iPhone Savior

Wanna Punch Tebow? There's An App For That

 

After the Steeler's heartbreaking 29 to 23 loss to the Denver Broncos on the first play of their sudden death overtime playoff game, I'm sure there's thousands of hardcore Pittsburgh fans who would like punch quarterback Tim Tebow square in the face. Now you can... because there's an app for that.

The free iPhone app called Punch Tebow, may be a bittersweet consolation for upset Steeler fans, but for now that's all they've got. This one is a perfectly dumb novelty app that let's you punch the bejesus out of Tim Tebow with rapid fire smacks in the face.

You'll also be agitated by the app with various taunts designed to keep your manly aggression high. While it would be nice to see some epic bruising and few knocked out teeth left behind on Tebow's mug, this app simply counts your punches and let's you share your rage on Facebook.

I'm certain Pittsburgh fans will be down on one knee Tebowing (praying) with great faith that the Broncos get pummeled by the New England Patriots next week. Maybe you should download the free Tebowing app for that. It's Tebow time! I believe!

Siege Hero Puts Some Serious Fun Into Physics

 

Many of us have spent countless hours flinging birds at buildings trying to kill pigs, and plenty of developers have attempted to create a game as addicting as Angry Birds, but almost all have failed.

Siege Hero ($.99) truly stands out in a crowd of games with similarities to the ever-popular Angry Birds by making the gameplay unique but still nicely familiar. Siege Hero is based off of a popular iOS app and Flash physics puzzle game which involves throwing some sort of projectile at structures to kill the evil armies inside.

When you touch your finger to the area you want to destroy, a rock or some other destructive item, gets chucked at the tower-like structures. Your goal is to annihilate all the bad guys with as few strategic throws as possible. Instead of using a slingshot to catapult birds, Siege Hero uses a first person view as you toss rocks and bombs at various towers to destroy the pint size inhabitants.

Unfortunately, in the first sets of levels many of the items you throw act like the birds in Angry Birds. As you progress through the game Siege Hero does begin to add new destructive tools, but I feel that the game would stand out more from Angry Birds with even more deadly things to hurl at the evil ones.

One welcomed difference from Angry Birds is that some levels require you to also save villagers while destroying the structures, offering a nice change of pace from previous levels.

As it is, Siege Hero is a seriously fun game and people who love Angry Birds should love this one, but some (like myself) may be left wanting a little bit more out of the gameplay. Even though I think this game could be improved with added weaponry and more level variations, Armor Games is updating Siege Hero on a regular basis, which means there is still plenty of room for it to evolve.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for new updates that will make this game even better than it already is.

Guest post by Jordan Schmidt - @JSchmidty

Scramble With Friends Is Zynga's Next Big Thing

    

Zynga has launched Scramble With Friends into the iTunes App Store today as a worthy successor to their wildly popular mobile juggernaut "Words With Friends".

This newest "With Friends" social word puzzle game improves upon the classic Word Scramble with an entirely new look and feel aimed at competing with Facebook friends from the palm of your hand.

The object is to find as many words as possible inside a jumbled grid of letters. You can challenge your friends in 3, two-minute rounds and the player with the highest score wins. I was hammered 107 to 30 in my first round with a random opponent.

Each match begins with tokens that are replenished over 20 minutes, but you can acquire more tokens through in-app-purchases and use them to get additional power-ups. Unlike WWF, the battles on Scramble With Friends come to a close much quicker which could be a huge selling point for less committed gamers.

Zynga's newest iPhone title is based on one of the company’s earliest games, Scramble, which has been downloaded by 2.5 million Facebook users. A free-play version of the app with banner ads is available for download or you can upgrade to the $2.99 paid version.

Scramble With Friends is expected to launch on Android at a later date, according to the official Zynga blog. The company is eager to build on its success by continuing a strategic expansion into mobile, moving its "With Friends" franchise beyond its base of desktop games.

The December 7th American Airlines fiasco with addicted Words With Friends celebrity Alec Baldwin didn't hurt those efforts at all. In fact, I'm still a bit suspicious that the entire thing was planned to boost interest in Zynga's Dec. 16th IPO. But that's just a wild scramble of speculation on my part.

[Scramble With Friends]

Watch This African Bullfrog Playing Ant Crusher

I'm sure the idea of coaxing your pet African Bullfrog into playing a round of Ant Crusher sounded great last night after downing a half dozen beers. It's all fun and games until someone decides to go off script.

You can grab your own download of Ant Crusher for iPhone or iPad so you can drive your own exotic pets nuckin futz. Ant Crusher is free, but the HD version is $.99.

Alec Baldwin Lampoons American Airlines On SNL

This hysterical Saturday Night Live clip features Alec Baldwin playing the role of American Airlines Captain Steve Rogers, who came on the show to issue an official apology to mister Baldwin after the actor was removed from an American Airlines flight earlier this week.

Baldwin was booted from an LAX to JFK flight on Tuesday for playing the iPhone game "Words With Friends". The fantastical hoopla gained national media attention as well as turning a spotlight onto the wildly popular Scrabble-like app created by Zynga.

One of the funniest moments occurs when SNL news anchor Seth Meyers asks Baldwin (Capt. Rogers), "Don't phones interfere with the planes communication system?" Baldwin replied;

"You don't believe that do you Seth? Would you really get on an airplane that flew 30,000 feet in the air if you thought one Kindle switch could take it down? Come on!! It's just a cruel joke perpetrated by the airline industry and we would have gotten away with it but Alec Baldwin was just too smart for us. He really is something Seth."

Bazing! I could not agree more with Alec Baldwin. The man is a hero.

[Hulu]

Stupid Zombies Takes Brains And Bullets To Win

A stupid zombie is exactly what I felt like after downloading this app last week.  Hours ticked by as I mindlessly shot cartoon zombies in the head again and again. It seems like the App Store has plenty of zombie related games, but Stupid Zombies is one of the few that will keep you playing hour after hour.
   
Angry Birds can be addicting because of the sheer amount of levels and the 3-star scoring system. Developers at Game Resort, applied that same winning formula to Stupid Zombies, making a simple and fun pick up and play game.

The goal of this game is to use your super bouncy bullets to kill all the zombies with as few shots as possible. The game becomes even more fun when you begin to use the environment to your advantage against the standing dead. Falling boxes, exploding barrels, and various walls help and hinder you as you hunt down zombies, adding some thoughtful strategy and difficulty to the game.

The first few levels in Stupid Zombies feels a little too simple, almost too repetitive, but as you progress through the game things begin to get more difficult and complex.

The only minor downside to Stupid Zombies is that the learning curve may be too slow for some, causing them to put the game down before they get to experience the more chaotic levels. Once you get past that, the game is nearly impossible to put down with some 600 puzzling levels of play.

Desperately trying to gain 3-stars on each level of zombie slaying madness will have you blasting undead heads off for a very long time. It will take equal parts brains, bullets and the perfect bounce to master this one.

Guest post by Jordan Schmidt - @JSchmidty