Reviews
ChalkMaster is a simple, yet entertaining game for your Windows Phone. Graphics are unique, game play interesting and overall ChalkMaster is nice game to pass the time with. The chalkboard graphics are nice, game play challenging enough to prevent the game from getting boring, and with almost a hundred level there's plenty of gaming with ChalkMaster.
Read more
Smartboard Calculator is a Windows Phone calculator that should cover all your mathematical needs. Calculations include algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistical problems. Smartboard Calculator's units cover not only numerical but also units of time, distance, velocity, weight, temperature, energy, pressure, volume, angles, energy, power, and a handful more.
Even if all you need is a calculator for basic arithmetic, Smartboard Calculator is worth a try. The calculator acts much like a blackboard that you can scroll around by touch. This gives you the capability of displaying multiple calculations at once. It gives the calculator more of a worksheet feel to it than a straight up calculator.
In addition to all the calculator features and functions, Smartboard Calculator has:
Smartboard Calculator comes across a very thorough, comprehensive and nice looking calculator for your Windows Phone. The only thing missing is the chalk dust and erasers.
There are two versions available, a free version that has some limited functionality and a $4.99 full version that brings the export to Excel, backup to SkyDrive, favorites, templates and history into play.
You can find Smartboard Calculator Free here and the full version of Smartboard Calculator here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Think you know trademarks and logos? If so, then try your hand at the Windows Phone game Logorama. It may be a humbling experience to some.
Logorama is a collection of over 100 logos from fast food chains, websites, retail stores, clothing manufacturers, and other businesses from around the world. The logos are spread out across eight levels that are progressively unlocked as you correctly identify logos.
To make things challenging, some of the logo is concealed. If you run across a logo that you need a little help with, there's a tip button at the bottom of the screen. If you get stumped, you can always move on the next logo with the arrow buttons.
Logorama is a nice little trivia game for your Windows Phone. It's simple, challenging and a fun way to pass short bits of time with. The only downside to the game is that if you are revisiting a section to identify the remaining logos, you have to scroll through all the logos you have already identified. It would be nice to have some indication that you've already identified that logo so you can move on to the ones you haven't . It's not a major downside, just one that makes game play a little tedious.
Logorama is currently only available for the U.S. Marketplace but should be available worldwide shortly. To celebrate the app's launch Logorama is currently a free app. However, in a few days the game will cost $.99 with a free trail being available in a few weeks.
You can find Logorama here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
3D Akranoid is a Windows Phone game that brings the classic arcade game Akranoid to your Windows Phone but with a slight twist. Akranoid is an arcade game where you have layers of bricks or tiles that you have to destroy before they reach the bottom of the screen. That's the game premise of 3D Akranoid but instead of a two-dimensional screen, you play the game in 3D.
You face the wall of bricks and they slowly advance across the gaming field towards your position. Armed with a bouncy ball, you tap the screen to send it towards the bricks. Unlike the 2D versions, you lack a paddle to keep the ball in play. If you miss tapping the ball on it's return, the ball simply bounces off what would be the back wall of the game screen.
Controlling the balls direction is a little challenging and takes some time to get used to. Basically, you tap the screen in the direction you want the ball to head towards and it will eventually bounce that way. You can speed things up by striking the ball directly and the faster you tap, the faster the ball bounces.
Along the back wall of the playing field colored bonus dots will appear that if hit will give your ball special abilities, slow the movement of the bricks and back them up a bit.
The goal of 3D Akranoid is simple. Smash all the bricks before they cross the playing field. Once you eliminate all the bricks, you advance to the next level. 3D Akranoid has infinite levels, offering plenty of gaming and with each level the game becomes more challenging. The pace of the brick's advance quickens and you run into bricks that take multiple hits to eliminate.
Graphics and animations are nice and once you get the ball controls down pat, game play is fun. I would have liked to have seen a Help/How-to Section and there is no way to pause the game. You can hit the back button to return to 3D Akranoid's main menu but when you return to the game, you return to the starting point of whatever level you are currently at. The game really needs a traditional pause function where you can return to the game where you left. Regardless, all in all, 3D Akranoid is a decent game for your Windows Phone that has potential.
3D Akranoid is a free, ad supported game that you can grab here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Finger Slayer is a Windows Phone game that takes a unique way to test your reaction time. You tap and hold your finger on the guillotine circle, the game counts down 3,2,1 and on GO! you release your hold on the screen to avoid losing a finger. Simple enough, right?
If you pull your finger off the screen too soon in anticipation of the GO! signal, the game ends. If you don't pull your finger off the screen soon enough, the guillotine drops and your finger is lost. Each successful round earns you points and you can share your score on Facebook, Twitter or email them to a friend.
Finger Slayer is a fun, pass around game to see which of your friends has the best reaction. It's odd how that the vibration (when you lose your finger) can make you a little jumpy and pull away too soon. Finger Slayer does get a little tricky as you advance. The game will pause ever so slightly between the "1" and "GO!" which gives the game a bit of a challenge.
Finger Slayer may not appeal to everyone but if you care to test your reaction times, it is a free, ad support game for your Windows Phone. You can find Finger Slayer here at the Windows phone Marketplace.
Cradle to the Grave is a Zombie defense game for your Windows Phone that reminds me a lot of the old Missile Command games. You know, where you have three defensive posts and you battle against vast numbers of enemy forces. Animations are very nice, game play challenging and entertaining and if you like wiping out Zombie hordes, Cradle to the Grave is worth a try.
Read more
Here's a Windows Phone app for those who like to shop or who just hate getting lost in shopping malls.
FastMall is a navigation app for local malls and shopping centers. FastMall isn't new to the smartphone market with established apps over on iOS and there's even a web portal for the FastMall services.
FastMall uses your Windows Phone location services to locate any participating malls in your area and offers, in the least, a Bing Map for the mall and a listing of stores. At best, FastMall will offer a detailed map of the mall property.
FastMall's pages are laid out with pages that list Nearby Malls, Most Viewed malls, Recent Malls visited, Favorites, and the customary About Screen. While FastMall will pull up participating malls in your location, you can also search the complete database by keyword search.
Some of the features with the FastMall Windows Phone app include:
FastMall covers malls located in thirty one countries from the U.S. to New Zealand. The only downside to FastMall is that not every venue is mapped. Hopefully, that will change with time and future updates.
I can see FastMall being a handy app while traveling to help find your way around the local malls. FastMall is a free, ad support app for your Windows Phone that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Cartoon Camera is a simple Windows Phone app that gives you the option to apply one of eight drawing effects to your photos. The app will apply these effects to existing photos from your Pictures Hub or let you capture new images directly from the app.
The main page of Cartoon Camera is your camera viewfinder. Along the bottom of the screen are four button controls and a three-dot menu. The button controls cover your shutter button, flash settings, effects choice and access to your Pictures hub. From the three dot menu you can access the About Screen.
The eight drawing effects include:
Just choose your effects, frame you photo and either tap the camera button at the bottom of the screen or use the camera hardware button on your Windows Phone. Cartoon Camera does not support the "tap to shoot" function.
Photos are captured, effects applied and everything is saved to your Saved Picture folder in the Pictures Hub. To apply effects to existing photos choose your effect and then tap the Folder Button to choose your photo. The effect will be applied to the photo and you'll have the option to save (save button replaces the flash button) the new photo to your Save Pictures folder.
Images taken at full resolution (4640x3480 at 262dpi) on the HTC Titan II are saved at 1144x854 at 262dpi resolution. Large enough to get decent prints off of or for computer viewing. The effects are respectable and the only downside may be that you can't mute the shutter sound without dialing down the Windows Phone main volume. I wouldn't have minded seeing direct access to the Windows Phone camera settings but I'm not sure if there are restrictions present to limit that access.
All in all, Cartoon Camera is worth a try if you're looking for a drawing effects app for your Windows Phone. There is a free trial version available for Cartoon Camera that is limited to three effects (Cartoon, Gray Cartoon, Pencil). The full version of Cartoon Camera is running $.99 and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Windows Phone has long been host to a number of quality word games, but they were all indie titles rather than Xbox Live ones. In fact, all the good indie word games even boasted multiplayer features, something long and inexplicably missing from mobile Xbox Live games. Of those indie standouts, one reigned supreme: Wordament, from a developer called You vs. the Internet. As it turns out, You vs. the Internet is a side project of a couple of Microsoft employees. Once Microsoft saw how well Wordament turned out, they made the wise decision to publish the game and bring elevate it to Xbox Live status. Wordament truly deserves all the visibility it can get, because it happens to be one of the finest and most addictive games on the platform.
Read more
Here's a rather interesting multi-player hangman game for your Windows Phone. Get High with Words is an online turn based game of hangman where you create the hangman puzzle from a random grouping of tiles and your opponent has to solve the puzzle.
Once your opponents turn is complete, they create the hangman puzzle for you to solve. If a hangman puzzle can't be solve within the allotted guesses, you lose a life. Lose all three lives and the game is over.
The concept is very similar to other online turned based games such as Words by Post and Alpha Jax. Except you're playing a game of hangman instead of scrabble.
Read more
