Tap Tap Revenge: Lady Gaga


photo-21Tapulous has yet again put forth another Tap Tap Revenge premium application this time featuring Lady Gaga. The game features Lady Gaga’s hit songs such as “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” as well as several other songs and remixes. As soon as you open the application you know you are in for a treat. You are graced with a picture of Lady Gaga and a news feed for all of your Gaga needs. You can then choose to play one player or two player modes. Choosing one player lets you play through songs on many difficulties and unlock boss tracks. When you play a song you are greeted with a very Lady Gaga like theme. It takes place in a city backdrop and the tappers roll down from a billboard that sports your score. Tap along to Lady Gaga’s fun beats and watch the background react to your taps. Hit the left and right lanes and the diamonds/gems on the side will flash. Tap the middle lane and the city will pop out at you.

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When you play and your multiplier streak gets higher Aces from a deck of cards will pop up on screen to notify you of how well you are playing. As you continue to play and keep your streak going to 50 notes, shake and enter revenge mode to turn the plain tappers to diamonds/gems themselves. These gems look like they are tumbling down the screen and add areally neat effect to the game. Play through the game and challenge yourself with multi-taps, hold notes, and shakes.

Enter your scores on an online leaderboard and compete with the many Tap Tap masters. Then you can also challenge a friend via email to see who is better at Tap Tap Revenge: Gaga!

Once you unlock the boss track in a given difficulty by completing the other tracks you are really in for a treat. These boss tracks add a new style of game play never introduced before in the Tap Tap Revenge series. This new method is landscape mode. Not only is it in landscape but there is one additional lane or rail to make it four all together. This brings on a whole new level of gaming in the series. Once you get used to the change the boss tracks are fun and challenging as well as stunning graphically.

This game is a very high quality game that will make you give you hours of fun at a time, it is just that addicting. The mix of Lady Gaga’s unique style and the brilliance that is Tapulous creates for some outstanding and unbelievable enjoyment. This game is recommended to not just fans of Lady Gaga or fans of TTR but for anyone who wants to have fun. The replay value of this game is indefinite and you will always feel the need to play it.

The Loop Blog gives Tap Tap Revenge: Lady Gaga a 9.9/10 stars. You can buy TTR: Lady Gaga for $4.99 in the iTunes AppStore.

Appy Entertainment FaceFighter Review

From Appy Entertainment, the creator of Appy Newz, comes a new exciting application called FaceFighter. Gameplay for this game was directed by Emmanuel Valdez who is known for creating the popular game Ready 2 Rumble. The game is simple yet very creative and fun for everyone.  You can choose to fight Big Ben, an in game character, or choose to create your own characters using your stored photos on your device or your built in camera. It is extremely easy to create a fighter, all you have to do is choose an image and resize it within the guidelines given. Once that is complete you can start fighting! Select a difficulty anywhere from “Apply Slappy” to Hard and its time to fight!

Fight!

The gameplay is simple just tap any of the four options given including punch, kick, and block to fight your opponent. When you damage your opponent funny graphics will appear on their face such as bruises, missing teeth, and a broken nose. Everytime you throw a punch or kick you get those famous comic book type sayings like kapow flashed in the background. The graphics are funny especially if you are using a created character. The gameplay yet simple is very fun and addicting. As you continue to play and hurt your opponent you will gain a special ability which is indicated at the bottom of the screen. Press the glowing circle to enter that special ability and use a tool such as a wrench to KO your opponent. The health gauge is located at the top under the fighter’s name and once you or your opponent’s gauge is drained the game is over. Your score is then saved to try and beat later.

Fight A Friend!

The game is fun  but could use some more features even though the ability to create a character is endless there is still some things missing. There should be more of a selection of in game characters and not just Big Ben as well as more then just tapping a button to fight. But for the price the game is well worth it. You will be spending plenty of time making characters and beating up your friends while laughing doing it. This game is fun and very creative.

The Loop Blog gives FaceFighter an 8/10 stars. You can buy FaceFighter in the App Store for $.99

WWDC 2009

120358-snowleopjpgYeah, its that time again, WWDC.  The time of the year Apple fanboys and developers love.  Tomorrow (Monday) is the keynote opening to the event being led by Phil Shiller speaking on 10.6 Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0, along with some product announcements.  Rumors have been spreading around for the past week or so on the new iPhone.  They are as followed.

-Name said to be the ‘iPhone Video’ or the ‘iPhone 3GS’

-Chrome bezel replaced by a matte iron

-Front facing camera (for video chat)

-Higher-up speaker

-Matte black backing (and most likely white too)

-High MP video camera

3598649843_d713b3c3fajpgWe won’t know for sure on any of these until the Apple WWDC keynote starts tomorrow at 10AM pacific time.  I was supposed to be at the keynote tomorrow blogging here, on Twitter, and Tatango, but could not go for a few reasons.  I will most likely be at the September iPod event as well as WWDC 2010.

I do know of one thing that may or may not be coming out at WWDC tomorrow, but I can say that I am really looking forward to it!

Interview with Tapulous CEO, Bart Decrem

couchTLB: What is Tapulous?

Bart: One of the most successful pure-play iPhone/iPod touch companies!  We’re all about building fun and social apps for the App Store.

TLB: Upon starting Tapulous last summer, what was your vision of apps you would be making?

Bart: We imagined that we would mostly be making fun social apps - things like Fortune Cookies and Collage, with a small dose of games (Tap Tap Revenge). The surprize has been that Tap Tap Revenge has been such a massive hit that it’s overshadowed everything else we do.

TLB: Where do you see the Tap Tap revolution going in the future?

Bart: For 3.0, we’re focusing on (i) letting users purchase premium content directly inside of a paid version of the game, (ii) the community and online portions, including a big push on making Live play more fun and engaging and also a push towards user generated content (specifically, theming contests and opening up our music catalog to more independent artists).

TLB: When Tapulous makes Tap Tap’s for large band (Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails) are you in close contact with the band members or just their agents and recording studio?

Bart: It depends.  Our head of business development, Tim O’Brien, has worked in the music industry for over a decade.  We work with record labels, publishers, band managers, and artists directly - sometimes we reach out to partners, sometimes they reach out to us.  In the case of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor, who’s a pioneer in music and technology, was very closely involved.  We had several meetings with him. In other cases, band management or the label are more in the drivers seat.

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TLB: If you could re-transform Tapulous and they’re type of apps, what would it be?

Bart: More and more, I feel that we are not in the business of building apps (or even games), but in the business of offering great services, and a key part about how the user engages with those is the app (the game).  That’s the future and that’s where we are focusing our energy.

TLB: What app has been the most fun for you to work on?

Bart: Tap Tap Revenge is a blast to work on, because the game is so much fun and because there’s such a huge community of gamers that give feedback every day.

TLB: What can we expect soon from one of the largest iPhone app companies in the world?

Bart: We expect to stay on the leading edge of the App Store.  Expect us to continue to focus on building on the success of Tap Tap Revenge. We want to be the leader in music gaming on the App Store, with a big focus on the network and social aspects.

TLB: Will we ever have the functionality to make our own songs online or in a desktop app?

Bart: We are definitely going to offer more ways to allow independent artists to make their music available in Tap Tap Revenge.  We are constantly looking for more ways to offer users access to a broader range of music.

Aaxa P1 Pico Projector Review

slasghgear-aaxa-pc-pico-projector-04-480x319jpgOver the past week I have been playing around with one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  This thing has the power of a big projector but it can fit in your pocket.  The P1 Pico has some downsides, it is not the brightest with its 12 lumen LED light source does quite well on a small screen in a dark room, but on a larger (60″) screen, it can be good but it also cannot.  What I mean is with brighter videos and images with bright colors like blue and yellow it displays very well on a large screen, but with a darker image such as dark ally in a scary movie, it will not perform all that well, even in a dark room.  In a light room, the P1 displays an OK image on the a screen or wall but only when you hold the projector a foot or two away from it, otherwise it is too faded.

p1_pico-projectorjpgThe P1 is loaded with features, it has 1GB of onboard memory, a built in speaker, which is not the loudest speaker out there, but it works, as well as an entire OS for playing videos, pictures, music, and other files that are in the onboard memory or in the optional micro-SD card slot.  The OS is quite hard to navigate your first time around but eventually you’ll get used to it and realize how far that we’ve come.  Just a few years ago the only projector’s available were large, expensive projectors that were a hassle to carry around and use.  Now, you can fit one into your pocket and use it whenever and where-ever you are.

You can connect the P1 to many peripherals such as the VGA cord that connects to Playstations, TV’s, you name it.  You can also purchase a cord to plug it into your iPod or iPhone, Zune, or PSP.  Video quality from each device is about the same.  Same sharpness, same colors, etc.

I really recommend the P1.  It is an incredible device for all types of people who want this functionality on their device whatever it may be.  I do not have any experience with other types of pico projectors but I can say that the P1 impressed me and I hope to see other and better types of pico projectors not only from Aaxa but any company out there.

The Loop Blog gives the P1 Pico Projector a 7/10 stars.  You can buy the P1 for $239 on aaxatech.com

iPhone 3G 2009 Leaked?

iphone3g2009jpgOver the weekend a Hong Kong blog posted images of what is thought to be the iPhone 3G 2009, or leaked applications for it.  In my opinion, these look very, very real to me looking at the way they have been designing the iPhone lately.  The pictures show the rumored integrated compass, auto-focus camera, updated camera application with video recording, and the other images are clearly the 3.0 software coming this summer so this may just be hidden features that Apple has yet to release to developers and/or unlock.  The iPhone itself does not match up with rumors and what’s thought to be leaks but after all, what do we know, Apple itself has not said anything.