That’s the premise of Angry Birds, a physics-based puzzle game by Clickgamer, published by prolific iPhone publisher Chillingo.  Each stage presents the pigs ensconced in some sort of precariously (or sometimes not so precariously) assembled stronghold, and your job is to fling the birds from the slingshot at the weak points of the building to cause it to collapse on top of all the pigs inside.

This would be entertaining enough if that was it, but there are also several different species of birds, some of which have special abilities activated by tapping the screen mid-flight.  Blue birds can split themselves into three, yellow birds can get an extra burst of speed, back birds can blow themselves up like bombs, and white birds can drop exploding eggs from above.  So part of the challenge is just figuring out the right angle, and part of it is knowing exactly when to activate these abilities for maximum damage.  It’s all a lot of fun, and there are generally several different ways to go about each level.  As far as content is concerned, a recent update added 42 levels, bringing the total over 100, so there’s plenty to do.

The art style is like something straight out of the Saturday morning cartoons, which is very appropriate for this type of game. Defeated pigs simply disappear in a puff of smoke, as do the used up birds. Everything runs very smoothly on my iPod Touch 2G.  The sound leaves a bit to be desired, though, with no background music to speak of and just angry squawks for sound effects.

While Angry Birds is a lot of fun, there are a couple of issues I have with the game. First of all, the only way to unlock a level is to complete the level before it, so if you get stuck on a particular puzzle, you can’t do much else with the game until you get past that, which can be extremely frustrating.  Similarly, while there is a lot of content, there’s not to a ton of replay value; once you’ve beaten a level, while you can go back and try to get a perfect star rating, you typically won’t want to.  There’s also a certain amount of imprecision built into the game that’s a bit atypical for a physics puzzle game, so it’s hard to tell if you’re just missing your targets or if your strategy is fundamentally flawed.  (It’s worth noting that the game does show you the trajectory of your last bird, but even that sometimes isn’t enough to guide you where you’re supposed to be aiming.)  Finally, the order in which the birds you have at your disposal is fixed, which limits your strategy somewhat.

All in all, though, if you like any sort of physics puzzle game, you’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of Angry Birds.  Even if you don’t typically like these types of games, the gameplay is interesting enough to keep you engaged; even being stuck on a particular level is still fun in its own way, and the early levels are easy enough that you won’t get stuck for a while anyway.  Angry Birds is quirky, easy to pick up, and difficult to master, and it’s loads of fun all the way through.  Angry Birds is an easy recommendation at its regular $2 price, and a complete no brainer at its current sale price (as of this writing) of $1. Unless, of course, you’re a pig; then you may want to stay away.

Learn more about Angry Birds for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

So let’s get this party started! You’re the DJ and the controls for the music mix are right in your hands! Tilt your device left, right, and up to the tunes of Black Eyed Peas, Tiësto, Benny Benassi, (and many more artists to be added soon) as you race down a curvy ribbon, gathering pebbles and hoops for points. When you reach a fork in your track, make a decision to go left or right for a different mix of the song. Jump over ramps to the effects level and give your song a more unique sound. Glide along the track, but be sure to stay away from obstacles that can slow you down!

Don’t be too intimidated playing this game the first few times. The game is easy to learn, but difficult to master at first. Once you get the hang of when to tilt the device during the curvy turns and jumps, it’s a lot of fun. Plus, the narrator is quite encouraging!

Each game is about 4-5 minutes, depending on what song you pick. The game comes with 3 great Black Eyed Peas tracks, including mixes of Boom Boom Pow, I Gotta Feeling, and Meet Me Halfway. For a limited time only, you can also get the mashup of “Imma Be/Rock That Body” for free with purchase. For each song, there are 2-3 mixes that can be played in your race to the finish line. At the end of the game, you can view your total points, your achievements, your top scores and dates of when you played, and how you compare to the global leaderboard. You can also share your score via email with your friends.

In-app purchases for 99 cents include various mixes of:

• Tiësto’s Louder Than Boom and Escape Me

• Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction

The game comes in three levels of difficulty – Easy, Medium, and Hard. You must mix up the previous level with an accuracy of 75% or better to unlock the next level. Harder levels include more twists, turns, jumps, and obstacles, both on and off the track.
One option I’d like added to the game is the ability to view the world-wide leaderboard at any time. Currently, you can only view it after you play the game. I personally like to see the scores I need to beat before playing the game. It’s just makes me more competitive.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, especially if you love The Black Eyed Peas and racing games. The graphics and animation are great and makes you feel as if you are mixing the song. One note, your right hand may sometimes cover the speakers on your iPhone when playing. That’s not good since this game is music-based. I suggest picking up a game wheel accessory or a gamer’s case to enhance your gaming experience with Riddim Ribbon. Have fun, and happy dj-ing!

Learn more about the Riddim Ribbon app for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

Slug Wars follows the basic tenets of the tower defense/real time strategy genre – there are fast and easy units to create and mobilize, medium-range types that do a little more damage and the super weapons that do maximum damage. The occasional flower blooming on the field is the currency of unit deployment and survival. Since the game plays out on three lanes only, your focus will be on managing your queue of soldiers, making sure they are equal or superior to, the enemy’s.

The control scheme is fairly simple. You use the slider to select which unit you want to deploy and tapping on the lane of your choice to send units. At the same time, you can view what the opponent is likewise sending out to meet you since the other side of the field is a mirror image of your own. From here, you can anticipate which units to use and when.

There are three basic modes: Campaign, Skirmish and Slug it Out. Skirmish is all out war with the AI player while Slug It Out allows two human players to fight it out. The tricky part in Slug Wars is managing the queues. This game has a strong offensive component – one of its plus points and you need to gain ground as you not only push back the enemy, you have to dominate the lane in order to capture his side. There are only three chances to survive the onslaught, and after a while it gets harder to keep track of all the activities happening in each lane.

Graphics and sounds play a pivotal role and making Slug Wars stand out not among only similar games, but even as against the seminal Plants vs Zombies which arrived recently. The slugs are cute, funny and feisty creatures – armed with salt shakers, lobbing pellets and attacking with gusto. Voice acting makes a huge difference here, as the distinct and funny battle cry of each slug makes the game a friendly and hilarious assault on the senses – “Yamler?” will find its way into your head for the rest of the day after playing the game. I enjoy the sound effects very much, but some in-game music or the option to play my own music would also be a good option to have.

While Slug Wars is a rip roaring experience the first few times you play it, it still needs some depth and variety in order to effectively compete against an ever growing TD/RTS genre. Even with different levels of difficulty, it’s not that difficult to play in part owing to the lack of variety in the gameplay. It needs to up the ante in terms of challenge – for example, it deviates from most TD/RTS games in the sense that there’s no recharging time for each unit: a simple, yet effective stumbling block in the deployment of units. More lanes in the higher levels would also be a good addition. The slider controls need some minor tweaking so it’s easier to monitor unit deployment – highlighting the unit deployed to confirm that the slug has been sent out to the queue will minimize confusion and make queue management a lot easier.

There’s no option yet to upgrade units and weapons, as well as power ups, more obstacles and additional twists to the gameplay. The developers have promised to incorporate user feedback and I am looking forward to a massive update. In this update, I hope to see Open Feint and social media integration, as well as achievements to be unlocked.

Overall, Slug Wars has a huge potential to become a breakout TD/RTS game with some enhancements and updates. As it is, it’s definitely a game worth having and the continuous updates worth waiting for.

Learn more about Slug Wars for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

The gameplay is quite simple. Colorful button-like game pieces with letters on them will fall into view. Simply tap on the game pieces to make words. If you make a mistake, tap on the orange X to clear the word or swipe to the left to clear one letter. If you make a word, tap on the green checkmark. You can also swipe downward to make letters fall faster. There are also two types of powerup – Time Freeze and Bomb. The “time freeze” powerup is helpful when you need a little more time to think about the words you’re creating and the “Bomb” is helpful when you need to clear the screen. You can create words using UK, International and US English spellings. Score big by making longer words or words with rare letters like “z” and “q.” Make as many words as you can before the screen fills up!

What’s magical about this game are the beautiful and colorful graphics as well as the realistic way the pieces fall and move in the game. Tilt the iPhone / iPod Touch and game pieces will fall and move around.

Two game modes are available in the full version – marathon and flood panic. In marathon mode, you make words with the game pieces falling down. When the screen fills up, the game is over. In flood panic, water and buoyancy are added to the equation. Game pieces are still falling down, but will float in water. The objective is to make longer words to lower the water level. Once the game pieces reach the top of the screen, the game is over.

WordCrasher uses the OpenFeint social gaming network to keep track of your scores and the leaderboard. Earn achievements and compete with your friends as well as gamers worldwide! Scoring categories include Flood Panic, Vocabulary, Marathon, and Word Score. You can even brag about your scores on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, WordCrasher is very easy to play, fun, and can be quite addictive. The well-polished graphics and physics in the game also makes it really stand out. The best part is, Kevin Ng, the game developer, has already started working on an iPad version of his game. With the faster processor and higher resolution of the iPad, he can use more realistic and detailed graphics without cluttering the game. Read his blog for more details.

For more information about WordCrasher, see their official website. The full version is on sale for only 99 cents. A lite version is also available which allows you to play four levels of marathon mode. Happy word-crashing!

Learn more about WordCrasher for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

Gesture-based, the objective is to draw different shapes corresponding to the ones that appear on the screen to keep the Groov-EE, the dancing robot, dancing. Using tracks from one’s own music library categorized by artist and title, unique levels are generated for each track played. The player can also opt to try out recommended tracks from the Hot Tunes section or the featured indie group Angels and Airwaves.

The game starts out leisurely and ends in frantic fingerplay. A series of correctly drawn 15 shapes unlocks a bonus round which speeds everything up and continues until the chain is broken or until the song ends. The absence of modes of difficulty will encourage one to stick to short songs for easy play and longer ones for a real challenge.

One play is equivalent to one battery to recharge Groov-EE, and Tune Runner only provides 10 batteries. Still, one can fully enjoy the game and continue playing by clicking on ads or playing a mini-game to recharge the batteries. Meanwhile, battery packs for longer plays are sold as in-app purchases: 40 for $0.99, 99 for $1.99 and the ad-free full version Fusion Pack is $2.99. With the options available, it’s easy enough to just buy a few batteries and hold out on the full version if one doesn’t intend to play it often, or take the plunge depending on one’s perceived value of what the game is really worth.

There is something endearing about Groov-EE the dancing robot and the randomly generated themes that seem to reflect the beat or rhythm of the chosen track.

Tune Runner’s plus points also include using one’s one music library as in-game content, online leaderboard and social media integration via Open Feint, and fairly challenging gameplay. The dancing robot is fun to watch, and the sound effects nicely blend in with the track that’s playing. Personally, I found my interest renewed in my neglected music collection after playing Tune Runner. The game serves as a nice and easy quick fix on a commute – I can listen to my own music and have fun with it at the same time.

I like that one can enjoy Tune Runner free although at some inconvenience. However, there are a number of cons as well. While I do not really mind playing the ad-supported versions, some of the ads are a bit jarring and may turn off some players. The in-app purchases, especially the full version, need to offer something more enticing to the players other than just longer or unlimited gameplay. A clearer and fuller explanation about the battery and recharging system will greatly clear up the confusion and encourage more players to upgrade.

The graphics and gesture controls are not as polished as Appy’s previous titles, and the gameplay might feel repetitive after a while. Its replay value can be enhanced by lending more variety to the experience – more shapes, power-ups, different game modes, and more mini-games.

Flawed but charming and engaging enough to earn a place in one’s iDevice, Tune Runner is an enjoyable casual game with a lot of potential for further growth. Tune Runner is a bold endeavor on various levels, and I appreciate the fact that a creative and dynamic indie team is taking these risks.

Learn more about Tune Runner for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

Synotes gives users a clean and simple interface when entering a new note. Just a place to enter a title at the top, and a blank space for entering any simple text. There is no fancy formatting options for text – it’s a minimal interface and minimal options to make I easy to enter your thoughts and be done, before it escapes you.

Once the text is entered and ready to be saved, hit the Save button in the top right corner and it will be uploaded to Syncode’s servers, and be synced across their ‘cloud’. A notification will appear on the screen when the note is successfully saved. The screen will then split into 2 parts – the note is displayed in a large pane with a smaller side pane that has some options for the Synote. This side pane can also be toggled on and off with the button at the bottom menu bar.

The Star in the side pane will allow the user to apply an icon to the note to easily distinguish it from other notes. The ‘i’ button will bring up note information, which includes Title, Date Created and Date Modified.

The last feature in the side panel is a clock button, which features a pretty big feature I have yet encountered in any other iPhone note app: previous versions of the individual note. These previous versions can be viewed and restored if need be. So if you think you messed up a note and just want to backtrack, restoring an earlier version is the way to go. You even see the icons that you had previously used, and where it was last edited (either iPhone app or web app).

Notes can be emailed in plain text with the @ button at the bottom menu bar. Deleting a note will make it permanent, so be careful!

On the main screen, you’ll get a list of all current notes. You can rearrange the order of them, which is either by Manually, Created, Modified, or Icon. To arrange them manually, tapping the Edit button at the top will let you drag and drop notes into the order you want, if you choose the Manual option.

Filtering by icon is an option as well, which is great if you are dependent on icons to organize your notes. Searching through notes is quick and easy, and searches as you type.

The interface is overall minimal, though not as bare bones as other note apps, particularly Simplenote. Though users can see this as either good or bad, based on personal preference. I think this interface is done well for what it’s worth, basic but adding enough function to make it useful.

The only drawback to Synotes is that there is no open API system so that users can use third party desktop apps to take notes instead of just using the web interface. The web interface is good, but sometimes having a standalone app on the desktop is handy. Also, to save changes in the iPhone app, the user must manually save the note – it is not automatic.

Synotes brings a worthy contender in the field of note-taking apps for the iPhone, and is definitely one that should be considered, if the user is ok with just using the iPhone app or the web interface. The cloud syncing is the beat part about it – your notes with you, wherever you go.

Learn more about Synotes for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

At the core of this RPG is a mystery-adventure played out in quests – one type is closed and complete after doing several tasks, while the other is directly related to Pik’s ‘Revenge’ mission. Pik’s needs are simple – earn enough gold through odd jobs and quests, constantly replenish its health and fend off monsters using weapons that can be picked up on the ground or purchased.

Pik’s Revenge takes place in the future, in another galaxy not unlike our own. Pik moves around, in side-scroller fashion, from point A to point B, picking up various objects (gold, ore, plants, and the like) and entering different buildings and establishments. Pik is essentially free to roam and explore each region, perform quests and do odd jobs for money, health or more points to level up.

In every zone is a smattering of shops, hotels and diners. There’s also a requisite dumpsite, a transport hub and other special areas uncovered through quests.

Establishments open and close at various times, with work accessible only within a particular window of opportunity for the day. In some regions, a work permit is required in order to apply for jobs, as well as transport tickets to travel.

Weapons can only be used once, thus the constant appearance of alien foes means constantly foraging for or buying extra to always be prepared. Constantly decreasing health levels is also a perpetual challenge – if you don’t take the easy way out and buy food or medical packs.

The game starts off slow, and takes some time to really build up on its more intriguing mystery elements. If you are as impatient as I am when starting a new game, I suggest that you take some time to enjoy the film clips and comic book storytelling to acquaint yourself fully with Pik’s quest for revenge.

The side-scrolling and simple quests can feel repetitive at first largely because when you start playing it, you just enter buildings randomly and do quests without quite seeing the big picture yet. Once you move up and you take on more enemies with a variety of weapons, then you’ll appreciate the transition from Pik’s ho-hum-town to that anticipation of bigger, meaner things to come.

I find the side-scrolling controls a bit awkward to work with, despite the customizable location of the arrows and how these can be hidden through the options menu. A single tap will automatically get Pik to move, and it’s only interrupted when he stops to pick up something or fend off aliens. The limited controls often dampen the exploratory feel of the game, not to mention making power-ups like speed enhancing sneakers not as useful as they could be. Perhaps an alternative control scheme which allows Pik a little more movement – jump around, for example – would add some depth and perspective to the game making it feel a little less linear and more dynamic.

I love the gritty sci-fi noir aesthetics of this game – a heady mix of cartoony creatures, and hand-illustrated scenes set in an odd, dystopian future. The geeky humor might not be apparent to some, but the store signs, for one, pay homage to sci-fi film classics such as The Blade Runner and Soylent Green, while puns are scattered all over the place.The soundtrack is just as odd yet mixes well with the game, giving it a strange and dreamlike feel.

The game offers local and global scoreboard and social media integration via Facebook connect. It would be great if Twitter were available in the succeeding versions – I can imagine posting mini-updates to let friends know where I am in the game and what quest I accomplished. With three levels of difficulty available – the game offers replay value in beating the scores and completing more quests. Mini-clips that are part of the game can also be accessed as separate clips in the options section.

While the rest of the game feels surprisingly conventional in terms of control and gameplay, the advantage is that for the complexity and depth of storyline, the game is actually pick up and play. You can dive right in and start exploring. It’s casual enough to play for a few minutes to an hour or more (I’m siding with the latter). The succeeding episodes prove to be very exciting as things get more and more complicated as Pik is closer to unraveling the truth.

Pik proves to be quite an endearing hero – with minimal gestures, and his biosuit mask registering emotions. Wordless as our hero is, Pik’s Revenge is a darkly gorgeous, original RPG adventure game that is a testament to the vast potential of indie titles.

Learn more about Pik’s Revenge for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store