Appletell

I don’t pretend to know much about the inner workings of Freeverse, but I can say this; they like their labs puzzling, and their monkeys burning. Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab came out for the Macintosh back in 2000, and it was pretty good. Although it featured various single player games (most notable of which was “Zen” mode, in which the tone settled down and the blocks never sped up), it really shined in multiplayer versus mode. Here, it was no longer enough to just align the descending balls; you needed to line then up in a certain way so you could send “bad” balls to your opponent. The games were more intense, more fun, and (thank heavens) shorter.

It’s not at all surprising, then, that Freeverse selected Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab (BMPL) as one of their first Mac to iPhone ports. The iPhone screen orientation is perfect for falling blocks and balls and what have you, and the graphics are well suited to the iPhone’s capabilities. It’s just a great match. And yet, BMPL for the iPhone/iPod touch left me wanting.

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I gotta be honest with you; I mainly only go bowling with the anticipation of the alley being attacked by The Blob. Or the Son of Blob. Or the Beware! The Blob! Whatever. The point is, expecting a blood red, gelatinous mass to come rolling up the lanes at any moment adds a sense of urgency and terror to the game that really enhances the overall effect. This is why I’m largely disappointed with bowling video games. Nobody really dies in them.

But, I won’t hold that against Freeverse’s Flick Bowling for the iPhone and iPod touch. What it lacks in terror, in makes up for with “awesome balls,“ as they put it. And I suppose the balls are pretty awesome. Unlike real bowling, where you’re mainly stuck with the ball you chose at the beginning of the game, Flick Bowling changes the balls up on you constantly. They don’t affect your game, but not a whole lot does. That’s not really the point of Flick Bowling. Rather, the point is to just show off your iPhone a bit more, and have fun doing it.

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Are you frustrated by the high number of fingers required for real bowling? Freeverse is here to help you with that, having just announced the release of Flick Bowling for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Using the advanced touchscreen technology of the iPhone and iPod touch, players are able to choose their ball, line up their shot, and adjust the ball’s velocity and direction all with the flick of their finger. The game features six colorful characters and fully 3D console-quality environments.

Fun for a quick play or a longer session, Flick Bowling offers a variety of awesome balls, a range of difficulty levels, and the ability to bowl alone or against one of the computer characters.

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Courtesy of our friends over at Freeverse, Appletell this week is giving away free copies of Wingnuts Moto Racer and Big Bang Sudoku for the iPhone and iPod touch. And to sweeten the pot, we’re now throwing in digital copies of Big Bang Brain Games and Hordes of Orcs for Mac or PC.

To win this gaming package, with a retail value of nearly $75 of your U.S. dollars [cue applause], you simply need to…well, let’s see. Let’s make it relevant…

Learn more about the games and how to win them after the break.

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One of the perils of being a fake Mac journalist is that every four or five years you have to review new versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Together, they’re the death and taxes of Macintosh gaming. Now it’s Freeverse’s turn with them, and I’m afraid they’ve gone all ironic on us. Freeverse games, you see, are normally all about personality. Well, not all about, but the personality of the Freeverse cast of characters is often enough to drive fans to purchase one of their games even if they have no interest in the genre. So, it’s ironic that Freeverse would be the company to publish the most personality-free versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune to date.

And this isn’t just because Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak and Vanna White are nowhere to be found. The video snippets of Alex and Vanna killed the MacSoft versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, respectively. The load times were annoying, and the live motion video overtop of the computer animations were disjointed and kind of creepy. Even though technology has progressed since then, I’m still quite certain I wouldn’t want live video of these people in the game, but CGI characters or even voiceovers could work. Instead, we get nothing.

As I mentioned, though, that’s not the real problem here. Jump past the break to find out what went wrong.

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Wingnuts Moto Racer is a racing game, of sorts. It’s actually more of a time trial game, as the point is to race through checkpoints in order to…save a cat? Let’s consider this again; a cat has been stolen, and it’s up to one of three motorcyclists to race through various locales around the world, avoiding traffic, biker thugs and nature in order to save the day. Why’s this cat so important? I guess it doesn’t matter, just as long as it gives you an excuse to race.

Speed through the review after the break.

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Freeverse announced its Moto Racer and Big Bang Sudoku games for iPhone and iPod Touch are now available from the new Apple App Store. Video trailers and screenshots for both games are available on the Freeverse website.

“Over the years, we’ve always tried to be among the first to adopt new Apple technologies and platforms, but we’ve never been more excited than we are at this moment with the launch of the Apple App Store,“ said Ian Lynch Smith, President of Freevese. “The iPhone is an amazing gaming device, and Freeverse is committed to building great titles for it. Moto Racer exists on no other platform but the iPhone, and, as designed, there is just no other mobile platform for which it even could exist.“

Details after the break.

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Freeverse, Inc. today revealed plans to release more than a dozen game titles for iPhone and iPod Touch. Available immediately with the opening of the iTunes App Store will be Wingnuts Moto Racer, Big Bang Sudoku and the infamous, Jared: Butcher of Song. Available by September will be Big Bang Chess and various Flick Sports and 3D card games. To add that touch of mystery and wonder, they also point out that they have “...several other unannounced games and applications in active development.“ I would ponder their identity, but I’m stuck on how Jared: Butcher of Song will make use of the iPhone’s accelerometer.

Game details after the break.

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Freeverse, Inc. has announced the release of Jeopardy! Deluxe and Wheel of Fortune Deluxe, based on the hugely popular syndicated television game shows, for the Macintosh platform. Both Jeopardy! Deluxe and Wheel of Fortune Deluxe provide you with all of the thrills and excitement of the game shows from your own home…except for, you know, the thrills and excitement from winning heaps of cash and cars. In that way, it’s exactly like watching it from your own home. Free demos are available for download from the Freeverse website.

Details on both games after the break.

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The Mac games are just rolling in this week. Freeverse, the company that brought you Big Bang Games, has just released a new game for the Mac platform: Hordes of Orcs.

“Hordes of Orcs is a “Tower Defense” game in which you must build walls and lethal towers to defend your village from the Orcs emerging from, what the village elders call, “The Glowing Portal of Really Bad Things That We Should Have Bricked-Up a Long Time Ago.” Sadly, the Portal is un-bricked and the Orcs are very, very hungry. If 20 Orcs make it to your village, you’re toast.”

The graphics aren’t bad for a strategy game like this. It’s obviously no Halo 3, but this is a completely different type of game. For the price, it looks pretty impressive. You can even download the game (no disc required) for just $24.95. Or you can download a full demo of the game from Freeverse’s website. The system requirements are 1.83GHz or faster Intel or PowerPC, Intel GMA950 or better video, 384MB RAM and 35MB disk space. It’s made in Universal binary - so both Intel and PowerPC users can play it smoothly. Freeverse have also said that a Windows version will be available soon. How odd - a Mac game before Windows.

Via [Macworld]

• Get hopping and start shopping
• Appletell review - Flick Bowling for iPhone/iPod touch
• Appletell review - Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab for iPhone/iPod touch