This Week at 148Apps: September 7-11, 2015

Slide Into September With 148Apps

How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you're looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out above the many good apps and games with something just a little bit more to offer. Take a look at what we've been up to this week, and find even more in our Reviews Archive.

Zen Brush 2

Zen Brush 2 takes what worked so well for the original app and improves upon it. It’s not like regular drawing software, lacking the variety of a more powerful artistry app, but it’s really quite delightful for evoking a particular theme. That theme is through the use of an East Asian ink brush. Looking a little like a more artistic interpretation of calligraphy, you can use your finger to sweep across the screen, drawing lines from a number of different brush strokes. If you hold your finger to the screen for a time, you can see the ink pool where your finger is resting, ensuring it feels more tactile than most drawing apps. --Jennifer Allen

Legendary Warriors

Looking really rather gorgeous, Legendary Warriors will catch your attention quite quickly. In reality, it’s a fairly hands-off experience that means it’s not going to be for everyone, but it’ll certainly stick in your mind through its beauty. An RPG of sorts, you’re helping a party of characters go from place to place, taking out monsters in their wake, and getting stronger too. How this is conducted is fairly hands-off though. You hit the ‘go’ button to send your character to battle then your only interaction is through activating a special skill as and when it becomes available. When that happens, the game stutters a bit, adding insult to injury. --Jennifer Allen

Dead Synchronicity

Dead Synchronicity is dark. Really, really dark. Set in a world that has been mostly wiped out by a mysterious thing called The Great Wave, leading to martial law and some terrible suffering, it’s a bleak existence. You’re a man suffering from amnesia, but unlike other games you’re not here to liberate the world - you just want to survive. This is done through exploring the land and solving various puzzles. At times, it’s a little sick, suck as when you’re mutilating a corpse in order to set the man up in the case of a murder. It’s consistently well written though, and really quite enticing. This doesn’t feel like a by the numbers tale, instead sticking in your memory for a while to come. --Jennifer Allen

Chrono Space

The reasons why are unimportant. All you need to know is that some badguys are gunning for you and the only way you can fend them off is by creating, placing, and upgrading defensive towers - in space. But despite the familiar setup, Chrono Space (to its benefit) does things a little differently. There are no paths or anything to worry about here; since you’re in space enemies can approach from any direction. Fortunately they’ll stop to attack your towers, so while you can’t block them in you can at least delay them. Unfortunately you never really get a proper heads-up about which section of the screen they might be attacking from but it ultimately doesn’t put you at much of a disadvantage because the game is pretty brutal either way. --Rob Rich

Power Ping Pong

Once upon a time, I used to play table tennis for a team. I was supposedly pretty good at it and nearly participated in a few tournaments. I was young though, and therefore foolish, and gave up because, well, I don’t know. While real table tennis doesn’t offer special moves or power-ups, Power Ping Pong does bring back some fun memories. It’s table tennis with a Kung Fu style twist. Throughout the arcade mode, you take on various competitors, showing them just what you’ve got, with an option to delve into a survival mode or multiplayer. Controls are simple to pick up but require some mastering. They mostly involve performing gestures, such as a sweep upwards at speed invoking a fast hit, with the opposite providing more of a kind of lob. Side swipes can also prove useful at the right time. It takes some practice but it's reasonably rewarding, much like the real sport. --Jennifer Allen

Other 148Apps Network Sites

If you are looking for the best reviews of Android apps, just head right over to AndroidRundown. Here are just some of the reviews served up this week:

AndroidRundown

Speedy Ninja

Speedy Ninja packs a lot. On the surface, it’s an endless runner. The main job is to get our hero — a sassy, excitable ninja with just a hint of stickman sensibilities — to go as far as possible. Running occurs in an intuitive left-to-right fashion, and once a run commences, the ninja moves forward continuously… until an obstacle of some sort says otherwise. The obstacles will be somewhat familiar to ninja aficionados, and have a touch of the fantastic: bamboo stakes, spinning blades, homing spears and more. To navigate these, there is a handy jump button that allows one to vault and double-vault such run enders. --Tre Lawrence

TYLT FLYP-DUO Reversible USB Cable

We are a mobile society. Or, to be fair, we are getting there. In any case, some thing seem to be becoming more commonplace, such as households with multiple mobile devices, and households with devices from multiple platforms. Hey, I should know… this one has units from all major platforms, and then some.
Still, now, with the joy of multiple devices comes the challenge of keeping them charged. Since Apple uses proprietary cables, it does add an extra cable to be carried when an iDevice. Since I like to be prepared, it pays to have a lightning cable, and even if not for me, I do get a weird sense of accomplishment when I can provide a cable to a needy friend or colleague. Ah, enter the TYLT FLYP-DUO Reversible USB Cable. --Tre Lawrence

Stick Squad 4-Sniper's Eye

If truth be told, I am not the biggest fan of sniper games. Call me a wuss, but there is just something so… well… final about them. Yes, some find it silly, but talking about it frees me. I think… But then there’s Stick Squad 4 – Sniper’s Eye, the fourth installment in Stick Squad series. It’s the sequel to the sequel to the original sequel, and looks to bring the best of stick figures and sniping to handheld gaming. For folks vested in this particular gaming series, the general look will be familiar. One gets the expected stick figures, and they’re moving, relaxing and otherwise living in the lfe. the motions are mostly natural looking, and the visuals work well, even if perspective takes a weird turn a time or two. The gameplay is presented in first person format, through a scope for vision. Moving said scope is a matter of holding/dragging it around till one gets a target in one’s sights. There is a simple shooting button, and it is very reactive. --Tre Lawrence

All this, plus news, game guides, and even more reviews than we can share here!