Chocolate Raiders - Candy Puzzle - Android App Review

Chocolate Raiders - Candy Puzzle by Pixel Racoons GmbH - Android App Review

Chocolate Raiders came into our attention because of several of its features, things we thought put it a step above and beyond mos of the puzzle games on Google Plus. Since there are now SO many games over there, with thousands of variation on almost every kind of game, the challenge has become finding the game that really has something different or better.

A game can be better compared to its many siblings on Google Play by, for example, offering different gameplay. Of course, this is really only one of the things that can elevate a game, the others being great design, beautiful interface and graphics (including menus, characters, levels and basically everything in the game) and the mood or feeling the game inspires.

The question now is, will our reviewers think Chocolate Raiders really is better than most other games?

First, let's see what Chocolate Raiders is all about. The game itself is quite simple, being a series of puzzles where the chocolate monster has to solve the puzzle level in order to get to the chocolate (or cake, or jelly or muffin ...) and get it away from the selfish Chocolate kind who refuses to share his chocolate with others. 

The challenge in Chocolate Raiders becomes harder on each level and there are 75 levels in the first section and 75 levels on the second section. Each level has a timer and the levels must be won with the least amount of moves possible in order to receive the biggest amount of points.

Our reviewers are quite diverse, from kids to teens to parents to quite older people in order to bring the opinions of everybody about each app, Chocolate Raiders in this case.

The first thing everybody, young and old, male or female pointed out was the game's graphics. Chocolate Raiders really have a professional looking design, from the characters to the levels to the chocolate goodness to the menus and everything conspires together to bring a warm, fuzzy chocolate feeling to the player. Like we said, the vast majority of our reviewers pointed this out. 

Another thing quite a lot of reviewers pointed out was the amount of variation in the levels themselves. Chocolate Raiders' makers have not only invested in graphics but have also invested in the puzzles, making each level unique and challenging. Sometimes a challenging game can become too difficult and repetitive, but this game managed to have levels and puzzles so different as to make it interesting to come and solve the next puzzle.

Our reviewers also liked something that we'll call, from lack of other words, atmosphere. The graphics and soundtracks and the calls of the characters and way everything is drawn all create a very friendly, kid safe environment that lacks violence and has appealed to almost everyone, young and old alike (of course, except for the few pyromaniacs who didn't have enough explosions and fires in the game, but they were really a small minority).  

The first tip our reviewers gave is not actually directly gameplay oriented. More than several of our reviewers are parents and they found the kids loved the game, the quirky characters, the fast soundtrack and even the puzzles, sometimes turning it into a family or group challenge to solve the more difficult puzzles together.

The advise our reviewers give to those who want to play the game is watch the level carefully and don't expect to solve the next level the way you solved the previous one. Each level has a different solution and watching the level and seeing what portals, timers and other items are scattered across it is the first and arguably most important phase of solving the puzzle.

Chocolate Raiders is a great example of what professional work can achieve, from beautiful graphics to matching soundtrack to challenging but not killer levels, creating a game that can appeal to almost everyone.

• Score: 4.75. Beautiful designed and executed puzzle game.
• Description: A puzzle solving game where the player must guide the chocolate raider monster towards the chocolate treasure on puzzle levels.
• Good Points: A huge number of levels prevents the game running out before the player gets to enjoy it. No violence. Beautiful graphics, music and character design.
• Bad Points: We would have liked a save function that will let us save a game in the middle and get back to it a week from today. Most games lack such a feature, sadly ...
• Experience: The game plays almost by itself from day one. Almost no one had any trouble figuring out what to do, though figuring the items like timers and portals took a little longer.
• Longevity: The sheer amount of levels and the variance between the levels will keep this game installed for a long time on most mobile devices.
• Link to Google Play

Hide My IP - Android App Review - Update

Hide My IP - Android App Review - Update

Hide My IP - Android App Review - Update. Hide My IP is a very useful app that does one very important thing, change the mobile device's IP while working with the app into another IP from a specified location such as a country or even a selection of different cities from the United States. The app makes it impossible for anyone to detect the user's real IP.

We already wrote a review for Hide My IP - here and since we at Android Review Center like to go back to selected apps and re-visit them and their users, we though Hide My IP would be a very interesting app to go back to and check on its users and reviewers more than three months after starting to use this app, see how things changed and what added experience they gained with the app.

It should be mentioned that our reviewers are free as to whether they keep or delete the app they get to review so it would be interesting to learn who kept the app and how do they use it.

First of all, we asked the reviewers who kept the app installed what they thought about it stability and bugs, if any. The responses were in general good ones. The app is very stable and has rarely if ever crashed or misbehaved. There are occasions when it has trouble connecting but that is because the remote servers were down. If you wait a few minutes to hours, the server come back online and you can connect.

We asked about support from the developers, as the full app costs money and we on Android Review Center firmly believe that a serious developer should always support his paying customers. Again, we were quite happy with the responses. One reviewer had some trouble with the app and the developer studio helped him through email, while three others received help in running the app.

We also asked about the ease of operation. Apparently, the reviewers all reported the app is real easy to operate, just run it, select the location you wish the app to mask your IP (i.e. from where your masked IP will originate) and that's it, you surf the Internet with no trouble at all. Again, sometimes you have to wait a little while for a server to be free but usually there's no problem at all. 

We also inquired about latency. Did reviewers encounter it? The overwhelming majority of people did not of any latency problem. Surfing seemed almost the same speed with the app running. A few reviewers did report that there was a little slowing down when using specific locations, though they still had no problem viewing clips or playing games.

We also inquired what uses the reviewers who kept the app installed had for it. First and foremost, many users used the IP masking feature of the app to hide their IP when commenting or posting on various sites. Apparently, quite a lot of users are afraid of their boss, wife or even the officials in their country (even in the US) finding out and knowing where and what comments the users remarked.

We should clarify the previous statements. We are not talking about secret agents or terrorists here, people who have done things illegally and are trying to hide from the law. We are talking about regular, normative people who have done nothing but want privacy, to be able to surf the net, comment and write without anyone knowing what they did. 

Another very popular use the reviewers had for Hide My IP was for viewing content. For various reasons (usually commercial reasons), content will sometimes not be visible for users in specific locations, such as Netflix. Hide My IP allows people to view that content by changing their IP to the IP of US for instance.

Some people got into the habit of using the app when buying things online. We cannot be sure at to the value of keeping privacy when buying stuff online, since you have to transfer the seller money and a delivery address, but people who wanted to keep their privacy badly used this app, in accordance with paypal accounts and disposable mailboxes to shop anonymously. 

Last but not least, people who wanted to surf and enter sites and forums that use IP filtering based on location used this app to circumvent the filtering and use the protected sites. 

Our conclusion is that Hide My IP is a very solid app and does exactly what it says, hiding your IP while using it, and allowing different locations from which to assign your IP.

Link to Google Play

Falling Birds Lite - Android App Review

Falling Birds Lite by Upfront Applications - Android App Review

Falling Birds Lite by Upfront Applications - Android App Review. One of the most popular game genres for Android Smartphones are arcade games, because of their simplicity, instant play features and challenge, not to mention their need of quick fingers and good eye to hand coordination. The problem is, there are thousands of arcade games on Google Play.

A good arcade game should offer several things to make it stand out among the thousands of games out there on Google Play. It should be challenging. It should be have a different story and background. It should enable instant play and resume functions. It should allow hours of play and not be too short.

We at Android Review Center would like to showcase Falling Birds. But, is it any good?

Falling Birds is an arcade game (there's free game with ads and a paid version without the ads that costs a measly dollar) where the play must catch, well, birds that are falling into a cage and rescue them from a cage by tapping on them. There are four types of birds, from the basic green, to the fat red that saves every bird, the blue bird that freezes the screen and the sneaky yellow that puts all the birds into the cage.

Falling Birds has 99 levels to complete with steadily rising challenge level as the speed of the falling birds increase. The game also has an endless more for those seeking a true challenge and the ability to save and publish high scores to Twitter and Facebook to show your friends just how quick you are. 

We gave the game for our reviews to try out, making sure young and old, educated and blue collar, men and women got the game to get a wide range of opinions.

First off all, the reviewers reported Falling Birds is a high quality game, much more so than its Google Play score would suggest (further examination shows that the bad reviews came from the early period of the game, before updates solved the bugs and issued reported by the bad reviews). It is stable, works as advertised and generally causes no problems, crashes or freezes of the smartphone. 

Reviewers liked the simplicity of the game, that was balanced just right between being too simple and being challenging. In fact, most reviewers said the game became challenging quite fast, though younger people were challenged at level 20 + while older found the game challenging at levels 10 +.

Interestingly, both younger and older people liked the game, though playing styles were different. While younger people relied on their speed and nimble finger, older people played a smarter game, trying to plan ahead and take advantage of the different types of birds.

And now for some tips and tricks. Since Falling Birds is simple but quick, try to loosed up during playing, letting your instincts guide your fingers. It works better that way. But, the different birds should be utilized, taking notice of a red bird and waiting for it to fall before tapping it, to let it carry to safety as many birds as possible.

The blue birds are also useful for two main things. First of all is getting a few seconds of rest for the eyes and fingers. The second reason is planning ahead, taking a fast inventory of what birds are now falling on the screen and seeing in what order it is best to tap them, or judge the correct time to use the red bird.

Finally, keep in mind always the yellow bird, as a tap on it can ruin a well played level just before the finish line ... Endless mode is also useful, not only for fun playing but to warm up a little bit before tackling a particularly difficult level, making sure your fingers, eyes and concentration are up to the task.

Falling Birds is a prime example of arcade games, a game that will appeal to games of every level and every age. Our reviewers loved it and recommend to give it a try (you can try to free version, and then, if you want, buy the ad-less version for uninterupted play.

• Score: 4.6. A very good arcade game, one that was fun reviewing.
• Description: An arcade game where birds are falling into a cage and the player must tap them to get them to fly to freedom.
• Good Points: Simple game.Nice graphics and very nice soundtrack. Challenging and a little strategic touch with the four kinds of birds.
• Bad Points: Nothing important that comes to mind. One or two reviewers would have liked to have even more kinds of different birds with additional abilities.
• Experience: The game can be played almost immediately as it is very apparent what must be done. Learning to use the different birds properly takes a little more time.
• Longevity: Avid games will surely keep is installed on their smartphones, as anyone who needs a casual game for the times of leisure.
• Link to Google Play

Next Business Tycoon - Android App Review

Next Business Tycoon by Michael Asaraf - Android App Review

Next Business Tycoon by Michael Asaraf - Android App Review. Strategic games are a pain in the ass, really. The player must think all the time on whatever moves he or she makes, calculate and plan several steps ahead and o get to a simple battle sometimes requires days of work. Not to mention the base, which must be nurtured, protected and developed.

Action, platform and casual games seem to be more fun. You just start the game and right away start flapping your wings between the pillar, jump across the hurdles or just shoot at the enemy. No complex thinking required. 

And this is it, exactly. People (at least most of them) delight in thinking. People love planning ahead and waiting patiently for their plans to unfold. People take pleasure in growing and developing a huge base of operations that has started with a single shack.

That's the crux of the matter with strategic games. Games with deep gameplay that you can play for months.

So how does Next Business Tycoon measure up to classic strategic games?

Next Business Tycoon is all about the cruel and predatory world of major companies. The player starts off with a small business or company and then little by little, by acquiring resources, transportation, income and other businesses the player rises in levels and his or her options expand to include various modes of attack on competing companies (other online players).  

Next Business Tycoon really has quite a number of options and actions for the player to perform, from buying resources, to buying other businesses to conducing attacks of various kinds on competitors or just draw the defenses around oneself and try to survive without engaging the rivals in economic warfare.

Our small army of reviewers went ahead and started playing the game and reports started coming in right away, though the game itself can run over several weeks, if played properly.

As it turns out, the game was really fun for quite a lot of reviewers of different ages, aptitude and education. The reviewers who liked more aggressive games went ahead and used the attack options much more frequently. Those who liked hacking used that option. Others who liked the pure economic side more bought and sold businesses more. Every reviewer developed his or her own style.

The graphics and UI was very easy to use. Some games use a lot of fancy graphics and effects in their UI, creating a game that is beautiful yet very hard to use (See Galaxy Legend ...) by this game's UI is very functional and simple, with data presented straight away to the player while media clips convey the feeling that the player really controls vast company assets.

Our reviewers also appreciated the fact that the player isn't forced to wait days or even longer for some resources or buildings to become available, but the game makes sure there is something to do, some attack to plan or strategy to implement to further advance the player's company.

And now for some tips and tricks. Though every player will have his or her own preference as to attacks or defense, in order to play a good game and create a successful company, a player must be ready to use ALL modes of attack, as some companies have weaker physical defenses while other have weaker computer defenses. The good tycoon must be able to take advantage of ALL weaknesses. 

Research is also quite important, especially at higher levels. Though aggressive spying, attacking and buying may help a company along, only a steady investment in research will yield long term progress.

Finally, alliances and other players are very important in this game, whether it is for resource trading or combine assaults or defenses on another, bigger company, the tycoon who ignores the other players won't go far. Not to mention this is a major part of the fun in this game.

To sum things up, Next Business Tycoon is a very original, fast paced yet deep strategy game, well loved and received by our reviewers.. 

• Score: 4.7. A very good strategic game, one of the best we reviewed.
• Description: A massive strategic online game where the player plays a tycoon bent on making his or her company the biggest and most powerful on earth.
• Good Points: Easy to use UI. A lot of options. Deep strategy and thought needed to succeed.
• Bad Points: We would have liked to have a little more help in figuring out the more complex strategies and options, maybe an offline forum or something.
• Experience: The game starts a little slow, but as the player reaches lever 3 or 4, things are happening quite quickly, letting the player understand the game perfectly by then.
• Longevity: People play the game for months now, as they must reach level 8 or bankrupt the company they are fighting against for 3 levels now ...
• Link to Google Play

Borjikos Adventure by GIZGIZA - Android App Review

Borjikos Adventure by GIZGIZA - Android App Review

Borjikos Adventure GIZGIZA - Android App Review. It seems to us that almost all the games out there on Google Play can be put into two categories. Kids games and destructive games. So, if a game isn't for kids, than it is a game meant for destruction, either of the enemy clan or the evil invading aliens or whatever. Even if there's no enemy per se, still the player character will die a gruesome death if it won't jump at the right moment.

There are so few games with little to no destruction in them. Even Minecraft has it's own type of violence. Of course, there are the gambling type games but they CAN be destructive to the player's bank account ... Anyway, we were more than thrilled to stumble upon Borjiko's Adventure, a game with no destruction, death, falling down or any kind of violence whatsoever. 

But really, can a game with no violence be fun to play?

First of all, what is this game all about? The game revolves around Borjiko, a kind of alien or monster who innocently enough travels around the world and in each place he arrives to he has to play a match 3 puzzle where he has to assemble the necessary ingredients to prepare on of the location's national or traditional food, selecting ingredients out of a large existing pool of things to use.   

Whenever our lovable monster solves a puzzle, he / she / it receives stars and with those stars Borjiko unlocks new countries that he can fly to and try to find the ingredients to those new places' national foods. Of course, each new country appears with its own distinct graphics and maps.

So we launched our small army of people who review apps to give this app a try. We noticed something interesting right then and there as we found out more people than usual were happy to try this particular game. Gameers, naturally, but also people interested in cooking.

First thing we found out was that people actually found this game to be pretty interesting and engaging, even though it appears to be quite simple. People were quite happy trying to find out the ingredients and even more happy to discover special and unique dishes of different locales. 

The reviewers were also quite happy and liked the game's graphics which are a blend of accurate drawings done in a cartoonist style creating a very pleasant atmosphere to the game while still maintaining accuracy as to the dishes and ingredients.

We also got a lot of favorable reviews that mentioned the sheer number of locales, places, ingredients and dishes. This creates an almost inexhaustible game that gave reviewers a fun game that never runs out, even as updates keep adding more and more.

And now for some tips and tricks. When going over ingredients of dishes from a specific country, try finding out the common ingredients used there. They are used in almost ALL the dishes there. Examples include cheeses in some places and sea food in others.

Another interesting thing we found out was that the game actually gave some people incentive to go out and research the recipes for dishes they saw and liked on the game, making them learn more about the country and the dish in question.

Last but not least, this made for some very interesting talks as to the dishes and the places they come from. It sounds kinda of stupid, but talking about dishes is ALWAYS interesting and people always want to learn more about them. You just don't have to tell them you learned all that information from a game ...

Our reviewers liked the game, its graphics and its quite original concept and many reported it had some interesting and beneficial side effects, which we outlined above. 

• Score: 4.75. Almost perfect but we want the recipes put into the game as well!
• Description: A match 3 type puzzle where the player must match ingredients in national dishes of different places and countries.
• Good Points: Very nice and pleasant graphics. Huge amount of ingredients and dishes. Interesting and quite unique concept.
• Bad Points: None really, except we would have wanted to have the recipes available along with the dishes inside the game.
• Experience: The game is easily playable and there is no learning time, per se. It does get more difficult at advanced levels but that's where the fun lays.
• Longevity: Since the game is about food, and there are almost endless number of ingredients and dishes, this game is here to last.
• Link to Google Play

Factory.com Product Search APP - Android App Review

Factory.com Product Search APP - Android App Review

Factory.com Product Search APP - Android App Review. Android Smartphones are there to provide us three very important services. They can be our mobile office, our mobile communications centers and mobile entertainment centers. However, all of this pales when an app that allows us to save real money comes along.

Let's face it. We all buy things in one of two main ways and we don't really have a tool to allow us to be sure we are buying the right thing at the right price. Of course, this is a shame because one of the great things brought to us by progress is internet shopping where EVERYTHING is available for sale somewhere, we just have to find it.

To solve these problems, we took out Factory.Com app for a spin. Did it really solve our shopping problems?

First of all, we have to make something clear. Even though we use a lighter tone, shopping is a serious business. Each of us spends hundreds if not thousands of dollars each year for shopping and a good tool that will allow us substantial savings on our buying can net us hundreds of dollars of savings each year. This is not a laughing matter. 

What does Factory.Com app really do? This app has two (or actually three, but we'll talk about it a bit later ...) modes of operation. First of all, it allows us to scan a barcode of a product and then automatically runs a search of selected online retailers for the same product. In addition, it allows us to search manually and compare the different retailers' price of the same product. Thirdly, the manual search allows us to find out new products, and not only compare products we already know. 

We gave the app to our reviews and told them to get on with their business, and use the app before doing any kind of shopping. We were really quite surprised with some of the results.    

Reviewers who used the barcode scanning feature found out what all of us already knew, that online shopping was really cheaper. The app immediately gave results, displaying the same product on ebay and Amazon.com and the price comparisons were readily apparent. Reviewers said they actually changed their minds about doing some of their purchases because of the app, preferring to buy online.  

The reviewers who tried the searching function found it very easy to use and very useful as it immediately gave listings of the same products on a lot of online retailers. Again, our reviewers were surprised at how much money they saved just by running Factory.com app on their smartphones.

Actually, the thing that surprises us was how quickly everyone, including the older reviewers took to this app. Everyone wants to save money, even if they have to use an app that is frankly very easy to use.

And now for some tips and tricks. When walking into a shop, scanning a product and showing the results to the owner of the shop, you can sometimes get a discount or a special offer as the owner tries to match the price to give you incentives to buy from him. 

In addition, reviewers were able to use the search function to find out about new products they didn't know (like a newer version of a Samsung tablet that just arrived) and not only save prices. Finally, searching with a little less detail can net you identical products with a different model number which sometimes denote the same product.

In conclusion, our reviewers were all very impressed with this app as it gave them real savings and allowed them to conduct their shopping much better than before. 

• Score: 5.0. Almost perfect shopping helper tool. 
• Description: A retailer comparison app that shows you the same product (whose name is taken from barcode scanning or entered manually) on several retailers and allows you to compare prices.
• Good Points: Very easy to use, search, sort and filter results. Good display of results. Very streamlined and professional interface. 
• Bad Points: We haven't really found any worth talking about. We just hope that the next updates of the app will allow us to buy products directly through the app.
• Experience: The app is really easy to use and no one had any trouble working with it, young and old. Searching for products was a bit trickier and takes some practice, as does running a search through google.
• Longevity: Virtually no one uninstalled this app as no other app is so good at finding discounts for the products we need, though some reviewers used the app more than others, depending on their shopping habits.
• Link to Google Play