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Category: Entertainment
Seller: Aspyr Media
Requirements: iPhone 2.0
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
File Size: 15MB
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Price: $0.99

I’m glad I handed this one off to my wife, because I don’t get it. I download this, installed it on her phone, messed around with it for a while, and was completely unmoved. I went to bed.

The next day, my wife called me from work to tell me how awesome the app is, and how she and her coworkers have had a blast with it all morning. Were we talking about the same app? I had to confirm it. Yes, she was talking about VooDude, an app from Aspyr Media that is essentially nothing more than a virtual voodoo doll. You can do to it all the things that you’d except from a voodoo doll: poke it, burn it, shake it. The poor little guy is powered by ragdoll physics, and flips all around inside its virtual box. Shake it hard enough, and it’ll even crack your iPhone screen (virtually, of course, although I suppose you could shake it so hard that you drop your phone).

At the hands of any other developer, VooDude could’ve been a total waste of time. But this is Aspyr, and they have a history of solid development. That’s certainly the case here. The graphics are fantastic, and the overall user interface is quite polished. Plus, VooDude has some well thought out features. The best of these is the ability to place a custom photo over VooDude’s head. Now it’s personal, see? Take out your frustrations on your boss/ex/Realtor(r) anywhere you want, whenever those feelings of rage come upon you. Of course, it’s hard to focus your anger on just one person, so you can save your custom “VooDudes” for later use, and even e-mail them to your friends in the event that they share your hostilities.

But as well done as VooDude is, your enjoyment of it will depend entirely upon how much you like to relieve stress by channeling your anger into your iPhone. Like I said, I didn’t get it. My wife loves it. Her coworkers all love it. May I be sexist for a moment and point out that all of her coworkers are women? That’s just an observation, but if it offends, I recommend you download the app and create a VooDude of me. I’ll be happy to send you my photo.