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Daily iPhone App: Off the Leash provides chaotic canine fun
Off the Leash is a game that arrived a little while ago on the iPhone, but it's gotten a few updates since I first played it, and it just so happens to be free on May 10. It's an endless runner, but instead of a side-scroller, it runs from the top down, and it's got a few new elements to this genre. First, it's time-based, so not only do you need to run for as far as possible, but your goal is to hit the next checkpoint within a certain time limit. Second, as your little dog runs along, you can "recruit" other dogs to run with you, which up your speed but also make it harder to maneuver around. Eventually, you hit a boundary (the cops catch your little dog that's been running amuck), and then you start over again from the beginning. Off the Leash is great fun. The graphics are colorful and funny, the game's tilt-to-steer challenge is tough but not overwhelming at all, and especially at the low price, it's a great game to have on your iPhone. Definitely give it a download.
SwiftKey X keyboard app is free today on Amazon, be swift or pay $3.99
After plenty of hands-on time with SwiftKey X, we reckon it's probably the best virtual keyboard you can get for Android phones. And, for the next 21 hours or so, it's even better than that -- because it's free at Amazon's Appstore. So, if you're brandishing Android 2.1 or higher and you type in one of the 17 supported languages, then the source link below beckons. Come back quickly, though, or we'll miss you terribly. (The tablet version of the app is still $4.99, mind -- but there's always tomorrow.)
TUAW's Daily App: Sword and Poker
Note: We started up our new feature last week, titling it "App Of The Day" without recalling that our friend Jordan had already used that name for his site. So, we're renaming our "one great app, every day" feature. If you have a suggestion, share it in the comments below, and if we pick yours, we'll send you a t-shirt. Sword & Poker came out earlier this year, but if you missed it the first time, check it out now. It offers up an intriguing mix of game genres -- it's an RPG at heart, with your hero running through dungeons on a map and upgrading equipment, but the battle sequences are a mix of puzzle and poker gameplay. You lay down cards on a matrix trying to get the best poker hand you can, and then matching certain poker hands does damage to your enemy (or to you, if your enemy is able to assemble a three of a kind or even a royal flush). It's an intriguing mix of gameplay that's balanced very well -- battles have a very steady pace and even though a few different game genres are being juggled here, they all stay in the air together. The music is impressive, too, from the marching battle sequence to the RPG-style fanfare and excellent sound effects. Apparently the game also has a pass-and-play versus mode, but I never tried it -- there's more than enough depth in the singleplayer RPG. A free version is available to try out, and the full version is $3.99.
App of the Day: Subatomic for iPhone and iPad
App of the Day is TUAW's new App Store spotlight. One great app, every single day. Subatomic is a game that's available for the iPhone and the iPad. The premise is that you push molecules of different colors around a field with gravity. Portals sit on the gamefield full of molecules, and as they slowly fade away, it's your job to pull more in and match them up. By touching near a molecule, you can push it in a certain direction with a gravity vortex (the game has a cool blurred graphical feature whenever you touch the screen). The game ramps up pretty quickly; eventually you're trying to push molecules toward multiple portals while trying to keep different-colored molecules from reaching the wrong portals. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve can be a little high. It's sometimes hard to control the incoming molecules, and when you accidentally touch a little too close, you'll find yourself flinging molecules off into the distance instead of getting them where they want to go. At a basic level, though, it's an interesting control scheme that I haven't seen before. The game contains a full tutorial as part of its 31 levels, and the music and backgrounds (some of which contain actual electron microscope imagery from real-life scientists) add to the experience. The social features of the game are managed by OpenFeint. Subatomic is US$1.99 on the App Store, and a free version (with seven levels to try) is available as well.
