It takes a few different case styles and merges them into one unique design. Did I already mention that I really like this case? The quality, just like on the Strapback case, really shines.

Enjoy the review and thanks for watching!

Features

• Features an all-in-one design with ultra thin hard plastic tray for protection the back of your iPad
• Soft microfiber interior lining offers anti-slip protection when roll back cover is in typing position, and adds much needed scratch protection for your screen
• Flip out spin design adds multiple viewing positions while in landscape mode
• All ports, buttons, and camera is perfectly exposed for un-hindered use while your iPad is protected

A lot of folks are recommending this case brand off of Amazon as they are in the top sellar area for iPad cases. So, I decided to take the plunge. And for 20 bucks, I think I found one of the best cases around. Overall!

I’m stunned at the quality, functionality and overall awesomeness of this case.

As usual, enjoy my review and be sure to leave any feedback.

Thanks for watching.

Features

• Designed Specifically For The iPad (3rd gen)
• All inclusive design, StrapBack offers multiple stand options built in, and an integrated hand strap for on the go surfing
• Rigid design offers built in screen protection and back protection with curved hinge support to keep your iPad in place
• The interior is lined with smooth microfiber for added comfort and protection for your screen
• Multiple landscape mode viewing options built into the StrapBack

In CreaVures, your sole task is to return light to the once bright and beautiful, now darkened world that the CreaVures inhabit. You play as Bitey, and later four other creatures, which each have their own special ability that will help you proceed through the level and solve the many puzzles scattered throughout the environment.

This game caught my eye right away because of the graphics, which didn’t let me down. They’re gorgeous and continue to astound me despite my iPhone’s tiny screen. As you move through each level, your CreaVures collect these little sparkles which help restore the environment to vibrant, bright color, which makes the game even more beautiful.

However, the gameplay leaves something to be desired. While the puzzles themselves are fun to figure out and keep you interested in the game, actually going about executing what you need to do to solve each puzzle is made increasingly more challenging by poorly designed controls. The game’s d-pad feels like it should work like a joystick, but it doesn’t, and the jump button is often just plain unresponsive.

Because the controls weren’t always easy to work with, the fact that the game requires players to control two CreaVures at one time in order to proceed turned from an interesting game mechanic to a frustrating one. I could get one CreaVure where he needed to be, but not another. Rolly would often need to grab onto Bitey’s tail to climb onto high ledges, and I can’t tell you how many times I fell, jumped when I didn’t mean to jump, or didn’t move when I meant to jump while trying to execute this.

In Conclusion

CreaVures presents a unique concept for a puzzle platformer, but beyond the graphics it just didn’t keep me compelled. I wanted to solve this game’s puzzles, and I was able to figure them out quickly. However, actually executing what I needed to do to proceed was clumsy and frustrating, and kept me from fully enjoying the potentially great experience this game had to offer.

Unlike the Tri-Peaks or Klondike variations that most people are familiar with, Kings’ Corners is played in a 4×4 grid with a standard deck of cards, with the goal being to place the four Kings in each of the corners, the four Queens in the top and bottom rows (two per) and the four Jacks in the left-most and right-most columns (two per).

Each round of the game takes place in two stages: placing and clearing. One by one you flip over cards from the deck, placing them in open squares on the play area. Kings, Queens and Jacks can ONLY be placed in their reserved locations, while all other cards can be placed anywhere on the grid. However, you need to be careful when blocking the reserved spaces with non-K,Q,J cards because if you draw a K, Q or J and there is no open place to play it, the game is over.

After you’ve filled up the grid with cards, you enter the ‘clearing’ stage. Now you must tap on any two-card combos that add up to ten (or just a ’10′ card itself). Once you think you have all of the clear-able cards selected you tap “clear”, they’ll disappear from the play area and you will be immediately in a new “placing” round, drawing from a deck of cards made up of all the cards not currently present on the game board.

This cycle continues until either you win (by playing all the Kings, Queens and Jacks, or you reach a situation where one of these cards cannot be played or you have no clear-able cards. While there is obviously some strategy involved with regards to placing non-K,Q and J cards, this version of solitaire definitely seems to rely heavily on the luck of the draw.

Since (as I said) I was unfamiliar with the game of kings corners, I decided to check out a few other kings’ corners solitaire apps as well, and this one by Order Of Leisure is by far the best, displaying the most polish and the best aesthetics of the bunch that I tried.

Instead of just strictly adhering to the standard rule set, I really like what they’ve done with the clear out phase, putting it on a timer to force possible mistakes and add a sense of urgency. The way the scoring is handled remains a bit of mystery, but if you are going for a high score, just remember the clock is ALWAYS ticking. That being said, the game could use a more prominent warning system when your cleanout time is about to expire as I often times I found myself so focused on the upper part of the screen that my hands blocked the timer and I missed the countdown.

When selecting the hardest difficulty, you are also give a “mission” at the start of the round that will earn you bonus points if completed successfully. This could be something like clear out cards within 5 seconds, or win the game in under 3 minutes. I particularly liked this concept, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s been fully realized at the moment. Right now you really only have an indication that you accomplished your one and only mission at the end of the game. I’d love to see some indicator that you got it during the game (obviously this doesn’t apply to the ‘finish the game ones’) so I know I got it. This mission concept seems like an area ripe for future development and I’d love to see this transformed into a rolling mission system not unlike the one used in Jetpack Joyride and Ski Safari.

My only real complaint with regards to the game (other than it gets a bit repetitive) is that, as I said, the points seem like voodoo magic. I chose the hardest mode so I could get bonus points for the mission, though I have no idea how many points that is, also I don’t know how many points are lost for incorrect card placement. The exact way that points are earned needs to be explained so you know how to work your way up the leaderboards.

In Conclusion

Order Of Leisure have made a very nice debut on the app store with Kings’ Corners. Though it’s a bit repetitive, that is really the nature of the solitaire beast. So I can’t really fault them for this too much as it didn’t seem to deter me from quickly earning the “Play 50 Games” achievement. This is a great quick pick up and play title when you need a distraction for a few minutes. Right now the game is only for the iPhone, but I believe “universal” support is planned for the next update. I’d love to see them expand the mission system further in future updates as it would help vary the gameplay a bit. Originally selling for $1.99, Kings’ Corners is currently available for FREE in the app store, so go grab a copy now.

Yay, another Speck case review!

They are indeed one of my most favorite iPhone case designers…but man, these iPad case offerings just aren’t the best. They can do MUCH better than this. This is there second iPad case offering for the new iPad, the FitFolio. Again, sadly, fell short of my hopes…

Enjoy the review and as usual, leave comments/questions below.

Thanks!

Features

• Fits iPad (3rd gen)
• Custom-fit hard-shell cradle holds your iPad in place
• Cover folds into viewing or typing stand for working, reading, gaming, presentations, and more
• Integrated magnet activates iPad’s sleep/wake functionality
• Secure plastic snap closure

Additional Product Images

First off, this review it quite long, sorry about that! Either way, on with the show.

Today I’m taking a look at the PixelSkin HD Wrap for the New iPad. Sadly, it doesn’t live up to my expectations and falls very short of what I had hoped for. Hopefully Speck will improve upon there designs next time around!

Enjoy the review and as usual, leave comments/questions below.

Thanks!

Features

• Fits iPad (3rd gen)
• Precision-fit one piece TPU construction doesn’t add bulk
• Front cover folds securely into multiple stand positions for typing or viewing
• Rubberized button cover and raised screen bezel for extra protection
• Integrated magnet activates iPad’s sleep/wake functionality

Additional Product Images

At first glance, Sugar High looks a lot like Tiny Wings. It plays a lot like it, too. You play as Biscuit, a sweet-loving dog who craves candy and treats by day, and frolics through a land of delicious delights by night. Your goal is to soar through the level, collecting candy and swatting flies away from your precious sweets.

Each thing you do, whether it’s a perfect slide (Tiny Wings veterans will remember these as great slides), collecting candy, or performing a loop-dee-loop inside an orange, will earn you a speed bonus, accelerating Biscuit. The faster you go the further you’ll go, but the slower you are the more likely you are to run into a giant evil clock. Slow down enough and the giant evil clock will catch up with you and devour you, and Biscuit will wake up from his sweet filled dream and you’ll have to start over.

The art style in Sugar High is pretty impressive. Hand-painted backgrounds really pop on the iPhone’s screen, and Biscuit is adorable. I loved when, in between levels, he’d turn to me with a goofy grin on his face, hyped up on candy and cake.

Level design really sets Sugar High apart from other games in its class. The slides, loops, and dives you’ll perform into oranges, kiwis, and watermelons were really a ton of fun. The speed bonuses also made the game a bit less frustrating to play; because I was able to speed up from collecting candy or doing loop-dee-loops, instead of only from slides or speed coins, I felt like gameplay had much more momentum.

However, once I got the hang of Sugar High and started racking up achievements, I found less and less of a reason to come back to the game. A dozen or so more, difficult objectives to obtain would have really made a difference.

In Conclusion

Sugar High takes everything great about Tiny Wings, slaps on its own story and plays around with the environment a bit. It’s a refreshing change, and brought me back to a type of game I hadn’t revisited in a while. It even elicited some moments of high-pitched girlish giggling and fun, and in my book, Sugar High holds its own against its predecessors. It just needs some more objectives or harder achievements to really sweeten the deal.

Burger Cat is a logic puzzle game where you are given a collection of tools to assist a cat in making it safely to his delicious cheeseburger waiting for him (usually) on the far end of the level. There are be blocks that need building, blocks that need removing, deadly drop-offs which must be traversed, keys collected, doors unlocked and even the stray dog or two to avoid.

At the start of a level, players are provided a limited set of tools (in both type and quantity) like a magic wand (to build blocks), pick axe, spring and dog bone, which can be used build a save passage for the cat. It’s up to them to figure out how best to use them. In some levels you may need to use all the resources at your disposal, others may require just a subset of them.

The cat does not start moving until players press the “play” button, so you can take your time and plan out exactly how you are going to use the tools and apply them to the level to create a clear path for the cat. Then you press play and watch him walk safely to the other side. Tools can also be applied to the level while the cat is in motion, and in some levels you will need to do this for things like using an umbrella to walk safely under dripping acid, or distracting a dog with a bone. However, for the majority of puzzles, everything can be pre-done before pressing play.

To use tools, you select them from the toolbar and then tap the spot on the screen where you’d like to apply them. Sounds easily enough, the only problem is that the game will often misinterpret where you tapped and put the block one square higher or to the side of where you actually wanted it. Oh, and did I mention there is no incremental “undo action” button? Your only option is to restart the entire level, undoing every tool that you already applied on the level. This was a constant source of frustration for me.

When you press the play button, Burger Cat automatically starts walking across the screen from left to right, climbing over single blocks. If he encounters two or more blocks (creating a wall) then he turns around and starts walking in the opposite direction. Many levels spread across multiple screen-lengths, so during playback, the screen will scroll with the cat as he reaches an edge. Unfortunately this scrolling is very jumpy and there is no way to speed up the playback with a 2x speed or anything. So you are stuck there watching this cat slowly walk across the screen taking longer to get his cheeseburger than it did for you to solve the puzzle.

The game comes with 60 levels, the vast majority of which are way too easy. The handful or so that did put up a little of a challenge were interspersed throughout the game and there was no consistent increase in difficulty as you progressed through the game, with some of the easiest levels coming right near the end. There is no benefit to trying to find the most clever path, or the one that uses the least number of tools, you aren’t rewarded with any sort of per-level star ranking, it’s just pass/fail. So once you complete a level, there really in no incentive to go back and play it again.

It is not all bad news, the game features some amazingly crisp Retina display graphics that look amazing on the latest generation iPad. Burger Cat also includes the (far too underused) iCloud save option to sync your progress across multiple devices. However, with the speed at which you’ll get through the 60 levels, playing on more than one device may be unnecessary.

In Conclusion

Unfortunately Burger Cat really doesn’t live up to what the studio has shown they are capable of. It is far too easy, feels unfinished and in need of some performance optimizations. There is an achievement called “Time Well Spent” that is awarded for playing the game for more than 4 hours, it probably should have been called “How Did I Fill The Time?” because this game will take you no where near 4 hours to complete. It has the makings of a fun game, it just needs to some time at the fixins bar to get there. In the meantime, I’m sending this one back to the chef.

This time were taking a look at the Chinao Wheat case and Croc skin case.

These offer the same design, but a different texture and look to the outside cover.

I loved the Wheat case for the iPad 2 and love the revisions they’ve done to this new iPad 3rd gen version.

Enjoy the review!

Features

• Supports Apples wake sleep Smart Function
• High Quality Premium Genuine Leather
• Rustic Saddle Leather Exterior (Wheat)
• Highest Quality Crocodile SkinTextured Genuine Leather Exterior (Croc)
• Soft microfiber interior (Black)
• 4 Sided Protection (includes corner protection)
• Thin design not bulky,
• Folds horizontally or vertically to hold iPad at an angle for viewing video or typing on the onscreen keyboard
• Access to all ports and controls

Additional Product Images

Note: AppAddict.net is in no way affiliated with KeviKev.com, they have just been a really good source for Yoobao/Chinao products with fast shipping and great customer service.