The armory, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a database maintained by Blizzard (the comany that makes World of Warcraft) that lets you keep tabs on all of the data of your various characters and the characters of other players. Here’s the description from Blizzard’s site:

The Armory is a vast searchable database of information for World of Warcraft – taken straight from the real servers and presented in a user-friendly interface. Since the Armory pulls its data from the actual game servers, it is the most comprehensive and up-to-date database on the characters, arena teams, guilds, and items of World of Warcraft in existence.

As you can imagine the armory is an incredibly useful resource for WOW players. But how much better would it be if you could fit it into your pocket and take it with you wherever you go? Well now you can do just that on your iPhone.

Cost & File Size
World of Warcraft Mobile Armory is a free app, it won’t cost you a dime to download it and install it on your iPhone. The requires iPhone OS 2.2 or higher and it works fine with iPhone OS 3.0. You can also run World of Warcraft Mobile Armory on the iPod Touch.

User Interface & Features
The app has a great interface and some outstanding WOW features. It lets you keep track of all your character stats, items, guild, calendar and a whole lot more.

When you first start the app you’ll see the login screen. You can type in your WOW ID and password to login and you have the option of having your login information saved so you won’t have to keep entering it each time you want to login. After that you’ll be on the armory home page. You can access the following on the home page:

Characters
Guild
Calendar
Leaderboards
Browse Items
Talent Calculator
News
Settings
Help
Logout

The Characters page lets you access a list of your characters or just characters that you’ve bookmarked. You can sort the Characters page by Name, Realm, Level, Race, Class or Achievement Points. When you click on a character you’ll see the Character Profile page.

You can click a drop-down menu at the to to see more options such as Talents, Glyphs, Achievements and Calendar. The profile page shows the items your character has, achievement points, talent summary and also a list of stats. The stats can be changed to show Base Stats, Melee, Ranged, Spell or Defense.

If you choose to view a character’s Talents page you can see the character’s current talents and you can even opt to use a built-in talent calculator to play around with new talent point settings. The Achievements page lets you see what your character has achieved in the game. You can see an overview or drill down into achievement categories such as battlegrounds, quest achievements and other categories.

The Calendar page is great for letting you know what’s going on in the game so you don’t miss anything. It’s very well laid out in this and it’s pretty much the same as using it in-game. I like to be reminded of the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza as I tend to forget about it sometimes even though I know it’s always on Sunday.

If you are in a guild there is a guild page you can check out as well as a page for Arena teams.

The Browse Items page is great if you want to see items available in the game. It’s broken down into the following categories:

Dungeons & Raids
Item Collections
Weapons
Armor
Gems
Glyphs
Containers
Consumables
Trade Goods
Miscellaneous
Companions

I particularly enjoyed checking out the list of small pets under the Companions category as I enjoy collecting them in WOW. There are so many items to view though that just browsing around will let you see some stuff that you probably didn’t even know was in the game.

Note that you can also click the Search icon on the Home page to search the WOW armory.

Target Practice lets you shoot at a typical gun range target using your iPhone to manipulate the cross-hairs. Just tilt your iPhone to move the cross-hairs around. To shoot you just tap the screen and to reload your ammo you simply shake your iPhone. A cool and unexpected use for the old shake-the-iPhone trick.

I bet you think it all sounds very easy, right? Well most new shooters at the range tend to think that too. And then they find out that hitting the bulls-eye takes patience and a sense of calm. I found that the cross-hairs moved pretty well once I got used to them. I was able to do head shots pretty well.

Now that may change as other features are added  that make things harder (see below) but for now I’m pretty good with Target Practice. Note that you can zoom the target in or out to increase or lessen difficulty. I found that I preferred it pretty much at the maximum range. However, your mileage may vary.

I’d like to see some theme music included Target Practice. Maybe a Clint Eastwood movie soundtrack or perhaps some Ted Nugent music. Just something to give a bit of atmosphere with the option to turn it off, of course.

Your job in WordsWorth is to link letters into words in your library using the multi-touch features of the iPhone or iPod Touch. When you first start the app you get a choice of things to do:

Play Game
Wall of Wow
Settings
Help
About

The Wall of Wow lets you track your high scores. The settings page lets you choose to turn sound effects on or off, pick the minimum word size, adjust your grid size, choose the number of scrambles you can do per level and pick your word list dictionary.

The game lets you choose between TWL, SOWPODS and ENABLE word lists. The help page gives you basic and very helpful instructions on how to play the game. Be sure to read it before you play the game.

Graphics & Sound
Given that this is a word game don’t expect impressive 3D graphics. But WordsWorth does have that nerd-in-the-library type feeling to it. The graphics work well although the guy in the hat on the game’s start screen didn’t do much for me. Who the heck is he anyway?

The sound is somewhat spacey and reminds me of a 70s hippy type movie soundtrack. I found myself wanting to reach for my bong and take a few hits while playing. Oh wait, I don’t own a bong. Nevermind.

Before continuing with this review I want to let you know that I am not a very good chess player. In fact, I suck. Unlike some people who seem to be able to think ten moves ahead, I am rather slow and stupid when it comes to planning my moves. I tend to simply react or move my pieces and pray that the other player does something rash that I can take advantage of.

Chess Lite provides chess for the casual player but only in 2D graphics.

Once in a while this strategy works as my totally off-the-wall strategy and utter lack of planning occasionally takes a more experienced player off-guard. They cannot, for the life of them, understand why I just made a particular move and they are sure that there’s a grand strategy behind it. Of course there isn’t and inevitably they find that out and then wipe the floor with me.

Chess Lite
Since not everybody is a chess guru, 99Games has come up with a light version of their chess game for neophytes and casual players. The game is 2D only, however, unlike its pro counterpart. Personally I don’t mind the 2D graphics as I tend to be a very casual chess player anyway and I learned long ago not to judge a game by its graphics. Some of the best looking games ever created have also been some of the worst.

Chess Lite comes with the following features:

1 Difficulty Level – Medium
1 Variant – Regular
Play Mode – Against iPhone or 2 Players
Board Flip 2 Player Mode
1 Theme – 2D
Save Game – Up To 5
Resume Game
Unlimited Undo
Last Move Highlight
Next Move Hint
Legal Move Hint

Shoot down plump, juicy turkeys!

Turkey Hunt is a very simple game. You literally just tap the screen as delectable butterball type turkeys bounce around all over your screen. There’s not a whole lot more to the game than that. And some people who are expecting a lot more will be disappointed that there’s not more depth to the game.

I disagree with that point of view, however. One of the challenges that iPhone 3G game designers face is how to design games that don’t require a lot of attention or time to play. Let’s face it, most of us want games we can load up and play for a few minutes a sitting. We don’t necessarily want stuff that takes forever to play or requires a large time commitment.

Remember that we’re talking about mobile gaming here not sitting in front of your juiced up, mega-gaming computer that you built yourself. So in that sense, I think Turkey Hunt has a valid place in the iPhone gaming world. Yes it’s a very simple game but it’s fun in a silly, lighthearted kind of way.

Adrenaline Pool Lite lets you play 8-Ball, Snooker, Straight or 9-Ball against players from all over the planet. The game also lets you engage in text chat with other players. Match-making for games is automatic and very easy. Please note though that Adrenaline Pool Lite is multi-player only. There is no offline play in this release.

So how well does it play? I found that it played quite well actually. The game’s physics and graphics are quite good and the fact that you are playing against another human instead of a computer player adds a unique twist to the game. While it sometimes took a bit longer for the game to begin than I’d like, that’s quite understandable given that you are connecting with another person somewhere else on the planet.

Lining up a shot is the same as in other pool games – you just touch your screen to move your shot around and then you push the on-screen shoot button. And you can control the power of your shot by touching the power gauge at the top of the screen. If you haven’t played pool on your iPhone yet don’t worry. It’s very simple to get used to and you’ll be playing like a pro in a few minutes.

In Pac Man Lite you move Pac Man Around and eat small pellets in a maze. While you’re trying to do this there are ghosts floating around who will try to eat you. Your job is to avoid them and finish eating all of the pellets. Don’t worry though there are powerups in each corner of the maze for you to eat and turn the tables on the ghosts. Once you’ve eaten a power up you can choose to eat the ghosts until the power up wears off.

Pac Man Lite lets you make full use of the iPhone 3G’s multi-touch capabilities and gives you three different ways to control Pac Man:

Accelerometer
Swipe
D-Pad

If you choose to use the Accelerometer you control Pac Man by leaning or rotating your iPhone 3G. Swipe mode lets you swipe your finger across the screen to get Pac Man to move in that direction. The D-Pad mode lets you touch an on-screen directional control pad that acts as a game controller.

I suggest trying each control method and see what works for you. I found that swiping was kind of fun but the accelerometer worked less well for me. The D-Pad is also pretty good. Eventually you’ll figure out which one works best for you.

How to Play Knots
Before I get any further into this review, here’s how to play Knots. I’m including this because I’ve seen folks coming into this blog via Google Searches looking for instructions on how to play the game. If you haven’t played it before it can seem confusing or even nonsensical.

Here’s how to play:

1. Set the difficulty on Easy then set number of players to One Player.

2. Click the Let’s Play button.

3. When the game begins put your finger on the blue dot on the screen.

4. A second blue dot will appear and then one of the dots will have circles emanating out from it.

5. Remove your finger from the dot with circles only. Do not let go of the other dot.

6. Keep doing this until the game ends.

Sound easy doesn’t it? Well it is…initially…but you’ll soon find yourself freaking out as you inevitably goof and take your finger off the wrong dot.

In Cro-Mag Rally you’ll be put behind the wheel in a prehistoric vehicle as you race around the track in all your neanderthal glory! There are two different modes: Gather and Racing. In Gather mode you must collect arrow heads while racing and in Racing mode you just cruise around the track. There’s not much of a difference but Gather does add just a bit of something extra to do while you’re racing.

As with other cart racing games you can collect items to use against your computer opponents such as oil slicks, bone bombs, heat seeking homing pigeons, etc. You’ll have fun with each of these power up items as you tool around trying to get into first place.

You can choose from the following tracks:

Desert
Jungle
Glaciers
Crete
Great Wall
Giza
Medieval
Vikings
Atlantis

One of the things I really like about Cro-Mag Rally is that you can immediately jump onto whatever track you want. You don’t have to unlock them first like you do with other racing games sometimes. Conversely though you won’t feel a sense of accomplishment as you progress to a new track that you haven’t raced on before. That’s okay as far as I’m concerned though as I like the ability to choose right off the bat.

Graphics & Sound
Cro-Mag Rally looks and sounds great. The sound is whimsical and light-hearted and it matches Cro-Mag’s graphics very well. Cro-Mag is not a game that takes itself seriously and the sound reflects that very well. It’s goofy and fun, which is what you’d expect from a game like this.

The graphics are outstanding and Cro-Mag is one of the best games available for the iPhone 3G. I didn’t see much in the way of slowdown or hesitancy while playing Cro-Mag and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of each track. Maybe it’s the caveman theme but I find Cro-Mag to be a delight to look at as I’m playing.

My favorite track was the medieval one, the music sounds like something out of a Mel Gibson movie. My least favorite was probably Atlantis. Cool looking sharks aside, I generally don’t like to race underwater. The Glaciers track was also a lot of fun as I always enjoy the snow and ice type areas.

#15 Bubble Bash
Do bubbles bother you? Have you ever wanted to obliterate them once and for all? Then you’ll love Bubble Bash as it lets you pop bubble after bubble in a non-stop bubble slaughter.

Bubble Bash features more than 100 levels and 17 special bubbles. You can take aim at the bubbles by tilting your iPhone or touching your iPhone’s screen. Your goal is to pop three or more of the same color.

You’ll never look at a bubble quite the same after you’ve spent hours blowing them away on Bubble Bash. Death to the Bubbles!

#14 Bomberman Touch: The Legend of Mystic Bomb
Deep in the ruins you will find a hidden treasure of great value. Do you have what it takes to venture into these ruins and risk your life for fortune and glory?

Use the accelerometer to roll the mystic bomb and explode it by remote control. Tap your finger to control a tornado to knock blocks and foes into oblivion. Or flick your finger to get help from magical troops.

See if you have the stones to find your way through Kaboom Temple as Bomberman and claim the treasure!

#13 Tetris
Tetris has been around for ages and is still one of the most popular games of all time. The iPhone 3G version of Tetris offers 15 levels and two different modes: Marathon and Magic.

It uses the unique touch screen features of the iPhone 3G to let you collect power ups or shrink/draw game pieces. Backgrounds are dynamic and you can listen to four original music tracks. You can also track your statistics to monitor your best scores.

If you’ve ever played Tetris on other platforms you’ll find the iPhone 3G version to be a breath of fresh air through the poewr of multi-touch.

If you’ve played any console systems such as the Playstation you’ll recognize Crash Bandicoot from previous racing games. Now he’s made his debut on the iPhone 3G and what a debut it is!

When you first load up Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D you can choose from the following options:

Quick Race
Start Game
Options
Records

Quick Race puts you right onto the track and provides a basic tutorial in how to play the game. Follow the instructions onscreen and you’ll get a thumbs up each time you do something right. Options lets you adjust your sound, language or accelerometer settings and lets you choose to see icons or not. Records lets you see your past glories.

Selecting Start Game gives you the option of doing the same tutorial as the Quick Race or starting a cup race. If you choose to start a cup race you’ll start with the first track and you have to unlock other tracks, you can’t just skip ahead.

You can also choose your character but some characters are also locked and can’t be picked until you unlock them. So you can only choose between Crash and Dr. Neo Cortex initially. Although Crash is great, I couldn’t resist going with Dr. Neo Cortex since he looks so evil and diabolical. Hey, it’s always more fun to be evil right?

iSlots lets you play a vegas-style slot machine right on your iPhone and, unlike in Vegas, you can’t lose a dime no matter how long you play! Hey, can’t beat that right? Did I tell you it’s free? Yup, iSlots doesn’t cost a cent.

I’ve played a pretty fair number of slot type games on various computers over the years and this one is as slick and well made as any of them. It’s easy to play iSlots, just start the game and you’ll be staring at your very own slot machine.

You can choose to Bet One then click to spin the reels or you can choose Play Max to bet the maximum. If you’ve ever played a real slot machine you’ll know what to do right away. iSlots features a singe payline though so if you’re used to Vegas type machines that have multiple paylines you might be disappointed.

You can scroll up to see the top of the slot machine that contains the payout information for iSlots. If you click the Cash Out button you can cash out and you can also adjust the settings for iSlots including turning the sound on and off and also choosing the sound that plays when you spin the reels. You get to pick between hearing the reel spin or have music play while they are spinning.

The game weighs in at an incredibly petite 1.1MB so it won’t be taking up much space on your iPhone 3G. I’d like to see future releases with different themes and with multiple paylines but perhaps those might be incorporated into a “full” version that would require payment of the developer decides to go that route.

iSlots isn’t a complicated game but it sure is fun and, given that it’s free, there’s absolutely no reason not to add it to your iPhone 3G gaming library.

Application: iSlots
Download Link: iTunes Store
Price: Free
The Good: Realistic graphics and sound. Plays like a real slot machine in Vegas.
The Bad: Only one payline.
Overall: A fun slots game that is worth adding to your iPhone gaming library.
Score: 3.5 out of 5

Now you can enjoy the same triumph on your iPhone 3G by firing up Air Hockey on your iPhone 3G. You move the the puck around by moving your paddle with your finger. The physics are great in this game and the control is very tight. Smash the puck hard and it will haul ass around the screen. It looks and sounds the way that air hockey should even when the puck goes into a goal.

I found myself having a good time with this game right away. Like real Air Hockey, it’s simple and uncomplicated and lots of fun. One thing I didn’t care for though was that there seemed to be no way to pause the game while playing or at least I didn’t notice one. I tried touching the screen to find an information button or some other way to pause the game but there didn’t seem to be one.

You can choose to play one or two players. And you can pick from the following play difficulty levels:

Easy
Medium
Hard
Expert
Insane

Vegas Pool Sharks lets you play pool on your iPhone 3G. Be aware that there are two versions of this game. The first is a “lite” version that is a free app and only lets you sink three balls in before it ends. It’s basically trialware that might amuse somebody for all of about 45 seconds and that’s it. But at least it’s there if you just want a quick check to see what Vegas Pool Sharks is all about. However, I think future versions of the free app should allow you to play a full game or otherwise provide a little bit more value than sinking 3 balls.

The full version of the game lets you save/resume your game, play in 8 ball or straight pool mode and lets you face off against 4 opponents that can play at 4 different skill levels. The game features good 3D graphics and somewhat realistic physics. You can play in portrait or landscape mode and you get a tally sheet showing wins and losses.

Sound And Graphics
Spore: Origins looked great on my iPhone 3G. The graphics are colorful and amusing. The backgrounds look particularly good as you see things moving in them and it all adds to the visual appeal of the game.

The sound is also quite good and adds to the game’s appeal and fun factor. There’s nothing jarring or off-putting about how Spore sounds, it all fits together quite tightly with the graphics and blends into one appealing package.

Gameplay
Playing Spore: Origins is easy. Just tilt your iPhone and your cell will move around the screen. Your job is to consume as many other cells as possible to advance in the game. Be careful though because there are some critters that are bigger and stronger than you and some that have defenses such as spikes.

You have to maneuver around or away from your enemies while still eating enough of your prey to fill up your DNA bar and get to the next level. In a bizarre way, Spore: Origins is sort of a mutated version of Pac-Man. The gameplay is obviously quite a bit more interesting than the ancient Pac-Man but you are doing more or less the same thing as you cruise around eating stuff.

Filling up your DNA bar will earn you evolution points that you can use to buy powerups and other goodies to improve your cell. Add armor, spikes, eyeballs and make your cell much more robust and powerful. Note that you have to unlock these powerups as you go along, you don’t get to easily access them right away. Whatever you pick will help your cell as it fights off enemies or tries to catch its prey.

There’s also a trophy room that will let you see what neat stuff you’ve unlocked for your cell.

Customize Your Spore Cell
You can edit your cell too in the Creature Editor and change the way it looks. This is where the iPhone’s neat multi-touch features really shine in Spore: Origins. You can “squish” or “squeeze” your cell to change how it looks. Once you start doing it you’ll find it somewhat addicting as you keep changing your mind about how you want it to look.

But there’s much more you can do to customize your cell. You can use your iPhone to take a picture of yourself or snag one from your iPhoto library to use to paint your cell. If you have a large photo library you’ll find yourself wasting a lot of time by trying photo after photo to see what it looks like mapped onto your cell.

The Final Word
While Spore: Origins isn’t as long as its cousin on the Mac or PC, it’s a darn fun game in its own right and it’s worth the $9.99. It’s got a fair amount of replay value as you can keep creating different cells and hopefully EA will add some additional levels to it via the iTunes app store.

The graphics, gameplay and pure fun factor make Spore: Origins a must-have for any iPhone gamer. Check it out if you have a chance.

Application: Spore: Origins
Download Link: iTunes Store
Price: $9.99
The Good: Great graphics and fun gameplay.
The Bad: Not the complete version of Spore that’s on the Mac and PC.
Overall: Spore is a funtastic iPhone game that will keep you amused for hours. For $10 you get more than your money’s worth of fun.
Score: 4 out of 5

Blackjack Free is a simple Blackjack game for the iPhone. You bet with credits and you play against the dealer. You can split and double down.

Blackjack Free is probably best used as a mild diversion for those times when you need a quick game of something to amuse yourself. It’s not something that I found myself spending very much time with as card games tend to bore me quickly.

Still, it’s free and it’s functional. The ads aren’t particularly intrusive but if they bother you at all then don’t bother downloading Blackjack Free.

Application: Blackjack Free

Download Link: iTunes Store

Price: Free

The Good: Basic free Blackjack game.

The Bad: Runs ads at the top of the game.

Overall: Hey, it’s free and it works.

Score: 2 out of 5

iFish uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to let you cast your line and reel in your fish. When I say “cast your line” I really mean cast your iPhone. You actually move your iPhone to cast much like you do use the controller on the Wii to do certain things. You don’t actually have to cast exactly as you would a real fishing pole but a good movement up or down with your iPhone will cast your line.

Please be VERY careful not to throw your iPhone if you do the overhand cast type move though. I have a sleeve on my iPhone that is black rubber so it helps to stop me from hurling the iPhone through the air when I’m casting. The last thing you want to do is to call Apple and try to get them to replace your iPhone because you whipped it into the air by accident.

You get to pick from ten different fishing locations:

Australia
England
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Michigan
Oklahoma
Ontario
Pennsylvania
Sweden

Each location has a different visual flavor to it and you can hop around as much as you want. Once you cast your line you wait until your iPhone starts to vibrate then you yank the phone to try to set the hook. After that you have to start reeling in your fish according to what you see on the screen. Reel faster, reel slow…it all depends. You reel by spinning your finger around your iPhone’s screen (thus we see yet another neat use of multi-touch).

iFish isn’t an elaborate fishing simulation but it’s mildly amusing if you need to kill a couple of minutes and it’s priced right.

Application: iFish

Link: iTunes Store

Price: $.99

The Good: Clever use of multi-touch and the accelerometer.

The Bad: Static graphics and it’s not easy to set the hook.

Overall: Not a great game for the iPhone but it is mildly amusing.

Score: 2.5 out of 5