After thinking about it a little more, we love Angry Birds clones. The game style is a lot of fun and switching up the animations is no different than the millions of Brick Breaker clones. XIMAD has recently launched Pandas vs Ninjas, an Angry Birds alternative. The game features some cute animations and is void of any advertising. This game doesn’t really require any explanation as we’re all familiar with the catapult style game. It would be nice if there was a free trial, even if it was just one level, but the reviews so far seem positive.
Bomber Strike is a Minesweeper-inspired game that trades mines for atomic bombs. The game has you dropping bombs on the enemy in an attempt to slow their progress but you don’t want to drop a bomb on a nuclear facility. Again, the game is just like Minesweeper in strategy but uses a new skin and fun twist. Features of the game include:
Classic Minesweeper inspired gameplay with an atomic twist!
15 huge, multi-screen maps.
6 hidden target types.
3 difficulty levels.
Support for touchscreen, trackball, trackpad, and keyboard controls.
Sound, music, and vibration effects.
Statistics and best time saving for each map
Landscape and portrait orientations supported where available.
There are two new Digital Chocolate games in the Bplay/BlackBerryCool store and they both look like really fun casual games. Crazy Penguin Assault is reminiscent of Angry Birds in the sense that you launch a penguin from a catapult and watch the damage it does. The game has a ton of features including the ability to play over 50 levels in Campaign Mode or blast away in 20 explosive new Frenzy Mode levels. There is definitely a lot of value for $2.99.
The other game is Sky Diving Challenge: another fun casual game. In Sky Diving Challenge, your goal is to collect as many points and power-ups as you plummet towards the ground. Obviously you have to open your parachute before you hit the ground. SDC also gives you a lot of value for your dollar and features 40 levels in Career Mode.
Don’t forget that Bplay is also currently running a 40% off promotion until July 4th. Enjoy! Follow the promo link http://bpl.me/jotyvs and look for these two new games.
There’s a new Trivial Pursuit game in App World by Electronic Arts but the submission process is a little strange. The game looks to be divided between three submissions and it’s not available in the Americas or Japan. The good thing is that the game is available to everyone, regardless of region, via the BlackBerryCool/Bplay store. The game is packed with 1000 questions. It also features Pass ‘N Play with friends so you can play multiplayer. You can also customize the length of gameplay in Classic Mode, or race through fast-paced levels and finish first in Pursuit Mode.
Smarter Apps has a pretty obvious app development strategy that involves taking the top iPhone apps and porting them over to BlackBerry. It’s a strategy that probably doesn’t even bother the developers of the original app titles because many of them don’t seem to have any plans for BlackBerry anyways. Smarter Apps isn’t exactly hiding the fact that they’re copying these apps, as they choose names like Angry Farm and InstaPhoto. So what’s next for Smarter Apps? We’re going to guess that they’ll develop one of the following:
We’re just joking around and we actually really like Smarter Apps. We’re thankful somebody is bringing these cool apps to the BlackBerry platform. Their latest app, InstaPhoto, is just what you think it is. You can take pictures and apply a library of 25 preset effects, including tilt shift, custom borders, color effects, grunge textures and decorative frames. You can also share your pics with all your friends via Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr.
We’ve written about Magmic’s Texas Hold’em King Live several times because it’s probably the most advanced BlackBerry game in terms of features and monetization strategy. First, the game uses in-app purchases to allow poker players to buy more chips in order to play. Second, the game features its own in-app advertising that shows ads for other Magmic titles. Third, the app uses Pretzil integration to give users access to a plethora of avatars that can be used in-game. There are more great features such as their social integration, but we feel these three features really set them apart.
Recently, Magmic announced that it has passed over 600,000 active player accounts. This number translates into over 7,000,000 “All-Ins” and over 50,000,000 hands dealt over the last 6 months. These numbers add to the already impressive numbers for the THK franchise. Over the years, Magmic’s THK franchise has over 50 million installs across 5 major platforms. These guys were in the business of huge downloads before Angry Birds came around.
