good time with its latest release, Tower of Fortune, out now for iOS ($.99).  Can a monochrome, slot machine RPG really hope to hold its own amongst some of the heavy hitters currently making the rounds in the iOS App Store?  Only The Gadget Gurus can say for sure!

Gameplay

Tower of Fortune attempts to take one of the most complex styles of gameplay and reduce it down to one that takes little-to-no effort.  Tower of Fortune is an RPG, set long after the adventurer in the story has retired.  His daughter has been taken from him, and there’s nobody left but he to rescue her.  That’s about all of the story we’re given and, more or less, all of the direction we’re given for gameplay.  You’ll spend the first few minutes trying to figure out what to do, and end up spending a few hundred gold coins in the tavern.

It’s in this tavern that you’ll learn the two basic parts of Gameplay: “Spin” and “Stop”.  That’s it.  Sure, there’s a few other parts such as assigning weapons and armor and buying goods from the market, but at its heart, Tower of Fortune is a slot machine game.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a lot more fun than it sounds. Each wheel of the slot can have attack, be attacked, earn XP or earn money, with the first wheel dictating the actual turn of play.  If more than one wheel matches up, the action is multiplied.  This can be good or bad; imagine getting attacked with each wheel matching!  Subsequent actions result in combos that amplify the effect of the action.

Unfortunately, none of this is explained to you anywhere, and you’re forced to find it all out on your own.  This game would really benefit form some sort of tutorial or manual, and it loses a point or two for its lack.  The game will often find players starting out by wasting all of their money at the tavern before they learn how to earn more.  You haven’t figured it out, yet, have you?

To make more money, we go back to the main screen and select any portion of the tower (hence, TOWER of Fortune).  From here you’ll battle enemies and bosses in an attempt to win back your daughter.  The gameplay, while a bit repetitive, is still fun and I’ve found myself coming back to it while doing various tasks throughout the day.  With simple, one-handed gameplay, it can be played waiting in line at the supermarket, sitting on the bus on the way to work, or on the couch while you watch TV.  Once you’ve figured out HOW to play, it’s a fun little game with a great gameplay style.

Graphics/Design

Tower of Fortune’s unique, monochrome design is actually quite refreshing.  It’s very 8-bit and retro and feels much like the Gameboy games of old.  Detail isn’t applied so much to the graphics, but rather to a gameplay style unique to the app store.  In a world full of “HD” and “Retina Display”, having a throw-back to simpler times is pleasing to the eyes and well worth the purchase.  The lighter design also makes it easier to see in the dark, so if you’re concerned about waking your significant other while you play in bed, you can turn down the brightness and still see the game.

Enemy units are all unique and follow themes based on your location in the tower.  Bosses are bigger than the average enemy, and all characters animate in a retro-style that fits in well with the rest of the game.  The only issue with the animation and graphic style is the fact that animations happen every time and there’s no way to skip them.  After you’ve been bonked on the head with a bottle for the 100th time, you’ll wish something else would animate.

Sound

In line with the graphic style, the sound design is 100% retro.  It’s a lot of chiptune-type, 8-bit digital music and it really fits with the overall style of the game.  At maximum volume, it can get a bit loud, but is pleasing to the ears at lower volumes.  Each move of each character makes noise, and Big Stew has stated that they have plans to increase the amount of background music and make improvements there.  Much like games of yore, the sound and background music can get repetitious, which seems to fall in line with the rest of the game.

Overall

With a retro feel in both sight and sound, and a simple style of gameplay, Tower of Fortune has the chance to provide a decent amount of fun.  Players who find time consuming games a bit too…time consuming, will enjoy the quick-hit style of one-click play, and players looking for a bit more under the hood will enjoy the RPG elements.  Neither style really overpowers the other, which may deter users who would prefer one over the other, but this game is certainly playable by players of any skill level.  While sound and animation can be a bit repetitious, it shouldn’t drive players away from enjoying this game.  At $.99, this game is perfectly priced and certainly prepared to give you a dollar’s worth of entertainment.

Guru Review Score:

Gameplay: 8/10

Graphics/Design 8/10

Sound: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

With an exponential increase in usage, Social Media appears to be here to stay.  Amidst the influx of tweets, status updates, photos and videos, the occasional bit of knowledge may rear its head, just waiting to be absorbed into the sponges that are our brains.  The problem with this?  Those bits of knowledge don’t always come along at the best time to read them, watch them or just generally absorb them.  What, then, is the solution to not missing out on these bits of knowledge?  Enter: Pocket.

What is Pocket?

Pocket, formerly Read It Later, is a tool to “help people who discover an interesting article, video or web page, but don’t have time to view it.“  Think of Pocket as a digital scrapbook, but instead of having to carry the scrapbook around with you at all times, you can use any number of devices that you undoubtedly have to add content on-the-fly, and have it sync up on all other devices.  Pocket is currently out for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and Mac/PC.  On any single one of these devices, an article, video or picture can be posted, and accessed from any other device you might have.

How does Pocket work?

In line for coffee at Starbucks and someone tweets a great Gadget Gurus article, but you just don’t have time to read it?  Add it to Pocket and read it when you’re “on the throne” at a later time!  Pocket works flawlessly with a large number of pre-existing apps including, but not limited to, Tweetbot, Flipboard, Pulse, and Zite.  Probably my only complaint with Pocket is how much you have to jump around amongst the various apps in order to get them talking to each other.  Once you’ve done that, however, it’s extremely easy to add articles from these social apps, most times requiring only a long press and selecting “Send to Pocket”.  Personally, it would be great if more iOS apps interacted with the rest of the environment.  In this, Android reigns supreme, but I digress.

Once you’ve added articles, videos or pictures to your Pocket, they’re easily viewable in your Pocket list in a simple, easy to read view.

In much the same way as other content aggregators, articles can be marked as read, favorited, or shared out to other people from nearly any screen in the app.  From the list view, swiping the particular article will yield similar options.  I found the interface to be extremely easy to use and very intuitive.  There’s a reason that Pocket includes little in the way of instructions. Beyond the initial setup, Pocket behaves exactly as you think it should, a sure sign that the developer put a lot of thought into its design.  These design features and highlights only look that much better on the iPad version, with that particular app being little more than a better looking, bigger version of the iPhone app.

How Does It Look?

Probably the biggest highlight of Pocket isn’t how it works, but how it presents that usability to the reader.  When viewing the articles, each one is presented in a format that fits well with the particular device that it’s being read on.  For images, they show up clean and crisp. One of the more interesting features that I’ve seen with Pocket, and one that I like the most, is the ability to lock the screen orientation when viewing video.

Every single aspect of Pocket allows you to view each piece within the local app, so there’s no need to worry about popping out to the browser, or the YouTube app, or some other third party app.  While I generally prefer to view things in their native app, Pocket presents things in a great way, and one that doesn’t feel like a slapped-together add-on.

Conclusion:

If you’ve ever been concerned about losing a piece of content because you just don’t have the time to read it or view it, then Pocket is most certainly a must-have app.  At the wonderfully low price of FREE, it’s really tough to pass up and probably one of the apps that I would recommend every iOS user have on their main screen.  For the tech-savvy, on-the-go individual of the day, you absolutely need some sort of aggregator to keep track of what’s important to you.  I cannot recommend Pocket enough.

Guru Review Score:

Ease of Use: 9/10 (Takes a little knowledge to integrate with other apps)

Graphics/Design 10/10

Overall: 9.5/10

]]> http://thegadgetgurus.net/a-new-name-brings-a-new-face-to-pocket-review-ipadiphone/feed/ 0 http://thegadgetgurus.net/wrestling-manager-attempts-to-pile-drive-the-competition/ http://thegadgetgurus.net/wrestling-manager-attempts-to-pile-drive-the-competition/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:58:04 +0000 zegolf http://thegadgetgurus.net/?p=10332 Serious Parody bills Wrestling Manager (iOS) as the “best wrestling game for mobile phones”.  It also makes mention that it’s the “ONLY WRESTLING MANAGEMENT GAME ON iOS”.  Whether or not that second statement is true is neither here nor their, but the one thing I did set out to find was whether or not it really was the best wrestling game for mobile phones.  Would it put the rest of the competition in a headlock?  Did Serious Parody body slam the other contenders to the title belt?  After sitting down with the game for a few hours, here’s what I was able to find out.

Gameplay

The premise of Wrestling Manager pretty much gets explained in the game’s title.  Wrestling Manager is an iOS game that allows you to play the part of the less-often explained and, until recently, less-often seen side of the professional wrestling world.  You take on the role of the owner of an upstart backyard wrestling organization with a goal to dominate the world of professional Wrestling.  You become the promoter, match planner and boss of whatever league you decide to develop.

The main interface centers around a calendar of events.  Here you’ll put together promos, matches and special events, all selected through a random pack of cards that you’re given at the beginning of the game.  In much the same way as many games on the iOS market today, more cards can be bought for a nominal price, or earned with an inordinate amount of in-game currency.  It’s this calendar section that makes up the brunt of the game and where you’ll spend most of your time developing each day’s card.

Once you’ve developed your entire card, you’ll launch into that day’s event and the game will simulate the results of each match and promo in an attempt to level up your wrestlers and the remaining cards.  Depending on the level of your success, you’ll be given feedback at the end of each match.  Admittedly, over the few hours that I played, I wasn’t able to put together much of a card that would earn me anything than some beat writer telling me that I sucked.  I’m not quite sure what the secret to success is at this point, but i hope to find out over more time with the game.

It’s all pretty standard simulator-style gameplay.  There’s a lot of reading, a lot of stats, and a ton of number processing.  You’ll need a decent amount of time to plan a really good card, which is where the automated setup portion comes into play.  At any point in time, during selection of promos, matches, etc., you might see an “A” in one of the boxes.  Clicking this will allow the simulator to set up whatever it is you’re trying to select without you needing to give it much thought.  In my experience, the game did a great job of selecting things for me, but it’s just not a fun way to play the game.  The real fun is in making your selections!

Graphics/Design

It’s obvious that Serious Parody spent a great amount of time with their design of this game.  From the naming of the wrestlers and locations to each individual screen, the visuals in this game are really pleasing to the eyes.  Screens are consistent across most of the game, and it always gives me a chuckle to see what wrestler names are going to come out of the next pack!  The high resolution on the iPhone is crystal clear, but a word of warning: this game gets a bit grainy up-scaled on an iPad.

Sound

So here’s my biggest (and really only) complaint with this game.  There’s no sound.  I reached out to Serious Parody and was informed that it was either a choice between sound or adding factions.  Their next decision is between achievements and sound and, considering the landscape of gaming today, I’m guessing sound is going to lose this match, as well.

Overall

I’ll come right out and say it: I really like this game.  I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy another sim game.  I’ve played all of the kairosoft games and was really hoping this wasn’t going to be a clone.  Thankfully, Wrestling Manager takes on a life of its own, with it almost being a deck building game, akin to Magic:TG and the latest Assassin’s Creed card game.  Games like that are a nice change of pace from the Angry Birds and Draw Somethings.  I’ve got a few issues with some of the aspects of this game, so it’s far from perfect.  It’s a bit pricey, which seems to spit in the face of the fact that they’re also charging for in-app purchases.  That whole “No Sound” thing is a HUGE bummer.  It would have been great with a few audio clips of fake wrestlers cutting promos, but it’s understandable why it’s not there.  But this game is a solid purchase and definitely shows a lot of promise.  Whether or not this game will ultimately justify it’s $10 price tag is really up to you, but if you’re looking for a great wrestling simulator (especially in the giant sea of wrestling simulators on the market…wait…) than Wrestling Manager is the game with which to go.

Guru Review Score:

Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics/Design 9/10

Sound: 0/10

Overall: 8/10

Big shout to the guys at Serious Parody for putting up the prize for this contest. Make sure you guys head over to iTunes and check out there app Wrestling Manager. Now, on to the contest! We tasked you guys with coming up with unique wrestler names and that wrestler’s special finishing move. The top four choices win and here they are!

@John_Fischer Otto Repareman finishes off opponents with “The Flying Butt-Pliers”

@madelk Luchador NoPants with the finisher of Sweaty Crevice

@zegolf My wrestler’s name would be “The Fistulator” and his move would be “The Gaping Void”

@RipVanDamage Name: Rip Van Damage Finishing Move: Wig Splitter “The Damage is done, rest in pieces!”

Congratulations guys! Hilarious stuff! Make sure you guys are following us Twitter so we can DM you your code!

It’s funny when an app has such an affect on people. Today Instagram released it’s popular social photo sharing app to Android users. Android fans seemed mostly positive to get the new app, while iPhone users turned into a hoard of angry assholes. I kept seeing Tweet after Tweet of, man I don’t even know how to describe it, just people being jerks. I’m talking the same levels of ignorance as racist Hunger Games fans and spoiled ass kids on Christmas. All I had to do was type “Instagram” into Twitter and found this ridiculousness.

Instagram Assholes

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I was sent an Accell composite AV cable for review from Accellcables.com. They list that it is compatible with iPad, iPad 2, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (1st gen), iPod touch (2nd gen), iPod classic, iPod nano (3rd gen), iPod nano (4th gen), iPod nano (5th gen), iPod with color display, and iPod with video. Its main purpose is to allow you to display movies on another screen, but it also includes the capability to charge and/or charge and sync your device. It is a very generous 5 feet long, and feels very well-made.

To make this product work, you must find the composite input of your television; there are three cable inputs – a yellow cable for video and red and white cables for left and right channel audio.

The instructions that came with the cable were not very clear on what would be displayed during use, but I quickly came to realize that it was strictly for watching videos. You cannot mirror your device’s screen or play games on a television. This appears to be an Apple limitation rather than a cable limitation.

I did try to use the cable with another older (2nd gen) iPod Touch, but could not get it to work although it is listed as a supported device. I successfully tested it watching Netflix movies as well as Slingplayer for iOS. Quality was limited to 480, but on a 32” TV was very watchable.

With all that being said, this is an awesome product. It bears the “Made for iPod” seal meaning that it has met Apple’s rigids standards. The cable works great with basically any television. It is an analog cable so you’re limited on the resolution, but if you have a spare television that you want to use, or a small lcd monitor in your car, it works great for that purpose.

I tested this cable on the headrest monitors in my mom’s car, and it worked great. I was able to connect my 4G iPod Touch to the inputs of the monitor and watch movies without issue.

This cable retails for $39.99, and that’s a bit pricey. It appears to be well made, and I would recommend this cable to anyone with a supported Apple device who would enjoy watching videos on another screen. It carries a 1 year warranty, and Accell Cables sells a ton of other cables you might find useful for your electronic products.

It will be of great use to me in the future for whatever I may need it for, and I plan to continue using it in the car so I’m not stuck watching videos on my tiny 3.5” iPod screen.

-Brianna Stebbins,

Reviewer and host of Simulcast Jr.

By the way, you can pre-order the New iPad HERE!

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Apple’s latest quarterly results were astounding! It was the best quarter for any technology company in history. Apple’s profits are doing nothing but rising and they have amassed a huge surplus of cash. So naturally, when you are on top, you become a target. This latest assault places partial blame on Apple for the poor working conditions and poor treatment of the people working in China building their products. However, Apple isn’t the only company using Foxconn and the technology industry is by far not the worst when it comes to worker treatment.

The NYT didn’t take aim at Microsoft, who has the Xbox built at Foxconn, when 300 workers threatened suicide over pay. They failed to point out that Sony has the Playstation built there, that HTC and Motorola both use Foxconn to make their smartphones, and Amazon’s Kindles are all built there as well. Do all of these companies get a pass because they aren’t recording record breaking profits? Why weren’t they targeted?

I’ll tell you. Bullshit headlines. The New York Times is using the oldest trick in the book. We like to call it “link bait”. They have wrapped a real problem in a grim story and made Apple the bad guy. I don’t have to tell you that corporations are amoral. What’s the goal of a company? To make money. Apple is doing just that. The suggestion that Apple should take it’s crazy money they have hoarded away and some how change the labor situation in China is completely irrational. Foxconn and companies like it work in a completely different way than we do here in the United States. We have laws, unions, and government organizations that provide protection and support for workers.

Is Apple a company or a political lobbyist? It’s not their problem to mess with how the economics work in China. Would they like to have all of their products made in the United States and still have profits close to what they have now? Sure, and I want an flying car and a lightsaber.

If the New York Times wants to write a humanitarian piece, stop pointing the finger at Apple and take a look at diamonds (like they did in 2006), oil, or freaking sneakers for crying out loud. These industries have a far higher “cost” to bringing these products to the United States.

Apple’s billions of dollars isn’t enough to Change China’s economic strategy and the way they do business. When the United States owes China over $1 Trillion, what makes you think one company could have anything to do with the way they make money?