VIAM Game for iphone and android

It is a unique puzzle game that pleases your eyes and causes excess hair loss, all in one clean swipe.

Games like Puzzlejuice and SpellTower proved that simple art styles can score large followings in the iOS community. VIAM piggybacks on titles like these with its minimalistic design, starring circles and triangles dressed in a catchy color scheme.

The goal of the game is to get your light blue circle from the left side of the screen to the green dot on the right side of the screen. This sounds simple, but as you progress through the 24 levels, new obstacles are added making your task increasingly complex.

To begin with, you will only have to deal with stationary gray obstacles. Later, you will face circles that move vertically when you move vertically, and others that vanish with each step you take. Land on one of the obstacles and you are sent back to the beginning of the level. With several different types of obstacles in the same level, things get extremely hectic, and at times you might be driven to the brink of insanity before solving a level. Hopefully you won’t go insane playing this game, but if you do, plug in your headphones and listen to the soothing background music.

However, the controls are the one thing detracting from the clean art style and difficult levels. At the bottom of the screen there are four arrows for movement: vertical movement on the left, and horizontal movement on the right. This layout works well enough, but there is some delay after you push a button before you can make another move. This delay forces you to play at a slower pace, and it makes things frustrating, especially after failing a level multiple times.

Apart from the controls, VIAM is a solid puzzle game. Achievements and leaderboards are included through Game Center, with achievements for completing each level, and leaderboards to see who completed the levels in the fewest number of moves. Even with the leaderboards, VIAM’s replay value isn’t great. More levels definitely need to be added, and a few new obstacle types wouldn’t hurt either.

With its crisp art style and simple yet challenging gameplay, VIAM is an engaging experience. While the puzzle masters among us might have little difficulty completing the levels, the rest of us will have quite the time scrambling our way through. If the developer continues to support the title and provide new levels, I can see VIAM building a strong following of gamers. Until then, see how long it takes you to beat all 24 levels.

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GasBuddy Android Application

GasBuddy Android Application

The days of cheap gasoline may be gone for good, but the free GasBuddy app for Android can help you find the best fuel deals in town. GasBuddy is very easy to use: The app uses your GPS location to search for nearby gas stations, then returns a list that you can sort by price or distance. The list is conveniently organized into tabs for Regular, Mid-Grade, and Premium gasoline, as well as Diesel fuel. Clicking on an item gives you more details such as the gas station's phone number, services offered, and directions to help you get there.

You can also switch to a view that shows the gas stations and their prices as thumbnails on a map, relative to your current position. Click a thumbnail to go to a page with more details about the gas station. I prefer the map view because to me it feels more visually intuitive than the list view.

GasBuddy has some other nice features like the ability to filter results by gas station brand, toggle between metric and imperial distance units, save searches, and save individual gas stations as Favorites.

I tested GasBuddy in Oakland, CA and soon discovered a spread of 32 cents per gallon between the cheapest and most expensive gas stations in my area (a radius of approximately five miles). That means that I could save as much as $3.84 the very first time I fill a 12-gallon gas tank. Think about it. Here is a free app that actually can save you a significant amount of money on a recurring expense. How awesome is that?

GasBuddy uses crowd-sourced reports from users to provide up-to-date prices, and each price listing also shows how recent the price report is. If you register an account with GasBuddy, you can join in on reporting gas prices for a chance to win a $250 gas card. It's worth noting that you can also log in to gasbuddy online with any Web browser to access your Favorites and saved searches. It's definitely worth checking out, as the Website has some interesting features, like regional and national gas price “heat maps,” that complement the mobile app nicely.

I uninstall many apps after I review them, but I like GasBuddy so much that I plan to keep it on my phone. The only thing it lacks is the ability for a user to rate or review an individual gas station. Such a feature could be helpful to warn other users of potential problems such as poor service, unsafe conditions, or bad gasoline.

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Minecraft Pocket Edition game

Minecraft Pocket Edition game

Minecraft Pocket Edition is a smooth port of the PC game, with a few modifications to make it work on Android.

When you boot up Minecraft PE, it allows you to choose a game mode: Creative or Survival. In Creative mode, the goal of the game is to build, build, and build some more. You can fly around by double-tapping the jump button, and nothing impedes you from building to your heart's content. In Survival mode, you have a more defined objective, which is to stay alive by eating sheep and killing zombies, while, of course, building things. Survival mode also brings a day/night cycle similar to the one in the desktop version of Minecraft.

Gameplay in Minecraft PE is simple. In the lower-left corner, you get a virtual directional pad with arrow keys and a middle button for jumping. You'll rarely use the jump button (except to fly), because your character automatically jumps up to the next block. To look around (or change the direction you're facing), you can tap and drag anywhere on the screen.

At the bottom of the screen are three buttons that let you select building materials, as well as a button with an ellipsis on it. You tap the ellipsis button to access more building materials, including doors, ladders, and water.

Minecraft PE makes placing and destroying blocks easier than regular desktop Minecraft does. To place a block, simply choose the building material you want to use, and tap anywhere on the screen. To destroy a block, just tap it and hold your finger down; a circle will appear, and when that circle fills up, the block will explode.

In Creative mode, you have access to unlimited materials, so you don't have to worry about harvesting or mining. In Survival mode, you get survival tools (such as shovels and weapons), and you still have access to an unlimited supply of most materials. Some materials--such as mushrooms, flowers, and bamboo--require harvesting, however.

When Minecraft PE first came out, it featured only Creative mode--which, while fun, limited the game to block artists. With the addition of Survival mode, though, the game now caters to artists and traditional goal-oriented gamers alike.

The game's graphics render smoothly and look good (though there's not much to say about a retro-styled game that consists of blocks). The game world is a little small, and you'll find yourself reaching its borders fairly quickly. The title offers no real online multiplayer mode, but it does allow you to play with friends over a local Wi-Fi network. Options are pretty basic, though you can invert the Y-axis and switch the virtual d-pad over to the right side of the screen, if you desire.

Minecraft PE provides a nice balance between the classic desktop version of the game and optimization for a mobile platform. The general performance is excellent, the game doesn't drain a phone's battery too quickly, and the controls are accurate. If you've been looking for a way to play Minecraft while on the go, the Pocket Edition for Android is worth every penny.

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