iPhone App Review: Prep & Landing
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Title: Prep & Landing (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: November 19, 2009
Cost: $.99
iTouch?: Yes (WiFi/Internet required for some)
Pros: A couple of entertaining games/features
Cons: Long, frustrating gameplay with little payoff, promoted items missing
Review: On December 1, ABC will air its first ever original holiday special produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. That’s the good news. The bad news is they want to charge you for downloading the promotional app and it falls way short on expectations and even promises.
After watching a surprisingly brief promo for the special, you are presented with two menu options. Kringle Academy is where you’ll find 3 mini-games and P&L Specialized Equipment is where you’ll find the ‘extras,’ which are often more entertaining than the games themselves, unfortunately.
As a general rule with the game, sound effects are nil (Christmas carols are your only source of audio candy) and gameplay is exceptionally long with repetitive movements. There’s also no scoring system so you’re really only competing for ‘distance’ and colored rewards such as gold, silver and red (and other, ‘lesser’ colors) which seem to offer no benefit other than a virtual pat on the iBack.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: ABC, Apps, iPhone, P&L, Prep & Landing, Prep and Landing, Reviews, Video Games, Walt Disney Animation Studios, WDAS
Stitch Kingdom Introduces the Definitive Guide to Disney Apps for the iPhone
We are pleased to present our newest addition to our library of already established collection of Definitive Guides: Disney Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
iPhone and iPod Touch users now have a single source to turn to in order to find the entire list of Disney related apps available on Apple’s iTunes Store in addition to applications authored by The Walt Disney Company itself.
The guide allows you to sort, categorize and even perform a keyword search against the Disney App library, so you can immediately find just the App you’re looking for. Sort by price or just click on the option to show just the Free apps — it’s just that simple!
So be sure to check out the Definitive Guide to Disney Apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch today!
Also be sure to follow us on Twitter and/or FaceBook and you’ll be alerted whenever a new Disney-related app is released or updated.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Stitch Kingdom News Tags: Apps, Definitive Guide, iPhone
iPhone App Review: LUMA
Title: LUMA (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: November 10, 2009
Cost: $.99
iTouch?: Yes
Pros: Quick, addictive play, good graphics and sound effects
Cons: None
Review: I confess when I first read LUMA’s description and saw the game shots, I thought I knew exactly how the game was going to go. At first glance, the concept seemed like this network type game I had played on a PDA long ago where ‘cables’ had to be rotated in 90 degree increments in order to connect various ‘nodes’ together to complete a ‘network.’ Although LUMA’s premise is similar, Disney Interactive (and its Enorbus subsidiary) have managed to turn the simple concept on its ears and produce a quick and highly addictive logic puzzle game.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: Apps, iPhone, LUMA, Reviews, Video Games
iPhone App Review: Bayou Beats (The Princess and the Frog)
Title:Bayou Beats (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: November 7, 2009
Cost: Free
iTouch?: Yes
Pros: Free, some replay value, music from the film
Cons: Large installation due to music video
Review: In promotion of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog which opens nationwide December 11 comes this free app which includes a small, quasi-addictive game along with a music video and a lot of purchase links.
The game itself is small and pretty straightforward. Using instrumental versions of one of several songs from the feature film (but sadly not Gonna Take You There) as a backdrop, the game consists of pressing one of several buttons along the bottom as they are lit up by falling crowns passing through them. The game keeps track of how many correct touches in a row you have and then rewards long streaks by increasing a score multiplier. Where it may get confusing is that it looks like you have to ‘catch’ the individual crowns, but while you do have to prevent the crown from passing through without being touched, the key is you’re touching the button while it’s lit which means a single crown can yield you 2 or 3 successful touches if done quickly enough while a few crowns in immediate succession can yield a quick finger upwards of 15 touches or so. Get too greedy by having one of your touches land when the button is no longer lit, however, and the frog croaks and the chain count is reset to zero.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: Apps, iPhone, Princess and the Frog, Reviews, Tiana
Disney Interactive Releases Free Disney.com App for the iPhone
Disney.com today announced it has launched an app for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store. The Disney App features an array of high quality Disney content including areas dedicated to Characters, Music, Video and Games. Content in the app will be updated regularly, providing kids and families with instant access to the latest Disney news and entertainment.
The new Disney App will also offer innovative features including “Click2Life” which allows iPhone users to take pictures of images from the online version of Disney.com with their device that will then come to life within the app and turn into a 3D image. Additionally, the Disney App will automatically discover other Disney apps and games available through the App Store, organizing all Disney-branded content within one destination on each device so users can easily access their favorite games and entertainment content.
Categories: iPhone Apps Tags: Apps, Disney.com, iPhone
Steven Barrett’s ‘Hidden Mickeys’ Finds Its Way to the iPhone
Earlier this week, Campbell/Gambill Designs released the iPhone/iPod Touch edition of Steven Barrett’s popular Hidden Mickeys guide. Providing the same scavenger hunt-type lists of Hidden Mickeys throughout the Walt Disney World as the book does, the app also takes advantage of the iPhone by incorporating the use of GPS. Currently the app boasts over 800 Hidden Mickeys across the four main theme parks.
For more information or to purchase the app ($5.99), click here.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Theme Parks, Walt Disney World Tags: Apps, Hidden Mickeys, iPhone, Steven Barrett
iPhone App Review: Disney’s Magic Mirror
Title: Disney’s Magic Mirror (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: October 5, 2009
Cost: $.99
iTouch?: Yes, limited functionality
Pros: Sort-of cute app for the Snow White-diehard to share with friends
Cons: More ad than content, not much of either for the price
Review: This is a Snow White-ized version of the classic Magic 8-Ball App. Ask it a yes/no question and it does its best to reply. So I simply asked it whether or not people should buy it and this was its actual response:
alone in the dark
the world is still
despite my best efforts
I do not know its will
Truth is, I probably couldn’t have put it better myself. Although it has pretty graphics and a nice vocalized rendition of the Magic Mirror, the app is really more of a version .6 of what should be a free app. To use it, you have a choice of either using the keyboard or microphone to ask a yes/no question (in reality, it could be anything, the app doesn’t know). In exchange, the Magic Mirror visually and audibly responds with its vague and cryptic messages. Some cool animation and audio is offset by the fact that the Magic Mirror’s mouth is completely out of sync with his response to the point where it’s just downright distracting — you might consider it Disney’s rendition of a dubbed martial arts film.
And that’s it. There are some extras which essentially include a video trailer for the Disney Blu-ray/DVD release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a link to amazon.com to buy it, and even a synopsis (!?!?!) of the film.
In other words, wait for Disney to come to its senses and make this app free or at least adds more entertainment value. And even then, you probably shouldn’t bother.
Note: Because of hardware limitations, iPod Touch users will need an external microphone and earphones to make full use of the application.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: Apps, iPhone, Magic Mirror, Reviews, Snow White
iPhone App Review: Disney Fireworks
Title: Disney Fireworks (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: September 11, 2009
Cost: $1.99
iTouch?: Yes
Pros: Based off popular game genre, familiar images/music
Cons: Cost
Review: This is Disney’s iPhone version of the arcade/video game smash hit Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) with a couple of twists. Choosing from one of four environments, each with its own instrumental music: Peter Pan’s Neverland with ‘Second Star to the Right;’ Mulan’s Emperor’s Castle with ‘Reflection;’ Lilo and Stitch’s Hawaii with ‘He Mele No Lilo;’ and Mickey in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the premise is to press the appropriate color as the fireworks shell crosses the line at the top. Press the shell on target and it explodes into one of varying colors of fireworks, even the occasional Hidden Mickey firework. The line is often not straight across either so it provides a larger challenge when you have competing shells being fired upwards. Complete a level and you can save it as a video to watch later (why, I haven’t quite figured out yet).
There are multiple levels ranging from Easy which has only two colors to choose from to Hard which has four colors plus additional moves (and special fireworks). Easy is just a bit too easy while Hard is just downright impossible (at least for me).
For me, the price level is just a bit too high for this one right now in order to justify it. It’s a decent time-killer, although it seems like gameplay just runs a bit too long so it gets repetative fast. A little more in way of environments and dropping the price by $1 would make this a far more attractive application.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: Apps, iPhone, Reviews
iPhone App Review: Toy Story Photo Hunt
Title: Toy Story Photo Hunt (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: September 15, 2009
Cost: Free
iTouch?: Yes
Pros: Free, addictive, simple play
Cons: Addictive
Review: The type of video game commonly found in bars, Toy Story Photo Hunt brings all the fun home to the kids and is surprisingly just as challenging when sober. Billed primarily as a promotional free app for the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 re-release, this app also includes a countdown to October 2 (when the films are re-released in theaters in 3D) and the TS/TS2 trailer along with some promotional information for the Toy Story Mania! game for the Wii.
The concept itself is quite simple: identify all of the differences between two of the otherwise-same image from one of the Toy Story films. In Normal mode, you have to find the differences before the clock runs out. You start out with having to locate 2 differences and, as you progress, so does the number of differences you need to find, up to nine per image. A wrong answer penalizes you on time, but you start with and earn additional bonuses that will instantly offer you more time or even find the differences for you. In Free mode, there is no clock ticking so you can guess for the differences as much as you’d like without the fear of running out of time. In Challenge mode, you need to find only one difference between each set of photos, but the clock burns much faster, so you only have time for one bad guess (assuming you guess quickly enough). Normal mode lets you run out of time without solving all of the differences 3 times, but Challenge is far less forgiving and one mess-up ends it all. Both the Normal and Challenge modes even have a public scoreboard available so you can submit your level and see how you rank up against others.
Categories: iPhone Apps, Video Games Tags: Apps, iPhone, Reviews, Toy Story
iPhone App Review: Radio Disney (Streaming App)
Title: Radio Disney (link)
Publisher: Walt Disney
Released: August 28, 2009
Cost: Free
iTouch?: Yes (WiFi)
Pros: It’s free, makes Radio Disney portable
Cons: Additional features on RD website with clunky interface
Review: There’s not an awful lot to this app, with one click on the iPhone/iPod Touch, it launches and connects to the Radio Disney website where it begins streaming, providing you with song/artist information along with an artist photo (when available). Another screen allows you to view the last 10 songs played on Radio Disney without disrupting song play. Additional features (such as making a song request, sending a shoutout, answering a poll, etc) require using the device’s Safari app to reach the Radio Disney website which exits the application and shuts off the music. The website itself has a really nice opening screen but quickly becomes difficult to navigate and to discern where the links to continue are and — to be blunt — these additional functions are so simple, they could easily be integrated directly into the app.
The website also has small banner ads which is fine considering they are Disney oriented and the app itself is free, but it would seem to me it would be much wiser to just integrate support directly into the app to be able to click on any song and immediately be taken to the iTunes store for purchase, at least for Disney music.
I did initially have some problems getting the app to launch and work properly, but after the third attempt, it worked flawlessly and I’ve been in and out of it without a problem since. I’ve even successfully streamed Radio Disney using only EDGE service so the app should work handily anywhere there’s some level of service.
Categories: iPhone Apps Tags: Apps, iPhone, Radio Disney, Reviews
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