I personally think simple games work very well on the Blackberry platform. Business people will be too busy to get involved in a long winded game with levels and a plot to follow, and the average person who buys a Blackberry that is not tied to a business is buying it for the internet and messaging package. This is why games like Catapult and a slew of games I have reviewed before are rated well and games that require you to follow a plot or a storyline haven’t been as successful. Android and iOS can be seen as gaming platforms, but RIM hasn’t built many handsets capable of playing games on a large screen.

Catapult is a very simple game to play, but will take a while to actually master if you ever do. The object of the game is simple, place the rock in the huge catapult and fling it as far as you can. The further it goes, the more points you get. Using the 9860 with a touch screen you just drag the rock onto the catapult, fling it backwards and you get a gauge of how fast the rock will go. You can adjust the height of the throw as well. At the top left corner you have a meter for boost, this can be used once your rock has been thrown by dragging the rock upwards. The boost increases the height of the rock, but finishes off quickly. The rock has two objects it can hit in the sky, the bulls-eye and a star. The bulls-eye increases your points and the star can be later used to buy upgrades.

The rock can land on 3 different things when it falls, the first being the ground itself, the second is a sand pit that stops the rock dead in its tracks and the third is a spring that flings the rock forward and helps you score more points. The upgrade system consists of 6 categories or variables that you can upgrade: bounce, luck, spring, rubber, boost and score. The more stars you hit, the more points you get to upgrade with. You can adjust the upgrades however you like, taking points away from one thing to bolster another. Once you’re done playing you can submit your score, view high scores or trade in your upgrade points for score points if you’ve maxed everything out.

Catapult is a simple game that can become somewhat complicated if you want it to. If you want higher scores you have to use the upgrades but the game is good fun on its own regardless. Obviously there is no reason to play other than to get the highest score. The controls or handling is very good, the game responded nicely to my finger and there wasn’t any lag in the gameplay either. This game may not offer much in the way of a story, but it does offer a lot of entertainment without a purpose. Good, solid, basic gaming.

I like simple games with simple controls and a simple purpose. I also like complex games but not necessarily on my mobile. I feel that I need a proper gaming system to maintain interest in a complex video game, something that I just don’t get on a cell phone. Saying that, I do have over a hundred apps on my BB, Android and iOS devices with many I haven’t even tried out yet.

Toss It! is one of those simple games that while being rather repetitive, can still keep you entertained for hours. The object of the game is to throw a specific object into its respective “goal” to score points. The number of “goals” you score in a row is your best score- miss one and you’re back to zero again and have to beat your best.

You get four levels/fields to play in, the first field of play is an office and the object is to throw crumpled up pieces of paper into a rubbish bin. The second field is beer pong, where you throw a small into a cup; the third is a Rugby/American Football goal post and the fourth is a basketball court. In all these levels or fields you have wind blowing from either the left or right at a specific speed so you have to throw the object at the right angle to get it into the goal. There are no achievements other than the best score which could throw people off after a while.

The game itself was very simple to follow and master. I found the beer pong and basketball levels to be the hardest as the balls had to go into a hole not that much larger than the balls themselves. Meanwhile the paper and football levels were much easier and the football level especially got rather tedious. I also found that the game isn’t always accurate with the wind levels indicating one thing while the ball would act like it either had the opposite or no wind affecting it.

It’s too bad that the game doesn’t allow you choose from an assortment of objects which could have made things more interesting and increased the game’s life. Otherwise the game was a good way to waste your free time but I don’t see myself playing this in the long run. You can get the game for free or purchase it for $1.50; the only difference I saw was that the free game had advertisements. The ads weren’t distracting nor did they affect the gameplay. Overall it’s a fun game if only for a little while before the boredom sets in.

Over the weekend, world renowned security firm Symantec unveiled in a blog post that they have discovered 13 apps on the official Android Marketplace which contain a backdoor Trojan.

Android.Counterclank is a new botnet Trojan which basically allows a backdoor open to allow hackers to carry out specific commands on the Android handset, in addition to stealing private data.

“For each of these malicious applications, the malicious code has been grafted on to the main application in a package called “apperhand”. When the package is executed, a service with the same name may be seen running on a compromised device. Another sign of an infection is the presence of the Search icon above on the home screen.”

Going through the stats of the below listed applications, the number of infected handsets is well over a million, at least.

While most of iApps7 apps have been taken down, the rest of the apps, as of posting this article, are sadly still online.

This once again brings into question Google’s policy on security regarding Marketplace apps and how easily malicious apps can infect thousands of people before they’re pulled down.

One of the best features of Windows Phone, apart from the wonderful user interface, have been the exclusive Xbox Live titles available to them. Although yes, some SonyEricsson phones do have a PlayStation certification which enables them to play PS titles, they remain limited to the Xperia range. Lately an interview with Forbes magazine has indicated that this all might soon begin to change, and we might actually see Xbox titles becoming available on Android/iOS. According to the interview by the Microsoft spokesman,

While the Xbox Live experiences and games always work best on the Windows platform, we understand that some Xbox fans may be using other types of devices. To satisfy that need, we are working to extend a few of our Xbox experiences and titles to other platforms.

Although its too early to say, it does seem like Microsoft is thinking of giving up that exclusivity to Xbox titles which Windows Phone users enjoy. Is such a move wise in the long run? Only time will tell. As of today there are already two titles available for iOS, XBOX Live and Kinectimals, both of which are said to be quite popular.

Ever wanted to work as a valet and get to drive all those fancy cars customers leave for you to park? Yes? Well this app doesn’t let you drive them or park as much as it lets you figure out how to get your car out of a parking disaster.

The object of the game is very simple, you have a red car you need to get out of a parking lot and in its way are several other cars of varying shapes and sizes. You can move the other cars forward and back in order to sort out the puzzle and get your little red sports car out.  On screen you have the parking lot itself that you have to get out of and on the right there’s a control panel with various settings and options displayed. The settings include difficulty levels, number of puzzles and whether you want to undo, redo or reset the game as well as return to the main menu. There is also a meter with the number of moves you have taken so far to get the car out, the less moves you make, the higher your score is in the stats menu.

The game started out pretty easy but the puzzles became more difficult too quickly. In the beginning they were challenging and the obvious method of extracting the vehicle required a small amount of thinking and maneuvering. However it wasn’t long before the puzzles became complex and extracting that little red car became confusing and almost a bit frustrating.

I did like the game when I first played it but after it got too hard it was too discouraging to play. It’s certainly not the kind of game you would relax to but it does help exercise your problem solving skills and that’s what I liked about it. I did not like the progression of difficulty from average to very hard; there should have been a more gradual progression. Overall Aces Traffic Pack is a decent game despite its limited playability and leap of difficulty levels and worth a go especially since it’s free and challenging. Also you get to move a little sports car back and forth.

When Google launched the Sky Map app back in 2009, it was a good proof of concept demo to show how precise the GPS and internal gyroscope and proximity sensors are on first generation Android devices. As the global community of Android users has increased, and perhaps in part due to there not being a high profile app for charting the skies, Google has decided to make their Sky Map go open source.

“Today, we are delighted to announce that we are going to share Sky Map in a different way: we are donating Sky Map to the community. We are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University in an exciting partnership that will see further development of Sky Map as a series of student projects. Sky Map’s development will now be driven by the students, with Google engineers remaining closely involved as advisors. Additionally, we have open-sourced the app so that other astronomy enthusiasts can take the code and augment it as they wish,” posted the Google team on their blog.

So good luck to all the budding astronomers out there, who have a knack for Android app development. Sky Map is a powerful platform to develop on for a full fledged augmented reality app to map out the sky. Better graphics, in-depth information on star clusters, galaxies and planets would be much welcomed on the existing, barebones app.

WhatsApp, the extremely popular cross-device messaging platform that works on the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone has become the target of a hoax. The two messages circulating amongst it’s various users are as follows:

WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn Red to indicate a frequent user.

and

“Whatsapp is shutting down on 28th jan Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation. If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation from the Whatsapp team”

WhatsApp posted a message on it’s official blog stating that these messages are a hoax and there is no truth to them. So if you’re a WhatsApp user and have received any of the above two messages, please do not forward it to everyone on your list. Simply chuck it.

It’s a crazy world we live in and considering this is 2012 then why shouldn’t you expect the world to come to an end? Don’t fret though, there’s an app to help you prepare for the apocalypse! Well not really. Crazy Survival World Trip is a game about surviving what clearly must be the end of the world and seeing the world.

Your hero is a stick figure that you control via a set of four buttons on the screen (tested with a BlackBerry Torch 9860), right, left, jump and crouch. The goal is to score points by avoiding a myriad of falling objects such as meteors, rocks, missiles and fiery objects from the sky. You gain points by jumping over or crouching under these obstacles and grabbing health points and stars that make you grow to twice your size. You get to travel to all seven continents and in each continent you have 15 levels of difficulty to overcome.

The gameplay is quite simple and straightforward and you get a free version to try before considering paying for the premium. The thing that annoyed me about the free version was that in between the controls are advertisements and I found myself accidentally touching those while trying to play the game. The advertisement opens up a window in the browser that interrupts your game and you can see why that would be annoying. The controls themselves sometimes get stuck if they are pressed for too long and you cannot press two buttons at once so you cannot run to one side and jump over something, you have to run there, stop then jump.

The levels are quite challenging and it certainly gets much harder nearing the end of your visit to that continent. The graphics are nothing to write home about- you can’t expect a Crysis-like game with superb graphics for a measly $1.50. I reckon Crazy Survival World Trip is a decent game to keep you busy on a short flight or when you’re heading home from work on the bus or metro. It has nothing flashy like outstanding graphics or sound but you don’t need those in a game to make it decent enough to play. Give it a go, but be warned about the free version, the ad in the middle of the control buttons is just inexcusable.

You ever wished you had one of those cool ninja swords to chop your fruits with? Well you’re in luck, there’s an app for that! Fruits and Ninja is a simple but addictive game that involves chopping up fruits for no reason whatsoever. All you have to do is swipe your finger across the screen when a fruit or fruits appear and they’re sliced. There are no complicated controls or directional buttons, it’s an easy to grasp slice and dice game and it has reached the top of the heap in App World.

In the free version all you get is the Classic mode where they mix fruits and bombs on screen to make it more of a challenge. You have to slice the fruit and avoid the bombs, miss three fruit and its game over, slice a bomb and its game over too. The free version has advertisements but otherwise you get the classic mode and a high score section where you can gain bonus ninja swords and score achievements. You can also view the local and online scores and follow how much others have scored in the game.

In the paid version you not only get the game without advertisements but Classic, Arcade and Zen modes to play. The Classic mode is no different to the one in the free version above. In Arcade mode you have to score as high as possible and you are given 60 seconds to do so. Slice as many fruit as possible while avoiding the bombs. In this mode you do not lose if you miss three fruit and it’s not game over if you slice a bomb. Slicing a bomb in Arcade mode knocks 10 points off your score. You also get bonus points for combo slices, cutting several fruit with a single swing of the blade. In Zen mode you get 90 seconds to cut as many fruit as you can, scoring points for slicing fruit in singles and in combo but there are no bombs to worry about.

While the game is repetitive it can be quite addictive and the bonus high score achievements do give you a challenge and extend the game’s life. The graphics are smooth and so is the gameplay. For a $0.75 game it does offer more bang for your buck as you get three modes to play while the free version is still great value for nothing, offering you the Classic mode which is quite challenging in itself. After the less than stellar game I reviewed last week, it’s good to see the Blackberry platform get some decent apps to tinker with and Fruits and Ninja may not be much, but it’s a game you can pick up at any time and enjoy. Grab it free or pay a little and get more, it’s worth it.

Zombies are just plain evil, they’re relentless and they never get tired of eating brains. Fortunately in a post-Zombie apocalypse, you had come to the struggle prepared. Armed with a catapult and an endless supply of fireballs and stones you take on the entire zombie horde to save humanity.

Now onto the actual game; if you’ve played Angry Birds then you can easily get the gist of Zombie Attack. The concept is pretty straightforward; you own a catapult and are given a set number of stones and fireballs on each level that you use to fling at the zombies. Actually they’re not zombies but more like zombie heads laid out on piles and bricks. With each level it gets more challenging and harder to knock all the heads with the ammunition you have. If you get stuck on a level and can’t get through, you can drop a nuclear bomb on them. The caveat here is that while the game is free right now, the bomb will cost you $0.75 to use. I suppose the bomb has its merits as it does help if you’re stuck in a level but you could still get by without it. However, I wonder if there might be at least one level in the 200 or so they’ve included where you would simply be forced to either stop playing or buy a bomb to get through to the next level.

The controls for the catapult are rather awkward and while the game supports touchscreen phones, I found it was easier to just use the trackpad. The graphics are not exactly fluid and seem rather sluggish in comparison to Angry Birds. You can control the angle of the catapult but not the speed of the object you’ve thrown or maybe I just haven’t been able to master that part yet. The game is also somewhat of a resource hog with the traditional Blackberry hourglass showing up on occasion and I am running this on a 9860 Torch.

I don’t know why Angry Birds isn’t available for Blackberry phones since you can get it for the Playbook. Zombie Attack is a pretty decent clone with some twists of its own to set it apart from the game that inspired it but it does have its issues and I hope they’ll work on making this game run smoother. I would like to see better touchscreen controls at least. For a game that has 200 levels and is free though, Zombie Attack is a good game to pass the time while commuting on the Metro or on a plane. It certainly has the number of levels to keep you occupied for hours.