Following in the same path as Sparkle, Sparkle 2 is all about stopping trains of mismatched marbles (it’s not really a train but that’s what I’m calling it) from rolling down winding paths into a hole in the ground. To do this you must shoot marbles from your marble shooter to create 3+ matching chains in the train. Doing so will destroy those marbles. Continue doing this until every marble in the traveling train is destroyed. If the marbles fall into a hole, you’ll have to start that level all over.

Now that the tutorial is over let’s get to the extra good stuff. Sparkle 2 is challenging and fun. The levels increase in challenge not only by slowly introducing new colors (it’s harder to create combos with a larger color variety) but also varying the layout of the trails that the marble-train travels down. Sometimes they’ll criss-cross, other times move around in a snake-like trail. Even experienced gamers will find their thrills trying to navigate shots through these complex paths. Aiding you to victory are a handful of power-ups that are always fun to trigger as well as equipping you with an enchantment that’ll bestow a special ability such as pulling power-ups near you and being able to shoot marbles faster (that’s my go-to enchantment).

After spending about a week playing Sparkle 2, I can confidently say that this is a fantastic reflex marble-shooter. The main differences between Sparkle 2, and it’s older sibling Sparkle, is a complete graphic overhaul (It’s even more stunning now), slightly different selection with power-ups, and…no loss of life. Yeah, you no longer have to back-track if you’re loosing a level and over. Sparkle 2 proves that sometimes you don’t need to fiddle too much with what ain’t broke.

The Bottom Line: We come to expect fantastic games from 10tons that are as much fun for both casual and seasoned gamers. Sparkle 2, does not disappoint.

Price $2.99

iLetterz is as much puzzle game as it is a word game. How this plays out is that with each level you start off with 4 minutes on the clock (later on becomes 3 minutes) as well as one definition that needs to be solved. Perhaps it’ll be “Fable of great importance” and the answer is a 6-letter word. Do you know what it is? If you know it’s ‘Legend’ (I just gave you the answer…you can thank me latter if you didn’t know) then spell the word and you’ll be awarded one point per letter (you need 50 points to progress to the next level).

If you don’t know the answer than you can use a bomb power-up to reveal one of the letters. That’s cool…but you can also  skip the question and move onto the next. Why I love this skipping feature is that since you have only four minutes to earn 50 points, you can move on to the next question without wasting too much time. At first I thought that I could continuously skip questions until I would find an easy one…nope. There’s only a certain amount of questions for each round so you will circle back to all the skipped questions. By doing this, that ‘duh’ moment might hit you when you reread the question. When that moment happens, and it will, is when iLetterz feels rewarding.

iLetterz includes a lot of questions, over 2700+, and I love how they’re grouped. Obviously easier questions will be in the first stages and increase in difficulty over the levels. So when you fail a level you’ll find new questions as well as some recycled questions from previous attempts. This allows you to progress over time since you will remember some of the answers.

The Bottom Line: Puzzle and word enthusiasts will love the combination of iLetterz: Guess Words by Definition, as well as how it kick-starts your brain (it’s a great morning game while drinking coffee).

Price $Free 

Minion Rush falls into the Temple Run-like style of endless runner that swings the camera behind the character that you control: a super funny ‘n goofy yellow minion. Swipe your finder on the screen to move left and right as well as jumping and sliding. By now I’m sure everyone knows what I’m talking about.

Normally this is the time where I take out my giant rubber stamp and slap Temple Run clone on it. Surprisingly…not this time. Besides having a completely different graphical them, the actual gameplay is dramatically different (well dramatic for an endless runner that is). The power-ups such as freeze-ray allow you to temporarily shoot out blasts of ice and destroy anything in your path. Activating mini-game sections increases the experience and range in variety as well as creativity that feels true to the Despicable Me universe. My favorite example is the mini game that has you earn extra bananas (the game’s coin currency) by activating the rainbow unicorn  that will fly towards the sky as long as you continue collecting bananas to fuel it.

Gameloft is arguably the most notorious for their despicable Freemium approach (EA is a very close contender). Thankfully, Minion Rush has no timers and you can earn bananas fast enough to unlock all of the basics in no time at all. The only thing that has a massive paywall is unlocking new minions that include minor special abilities. So yeah, even the Freemium approach won’t stop you from enjoying a good chunk of the game for free. Gameloft, thank you for this nice little surprise

The Bottom Line: Minion Rush is a refreshing endless-runner that nails the feel of Despicable Me. I can’t stress how surprised and pleased I am with this game’s content.

Price $Free

In Ultimate Battle Arena up to four players can play on a single iPad and battle it out in 14 different mini-games. In all of the mini-games you play as a tank-like-hovercraft-giant-saw-blade-wielding-thingamajig vehicle controlled via virtual joystick and sometimes a single firing button. Since each corner of the screen strategically places controls, gaming can get ultra close so make sure that you like the person(s) playing with you…and pop in a breath mint. Joking aside, the control placement fits nicely on the screen without ever feeling too crowded.

Each of the 14 mini-games create a slightly different experience but can be grouped into different styles. A few remind me of a classic tank game where you move around the environment while trying to destroy the other tanks. Others focus more on arcade reflexes that’ll have you collecting (or avoiding) objects. Then there’s a couple quirky ones. One mimics a top-down kart racer and another has a slightly more modern take on Snake. The crazy thing though is that there’s not only a lot of mini-games here (and I’m almost certain you’ll find a handful that you like), there’s also a couple customization options with each mini-game that lets you decide how long each game should last as well as the layout of the environment.

The Bottom Line: Ultimate Battle Arena includes an insane amount of mini-games (for an iOS game) and is a fun social way to challenge your friends.

Note: While you can play Ultimate Battle Arena by yourself, it really needs to be enjoyed with multiple people.

If you like zombies and MineCraft than this combination is for you. You take control of a blocky-dude who’s armed with nothing…but things can change. You can either continually collect weapon crates to unlock new weapons (sword, pick axe, or a bow and arrow) or simply purchase each weapon via IAP. Since I was a bit impatient I purchased the sword and not only found fighting off hordes of zombies much easier, it was more fun. Fighting off the zombies, like most survival games, increases in difficulty over time and death is inevitable.

Action Pixel Fight has a couple of issues that I have to bring up. First is that it does’t have much to it. What you see is what you get. The other issue is the controls. They are a little troublesome and take a bit to get accustomed to. Don’t worry though, the controls aren’t bad, they just need tweaking.

The Bottom Line: If you can’t get enough of the Minecraft universe and zombies and the issues are a non-issue for you…check it out. 

Price $0.99

Even though I spent a good chunk of my life bouncing back and forth in-between Boston and NYC, I’ve never heard of the group Future Folk. This still didn’t stop me from loving almost every minute of The History of Future Folk. Like its silly real-life costumed wearing duo, the movie based on their band doesn’t take itself seriously. The plot that unravels is full of low-budget Sci-fi Indie goodness that focuses on what it does best: goofy costumes and a great soundtrack…and I’m not even a bluegrass fan.

The History of Future Folk is campy, yet the plot, character interaction, and acting is way better than many blockbuster movies that we’ve reviewed (and some that we’ve watched but haven’t written about yet).  Most notable is the relationship between Kevin who comically stalks the police officer, Carmen, who is out to arrest him.

The Bottom Line: The History of Future Folk is a fun and light movie that you can’t help  but laugh at…it laughs at itself so don’t feel bad. Yeah, there’s  loose-ends here and there but still just sit back and let the Indie goodness soak in.

What makes Rapture-Palooza a somewhat-funny movie isn’t having the Anti-Christ trying to knock-up Lindsey, or its ‘comical’ approach to the apocalypse. Strangely enough this is what’s not funny about it. Robison’s crude comments try and shock us into laughter but instead are irritating and left me wondering how juvenile you have to be to laugh at his lines. The same goes for the crows that now for some reason have Tourette Syndrome. Add to this list undead that become potheads…and wow I haven’t seen a comedy try so hard to be funny and strike out in every way.

To be blunt–the main cast and the story sucks. It’s the minor roles that are damn funny. Ana Gasteyer delivers her normal performance (meaning funny as hell) which has her being nit-picky and self-centered and perhaps the only person to be returned from Heaven. Thomas Lennon is absolutely hysterical as a undead neighbor who is obsessed with lawn maintenance. Last, Ken Jeong steals the movie in his role as a whiney God. It’s these actors that receive only minutes of screen time that makes Rapture-Palooza worthwhile.

The Bottom Line: Rapture-Palooza tries too hard to be shocking with its crude and adolescent humor. Nonetheless, instead of seeing this at the movies, its an alright movie to rent on iTunes to watch the few minutes featuring the minor roles. These actors deliver solidly funny performances rather than targeting the 5th grade audience. I take that back, even 5th graders will roll their eyes at it.

Warhammer Quest is the tabletop game that I’ve always wanted to play on my iPad. You play as four heroes and move your way around a game-board. Your heroes advance slowly across each room. The catch though is that with each turn you never know what’s lurking in the next small section of the board as well as if enemies will randomly appear. The unknown keeps you on your toes at all times. Sometimes your heroes may be low on health and need to slowly heal over a series of dice rolls. Beware. A strong random enemy encounter may curtail this strategy.

Dice rolls? Yes, much in Warhammer Quest, is based on a dice roll. How much mana your wizard will have for each turn, strength of attack, and how many attacks can change depending on dice rolls. The great thing about this is that it’s all behind the scenes which speeds up the gameplay. The not-so-great thing about this is that it’s behind the scenes and the geek in me would love to see what I’m rolling.

Warhammer Quest, is somewhat of a steal at only $5 bucks. There’s a handful of hours of quests to complete. Since the dungeons are semi-random, you can play as much as you want. Sooner than later you’ll want more and that’s where the expansion comes into play (an additional $5 bucks). New enemy types are introduced as well as new environments. Overall I spent about 20 hours fighting through dungeons before I played through both campaigns. That’s–without a doubt–worth $10 bucks!

On the downside of Warhammer Quest is the other additional IAP. Three additional heroes can be purchased at 3 bucks a pop. A little steep but sure whatever. My beef falls into purchasing gold packs in order to purchase new gear and potions. Earning gold feels minimal at best which translates to a lot of grinding and being over the top frugal with how I spend my earnings. It came down to saving almost all my gold to upgrade each hero (each upgrade costs an increasing amount of gold) to the next level and equipping my heroes with mostly found loot in the dungeons. I can’t help but feel that the experience is crippled unless you spend money on gold…which is a shame since this game is so amazing.

Even though I love Warhammer Quest, there’s two massively annoying things. The UI is amazing and casting spells, attacking, and moving is natural. I love it. However, when having to access the equipment screen, I have to rotate my iPad from landscape to portrait!  I hate this! This killed me every single time! Terrible! Rodeo Games why would you do this! Add an optional button icon on the bottom of the screen to activate this! The UI is sooooo good but you ruin it with this?! Innovative my ass!

The  other massive complaint is the sheer amount of missed attacks! There is no reason why all four of my heroes all roll misses for multiple turns! Please please please fix this. I know that’s it’s based on dice rolls but it feels very unbalanced. (I think that I’ve  almost reached my quota of exclamation marks for this article!) 

The Bottom Line: Warhammer Quest is an astonishing game that nails the feel of classic table-top gaming as well as playing a RPG video game. Easily one of my favorite iOS games and I’m already on my second play through. Wow!

Note: While Warhammer Quest does have its issues, the overall experience is one of the best that we’ve played yet. That’s why we gave it a 10/10 even with its issues.

Price $4.99

When I say real world building materials, I say that somewhat loosely. There’s train tracks, ropes, wooden beams, as well as cement blocks at your disposal. Basic concepts of crossing beams to help secure the structure as well as using rope to help your track not bend are here…but it’s cartoony. Meaning that Bridgy Jones has it’s own physics to each building material which creates a lot more freedom as well as creativity with how you design your bridge.

I quickly mentioned World of Goo, but Bridgy Jones also reminds me of Bad Piggies. Yes, completely different games, but the reason why I say this is the sheer amount of freedom that you have with building materials. Like Bad Piggies, there’s never  a single solution. Instead there’s almost an endless amount of solutions to each level.  

Adding to this comparison is that Bridgy Jones also includes a variety of objectives to strive for (3 for each level). In order to successfully complete one objective, you may have to build different bridges. Ideally finding that one bridge to earn every achievement in a single run is what you want to achieve. Bridgy Jones, goes beyond  having fantastic re-playability by bringing a deeper challenge with each level.

The Bottom Line: I can not wait for more Bridgy Jones levels. Easily one of the top physics-puzzlers that we’ve played.

Price $0.99

If this sounds like a traveling buddy-film…you nailed it on the head. Almost every staple in mixed-matched buddy movies is found here. Sandy is rigid and all of his reactions are straight, Diana is the party girl who creates chaos. Such as having assassins chase after her. This creates  wacky car chases, gun fights, and you already know the rest. In other words, plot wise, Identity Thief steals everything from other buddy movies.

There is no reason why I should find Identity Thief enjoyable. Yet due to both Bateman’s and McCarthy’s performance I do. The comical timing between these two is perfect. Bateman delivers a performance where it’s easy to bounce lines off of him. McCarthy surprisingly had me chuckling at slapstick moments (I normally don’t even crack a smile at that style of humor) as well as bringing in some heart-felt moments. Sure the moments felt forced (mostly from the lackluster script) but still helped flesh out the relationship between these two actors.

The Bottom Line: If you’re a fan of Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy then renting Identity Thief  (don’t buy it) is worth it…just don’t expect a novel comedy here.