QuickLook.Technobrains

Ten Pin Championship Bowling is a nice, no frills bowling game.  The problem is, it’s a nice, no frills bowling game.  What I’ve learned over time with Skyworks is that I tend to gravitate towards their sports games that throw in a little something extra, something I can’t get from other sports games of the same genre.  For example, World Cup Tennis had an interesting one player, half table mode.  And then there was Batter Up Baseball with various targets that you could hit around the field.  Unfortunately, Championship Bowling has nothing like that.  As a single player experience there’s not much to keep you coming back.

In Championship Bowling you can play either Ten Pin or Strikes-In-A-Row.  Ten Pin is your standard game of bowling.  You can have up to four players, but they are all human controlled in a hot-seat format, so there’s no way to compete against anyone if you’re by yourself.  This mode is in dire need of a computer opponent.  In Strikes-In-A-Row you are trying to see how many strikes you can get.  You get three opportunities to not get a strike, and then it is game over.  I’m not very good at this mode, but I think I could actually get into it.  However, every time you lose you have to select “play again”, go through the high score tables, and then select the mode from the main menu again.  This really kills the urge to play when you’re not very good, because you spend more time setting up the game than actually playing it.

No matter which mode you choose you can select the ball you want to use from a few different colors and weights between 6 and 16 lbs.  In Ten Pin mode you can also select between two different lanes.  The only real difference in the lanes that I can tell is aesthetic.  To control the ball you swipe left and right for positioning, and then swipe up to throw the ball.  The swipe sets the initial direction and speed of the throw, and then you can tilt the device to implement a spin.  Sometimes I had trouble getting it to register that I wanted to change my starting position, but otherwise the controls seemed to handle pretty well.  At the very least I wish they’d add a computer opponent, but the truth is that the game really needs something to stand out from other bowling games.

The visuals are nice, but nothing overly special.  Since you’re always focused in on your lane there’s not much difference between the two choices visually.  It would be nice if the game would at least start with a pan around the joint so you could see some things to make one place feel different than the other.  The sound effects make you feel like you’re really in a bowling alley, and the addition of the desk clerk coming over the PA every once in a while was a nice touch.  This is where the main difference between the two lanes comes in, as one voiceover is a lady and the other is a man (or a lady with a bad chest cold, I guess).  The music is decent, and at least there’s a different track for each lane.  The Starlite lanes music reminds me a lot of the music from Bowling For Burgers.

Overall Ten Pin Championship Bowling is a nice, solid implementation of the game of bowling for the iPhone.  Unfortunately, with the exception of Strikes-In-A-Row, it doesn’t really go beyond just being average.  If you happen to hang around a lot with people that would rather bowl electronically than go to a real lane, you might get some use out of the hot-seat 4 player mode.  If you’re really wanting something a little different from your iPhone bowling experience, however, you really need to look elsewhere.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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I was never real big on playing horseshoes when I was a kid, probably because I wasn’t very good at it.  Something about chucking a metal quasi-ring at a barely protruding metal pole that sat yards away that just didn’t click with me.  As it turns out, I’m not very good at the electronic version of this game, either.  Fortunately, though, Horseshoes Pro is a lot more forgiving than a real game, and at least I can’t lose the horseshoes this way.  A couple of the game modes need some tweaking before this game will truly shine, but as it stands right now it’s not a bad little diversion.

Horseshoes Pro actually has 4 game play modes, which if I’m not mistaken is a new record for a Skyworks game.  Play-N-Pass lets you have multiple human competitors on the same device, and I’ll admit to not having checked this one out.  I really don’t have any additional gamers readily available, so this kind of mode doesn’t do many any good unless I can play over the internet.  Ringer mode gives you 25 horseshoes to see how many points you can rack up.  Personally, I found this mode to be quite boring.

Like most Skyworks games, Tournament mode has you competing with up to 3 computer players, depending on whether you win or lose.  The first person to score 40 points is the winner.  I don’t know how close this game plays to any actual horseshoes rules, but I would have loved to see the ability to restrict this mode in one more more of the following ways: number of points to win, number of innings that are played, or a specified time limit.  While I enjoyed tournament mode it just seems to drag on sometimes, especially when you’re on the first level of play.

If you’re into horseshoes, Arcade mode almost makes this game worth the price of admission on its own.  Instead of a solitary target you now have three poles that you can try and hit.  Each pole is surrounded by a ring, and you either get one or three points depending on if you land in the ring or actually ring the pole itself.  The position of each of the poles changes between each toss, and each level you are given a target number of points to reach for the horseshoes you are allotted.  Every once in a while lights will start glowing around one of the poles, and points triple if you get that pole or circle during that round.  The game is over once you don’t make the required number of points for a given level.

To initially position the horseshoe you just drag it left and right.  You then use an upward swipe to set the initial trajectory and speed of the horseshoe.  While the horseshoe is in flight you can tilt the device to influence the flight path of the horseshoe.  For the most part this worked really well.  It did seem like there were times when the game reacted inconsistently to my swipes, and while I realize the chances of my swiping exactly the same way twice are next to nothing, there were times where I’d have two swipes that were extremely similar but seemed to have completely different results.

The game looks pretty nice.  The background is quite  detailed, and the playing field holds up pretty well in both long distance and closeup mode. On Tournament mode they’re even kind enough to render a small overhead view of the area surrounding the pole, complete with a the current position of all thrown horseshoes.  The sound effects are really good.  Whether it’s clinking against the pole or making a thud as it lands in the grass, all the sounds the horseshoe makes are authentic.  I really like the music for the Arcade mode, and the track for the other two modes is okay, though it’s a bit too Country for me.

When I first played Horseshoes Pro I didn’t really care for it, but the more I played for the purpose of the review the more it started to grow on me.  I’m still not sure I’d play the game on a regular basis, but there’s definitely a lot of potential in Horseshoes Pro.  If they could put some limiting options on Tournament mode and actually give Ringers mode some substance than this would be a great little horseshoes package for the iPhone.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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[All About Quick Looks]

I’m glad that Skyworks is continuing to work on non-sports related games, because they are actually turning out some interesting “pick up and play” type games.  This time around we have Skyscrapers, where the goal of the game is to build – you guessed it – skyscrapers.  It uses a simple mechanic where each skyscraper is comprised of several layers, which typically get less wide the higher up you go.  Each layer will slide across the screen from right to left, and you must click the screen when the layer is in the desired position.  There’s not much to it conceptually, but the game can get challenging as the skyscrapers get taller.

Each skyscraper starts out with wide, slow moving layers.  As the skyscraper gets taller the pieces aren’t as wide, and they tend to move a lot faster.  There’s a guide that shows you where the next piece must be placed, and before long you’re reacting ahead of time so that by the time you actually press the screen the piece will be settled into place.  If you wait until the piece is lined up with the guide it will not be lined up when you actually press the screen.  You’re allowed a certain margin of error when trying to line the piece up with guide, but if you can line it up exactly you get an “On The Money” bonus.  On certain layers of some towers you’ll get a red flashing guide as well, and if you get the layer right on the red guide you’ll get a speed bonus.

There are two modes to Skyscrapers: career and quick play.  In career mode you start with the first tower and keep going until you fail to align layers correctly three times on one skyscraper.  In quick play mode you can pick any tower that you’ve already conquered in career mode, and you have to line up all the layers without making a single mistake.  In my opinion there’s not a whole lot of purpose in quick play mode, because you have to unlock all the skyscrapers in career mode anyway, and there’s no bonus for re-beating them in quick play mode.  The main problem I have with career mode is that you have to start from the first tower every time.  I’d be willing to take a zeroed out score if it meant I could start from the first unbeaten tower every time.

Graphically the game is plain but fairly effective.  The background is boring, but the skyscrapers themselves are actually pretty detailed.  They also each have a distinct look to them.  When you’ve completed a tower it will shrink down and fit itself somewhere into the skyline of the city you’re enhancing.  The effect actually looks pretty slick.  There’s also an option to view the skyline and see all the buildings you’ve constructed so far.  The sound effects are okay, but nothing you can’t live without.  The music is okay as well, but Skyscrapers doesn’t have the typical “one of two tracks” option that so many Skyworks games support, so the music can get repetitive without much effort.  Once again you wouldn’t be missing much if you didn’t have music at all.

Overall I found Skyscrapers to be quite enjoyable.  The audio could use some work, and the need to restart career mode from skyscraper 1 every time should be fixed, but other than that it’s a solid game that provides an increasing amount of challenge with each level.  How quickly can you build up the ultimate skyline?

Final Verdict: Recommended
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Skyworks is at it again, continuing to expand their game portfolio beyond the myriad of sports related games they develop.  This time around we have Crime Spree, which for some odd reason reminds me of the old game Lock ‘N Chase.  At first I struggled with settling on a usable control scheme, but once I settled on one and got used to it, I rather enjoyed running from the cops and picking up some dough.

There’s not a lot to the game itself.  You drive around town collecting bags of loot and avoiding the cops.  In arcade mode you must collect a certain number of bags to progress to the next level.  In survival mode you just keep going on the same map until you lose all your lives to the cops.  To help you along the way you start out with three barrels of oil.  Clicking on the oil display releases a slick that can slow the cops down.  In arcade mode you get an “oil bonus” for using the oil, so don’t be shy about it.  In survival mode you get a bonus for number of cops crashed, so don’t be shy with the oil there, either.  Every once in a while you’ll find extra barrels lying around the road, though you can only carry three at a time.

In addition to the oil you can also collect hearts to regain lives, a shield to temporarily allow you to run over cops, and a tire that speeds you up temporarily.  So far I’ve only seen the shield and tire on survival mode, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist on arcade mode.  The main down side to game play is the control scheme.  The sad thing is that there are three of them, and none of them are really quite where they need to be.  Accelerometer control is probably the worst of the three.  You never quite seem to turn in the appropriate spots in this mode.  Touch mode is a little better, though I’m not quite sure where the regions for each direction end.  I think this mode would have been better suited having a little on screen joystick.  At first I cared for swipe mode less than accelerometer mode, but now that I’ve gotten used to it I think swiping is my favorite.  There are still occasions where it seems like the car’s not turning when I want, but for the most part this appears to be the most responsive control scheme.

The graphics are fairly decent, reminiscent of old school shareware pixel art.  I do like the various phrases that come up like “Ca-Ching”, “Screech” and “Busted”.  It has that 60′s Batman feel to it.  The map itself is an odd combination of completely overhead for things like trees and a skewed isometric for things like buildings.  You get used to it after a while, but it would have been nice if they add some different building designs every now and again, at least in adventure mode.  The sound effects are actually pretty decent, especially when it comes to the cop cars, both with the sirens and when they are screeching along an oil slick.  The music is all right.  This particular Skyworks game has two different tracks, and like every other Skyworks game you must choose which one you want to listen to before you start a game.

This is no GTA or Car Jack Streets, but it’s not meant to be.  It’s just a simple little “outrun the cops and collect the loot” action game, and it does that pretty well.  At first I was somewhat on the fence because of the controls, but as I got used to the swipe mode for controlling my car I really started to enjoy the game.    If you’re looking for a simple, pick up and play action game, Crime Spree fits the bill nicely.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Here we are again, with yet another Skyworks casual sports game.  This time around it’s Air Hockey, and as with most of their sports titles it’s pretty well constructed.  I’m just not sure that it has enough to offer that other Air Hockey games don’t.  There is a head to head mode playable on the same device, and global leader boards are nice if you care about that sort of thing.  Overall, though, it feels more like a “me too” than an “I’m better”.

As you would imagine, World Cup Air Hockey is a standard Air Hockey simulator.  Don’t get me wrong, it does a good job at its task.  The physics seem pretty realistic, and the game is fun.  There are three play modes: Tournament, Head To Head and Practice.  Practice is basically a one-off of Tournament mode, so I don’t really see the purpose of that one.  At least in World Cup Ping Pong they managed to make practice mode feel different than a regular ping pong match.  Head To Head is nice because you can play against a human opponent, but it’s limited to same device play.  If nothing else a wifi version of this mode would have been nice, but even better would have been a wifi version of the actual psuedo-3D version of the air hockey table.  Tournament mode is enjoyable, but needs to be longer.  They need to either add more competitors or give the option of “best out of” matches.

The game looks good, especially when you’re not playing head to head.  I realize the surface of the table and the paddles use the same images in both modes, but the full view of the table looks much nicer than the plain top down view presented in head to head.  The best part of the graphics is that the paddles are wrapped with the colors of whatever country you’re playing as, which is both respectful and a nice effect.  The sound effects are just as you’d expect for an Air Hockey game, and the audience is quick to cheer or “awww” depending on whether or not you score (at least they are always on your side).  One thing I did appreciate was the fact that the game actually had three musical tracks.  I’m pretty sure that ties or beats any other Skyworks game, and it’s pretty impressive given that we are just talking about air hockey here.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with World Cup Air Hockey.  The real problem is that there’s nothing that particularly stands out either.  Maybe it would be enough just to strengthen each of the current modes a bit, but I really think there’s something missing to put this one over the top.  I just can’t quite put my finger on what.  Of course, if you’re looking for a solid air hockey game with a decent (if short) tournament mode and the ability to play two players, World Cup Air Hockey is still a pretty good choice.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Skyworks does a pretty good job at creating sports mini-games, but I really wanted to see them try their hand at something else.  That something else is Mental Blocks, a “clear the board of tiles” type puzzle game, and it’s actually pretty good.  It takes some standard game play and infuses it with enough specials to make it more interesting than the variants you’re probably used to.

There have been several variants of the Mental Blocks theme on both mobile devices and desktop computers, though at the moment I’m having a mental block trying to come up with the names of any of them.  The basic premise is that you have a screen full of blocks of various colors, and you must clear the screen by removing groups of two or more of the same color.  As you remove blocks, blocks above them will fall down.  When there are gaps at the lowest level of the board, the blocks on the right will slide towards the left.  If you clear the board or get to the point where there are no more groups of two or more of the same color left, the level is over.

Thankfully, this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game.  For every 500 points you earn you get a bonus point.  You also get a bonus point for each group of more than 10 blocks that you clear away.  If there are unused blocks at the end of the level, a block will be removed for each bonus point that you have.  If you still have bonus points left over, you can move on to the next round.  There are also special blocks that are introduced from time to time.  These blocks will do things like delete one block on each side of it, remove rows and / or columns of blocks that are touching it, and remove all blocks of a particular color (computer’s choice, of course).   You can even earn extra points if the special blocks are the last ones that you clear from the board (a special block doesn’t need a match to be cleared).

If you’re the competitive type, you’ll be happy to know that Mental Blocks, like just about every other Skyworks game, has a global scoreboard.  This doesn’t really matter much to me, but I’m sure some of you will appreciate it.  What really makes this game stand out from others of its type are the bonus points and special blocks, both very welcome additions to an ailing genre of puzzle game.

The graphics are crisp and clear, but pretty basic.  No fancy explosions or combos or anything to see here.  The sound effects are actually pretty good, though they don’t really have much to do with the type of game Mental Blocks is.  Unfortunately there is no music, and the pacing of the game is such that it really could use something playing in the background.

This genre of puzzle game has never been of big interest to me, but Mental Blocks sure goes a long way towards making it an amusing type of game.  A boost in the aesthetic department would be nice, and some additional game play elements – a timed mode maybe – would certainly liven things up, but as it stands Mental Blocks is a decent effort for a tested puzzle game genre.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

World Cup Ping Pong is solid proof that Skyworks is as capable of making a full fledged game as they are at making mini-games like Batter Up Baseball and 3 Point Hoops.  The game is polished, fun, and has enough variety that it should suit everyone’s needs.  Besides, who doesn’t love a quick game of ping pong every now and again?

The thing that strikes me the most about WCPP is the variety of game modes.  You can play against the computer in practice mode or tournament mode.  Practice mode is a one off game against a computer opponent (being able to play a “best of X” set in this mode would have been nice).  Tournament mode is single game elimination until you’ve beaten every opponent you’re paired up against or you lose a game.  In addition you can play against another human on the same device.  Personally, I would have preferred some sort of online mode where you could play using the 3D perspective table instead of the flat overhead view that’s required to accommodate same-device game play, but the option is still cool.  Finally there is Arcade mode, which actually allows you to play on your own and provides you with a series of targets to try and hit for points.  This was a rather unique and enjoyable mode for a ping pong game.

I felt like controlling the paddle took a bit of getting used to – and I’m not sure I’ve completely got it yet.  I do like the fact that you can choose between three different paddle types, each with their own power and spin ratings.  Even better, you can actually tell a difference when using each of them.  It would have been cool to have a custom option that lets you specify your own combination of power and spin based on a maximum number, but the choices they provide seem to work well for the most part.  I did find it frustrating sometimes that my finger was basically covering the paddle, which made it hard to judge where the ball was in relation to the paddle.

Visually the game looks alright, but it’s certainly not as stunning as some of the other Skyworks offerings.  The biggest disappointment is that the audience has been replaced but some weird underground ping pong darkness backdrop.  I know the audience is there, though, because they applaud and whistle after a long volley (regardless of who actually gets the score).  The sound effects are just what you’d expect from a ping pong game, and the music is good, though it suffers from the same “two tracks that have to be switched in the settings” syndrome that many of the Skyworks games have.

At first controlling the paddle was frustrating enough that I considered rating this “on the fence”, but after getting a few games under my belt I realized that the control issues were mostly my problem.  I can’t say that I’m overly familiar with ping pong offerings on the iPhone, but I do believe that World Cup Ping Pong is a good offering for those looking for a ping pong fix.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

3 Point Hoops was fun but felt a little empty. Field Goal Frenzy left me wanting to kick myself more than a football. So, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Batter Up Baseball. As it turns out, this is actually the best of the bunch so far where sports mini-games from Skyworks are concerned. There isn’t really any more to it content wise than 3 Point Hoops. Where the basketball game was simply standing around shooting hoops, this game is simply standing around hitting home runs. I think what makes this a more interesting affair, however, is the potential for “infinite” playability. Plus, it was fun trying to hit the various targets!

There are two modes to Batter Up Baseball: Home Run Rally and Arcade mode. In Home Run Rally you start out with three swings, and each hit that’s not a home run costs you a swing. If you can hit one of the targets scattered around the billboards in the outfield you can earn an extra swing (up to a maximum of 3). In Arcade mode, on the other hand, you start out with 20 swings. This time, each swing deducts from your total. However, if you hit three home runs in a row you’re “on fire”, and every home run after that until you miss is considered a “free” swing, and doesn’t deduct from your total. If you hit three targets in a row you earn an extra swing, and there’s no limit to extras in this mode. This is what I meant by “infinite” playability, because as long as you keep hitting home runs while on fire you could potentially play forever. That would probably get a bit boring, but at least it gives you more control over when your game ends.

The control scheme is pretty simple. You swipe downwards to get your batter in position, then swipe up and towards the direction you want to hit when the ball comes at you. It does take a bit of getting used to, and chances are good you’ll never hit the ball quite the same twice, even if you think you have, but that’s the fun of the game. My favorite part of the game, however, was in the last round I played before writing this review, where I got to go all “Bull Durham” and take out some of the stadium lights. I wasn’t really sure they’d let me do that, but I’m glad they added that little detail.

The graphics are probably the best of the bunch. It’s not so much in the overall, because the images in 3 Point Hoops are probably a bit more polished. Where Batter Up Baseball scores is in the details. The signs look like authentic vintage advertisements. When you hit a target there’s always some sort of reaction, usually accompanied by a small shower of fireworks. Hitting a light is actually location sensitive, so the part of the lights you hit actually go out instead of the whole thing. And you’ll definitely want to try and hit the clock at least once. My favorite effect of all, however, is the flaming bat when you’re “on fire” (they really weren’t kidding about that). I just wish that every home run you hit with the flaming bat would have left a trail of flames instead of the standard white trail.

The sound effects worked really well. From the crack of the bat against the ball to the clunk when the ball fell short and hit the wall, everything sounded right. There were only two things that I was a bit disappointed with. The first was the lack of some shattering sound when the ball hit the lights. Might not have been overly realistic, but it would have been cool. Second, when the audience was cheering and a ball went foul, the audience fell silent immediately. It just seemed a bit odd. As for music… well, there was none, aside from the quick riff played over a home run. This was somewhat surprising, since the other games had pretty decent music.

For being nothing more than a home run simulator, Batter Up Baseball was surprisingly fun. The inclusion of targets and the potential for playing “forever” in Arcade mode just add replayability to the game. Aesthetically the game was all there except for the music. As a result, Batter Up Baseball scores a home run in my book.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a sports fan, and even when I acknowledge sports, football is far from my favorite.  Of course, it doesn’t help any that my last “fond” memory of playing football involved me intercepting a pass, followed by me getting tackled by a tree.  So why do I play computerized sports games?  Probably mostly because I can, or at least better than I can play their real life counterparts.  These mini-games are especially intriguing, because they theoretically take the best parts of the game and allow you to partake without all the hassle that comes in between.  Such is the case with 3 Point Hoops Basketball.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure I’m feelin’ the same kind of love for Field Goal Frenzy.

As the name implies, your task is to kick field goals.  The game is comprised of two modes: practice and classic.  Practice simply allows you to attempt field goals one at a time from any position (left, right or center) and from any distance between 30 and 60 yards (in 5 yard increments).  In classic mode you must kick once from each position at each of the distance markers.  Once you’ve missed 5 kicks the game is over.  You use a swiping motion to kick the ball, and then you can tilt the device left and right to influence the ball’s flight.  It almost always seemed to me like tilting the device either had too much influence or none at all, which got to be frustrating at times.  The worst part, however, was that after a couple of rounds of kicking I really didn’t have a desire to play the game any more.

The graphics are pretty decent.  All the foreground elements look good enough – your player, the ball the goalpost.  The referees were just a bit stiff, however.  The audience seems to be comprised of the same blurry semi-photo realistic slightly animated folks that populated that stands in 3 Point Hoops Basketball.  That’s fine, however, because that effect seems to work well for these games.  I did like the touch of camera flashes going off when you scored a goal.  The sounds are pretty much what you’d expect, from the thump of kicking the ball to the roar of the crowd when you scored a goal.  The music was okay, but I didn’t like it as much as the tunes from 3 Point Hoops Basketball.

Overall, I was not very impressed with Field Goal Frenzy.  It’s quite possible it’s a solid game as far as field goal kicking mini-games are concerned, and there are certainly some nice production values in the aesthetics department, but the game play just never really caught my attention.  As a result I regretfully can’t recommend this game.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
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[note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Over the years I have made various attempts at playing basketball, and truthfully I’ve never been very good at it.  Sadly, this trait seems to carry over to the electronic world as well.  I’m not really a fan of electronic basketball, with the exception of the more outrageous titles like NBA Jam (who doesn’t want to make a full court dunk?), but I thought 3 Point Hoops might be worth checking out.  It’s not really basketball so much as it’s simply making 3 point shots from various positions around the court, much like the name implies.  There’s no opposition – it’s just you, the ball and the hoop.  Well, that and the fans that have come out to watch you.

There are two game modes: Classic and Sudden Death.  The difference between the modes is that in Sudden Death your game is over the first time you miss a shot.  In both modes you get the opportunity to make 45 baskets – 5 shots from each of 5 different locations (3 locations are repeated during the process).  You get 3 points for each of the first 4 shots in a given location, and 5 points for the last, or bonus, shot.  All the while you have a nice announcer detailing your finer – and not so great – moments.  The comments remind me a lot of NBA Jam, and I’m constantly waiting for a “he’s on fire” or “that’s the nail in the coffin”.  You also get a nice rousing cheer from the audience when you make a shout, but surprisingly no boo when you miss.  It wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate every time, but I could see the audience getting upset if you miss several shots in a row.

Controlling the game is actually pretty easy.  You simply tap on the ball and swipe towards the basket.  The direction and speed of your swipe will determine where the ball goes and how quickly it gets there.  It may not always seem like there is a difference in your throws, but if you’re having trouble making shots in a particular position try angling your swipes a bit differently.  I’m by no means a perfect shot now, but the mechanic is easy to get used to and it just feels right.

Graphically, 3 Point Hoops looks pretty good.  The crowd almost appears to be a pixelated photo of a real crowd, but there is actually animation in the crowd after you make a shot, which is a nice effect.  The camera also zooms in on the basket after you’ve thrown the ball, which is nice.  There’s even a shadow when the ball comes back down after the shot (though interestingly enough no shadow while the ball is going up), though I think there’s a bit of a problem there since you’ll often see 3 or four shadows instead of just one.  Overall the visuals look pretty slick.

From the vibration of the hoop when the ball is “walking the rim” to the bouncing of the ball on the floor after a shot, the sounds are well done and quite authentic.  The roaring of the crowd sounds good, and they actually got a decent voice over for the announcer.  There are two musical tracks that can be played during the game.  Neither of them are outstanding, but they aren’t bad either.  The nice thing is that you can swap them out during play, though realistically a single game probably won’t last long enough for you to care.

3 Point Hoops is a nice little package.  It’s easy to learn and surprisingly addictive, even for someone like me who’s not much into sports related electronic games.  The visual and audio elements are well done, making this a well rounded, professional looking game.  My only hesitation on flat out recommending this game is the price point.  This is sadly just a reflection of the currently volatile state of the App Store, but I’ve paid 99 cents for games with a lot more substance, so $2.99 seems a bit high of a price tag.  For die hard basketball fans this is probably a good purchase.  For everyone else, I highly recommend checking out the lite version first.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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