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Daily iPhone App: A Game With Balls

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This game's title isn't just cheeky -- it's pretty literal. A Game With Balls definitely has lots of balls in it -- you play as a sort of cannon that shoots balls, and there are various balls and other shapes slowly floating down the screen towards you. The balls you fire have a little bit of weight to them, and so it's a physics action game as you try to shoot away the invading shapes with your own ammo.</div>
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The title's not bad, though it gets a little repetitive -- "beating" each stage basically just requires you to sit there shooting for as long as possible, so while there are separate mechanics for each of the four stages (or themes, as they're called -- each one has a different graphical look and feel), there's really just the one premise to play with. Still, the physics work well, and the graphics are solid and well-done, so if you want a little something fun to whittle away the time, this one's worth a look.</div>
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A Game With Balls is out now for only US 99 cents as a universal app. There is full Game Center integration, and the developers promise more content is coming soon.</div>
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Daily iPhone App: A Game With Balls

This game's title isn't just cheeky -- it's pretty literal. A Game With Balls definitely has lots of balls in it -- you pl...

TUAW's Daily App: Roget's Thesaurus

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After a few weeks of games, we're going with more practical apps for a little while here, so here's an iOS version of the famous thesaurus reference book. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogets-thesaurus/id380267574?mt=8">Roget's Thesaurus</a> is pretty much<i> the</i> name in finding words that can work in the place of other words, and a company called Mobifusion has worked with the real thing to bring it to the iPhone in a searchable form. The app lets you browse through 30,000 words and all of their synonyms, change text sizes on the fly or just flip through if you want to browse that way. You may argue that there are free thesauri (?) available online, and you'd be right, but it's nice, especially if you use one often, to have it available and ready to go on the iPhone whenever you want. The official Roget's Thesaurus app is <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogets-thesaurus/id380267574?mt=8">US$2.99 on the App Store</a>.<br />
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And if you don't want to pay a few bucks (just consider how much a paper copy of the book would cost -- it's worth it anyway), there's always the <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/freesaurus-the-free-thesaurus/id299185772?mt=8">FreeSaurus</a>. That works well, but there are ads in it, and as you should know by now, there's no such thing as a free <strike>banquet</strike> <strike>dinner</strike> <strike>luncheon</strike> lunch.<br />
<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/30/tuaws-daily-app-rogets-thesaurus/"></a> <br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rogets-thesaurus/id380267574?mt=8">Source</a>

TUAW's Daily App: Roget's Thesaurus

After a few weeks of games, we're going with more practical apps for a little while here, so here's an iOS version of the famous th...

App: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

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Much like all of that snow outside your door, the App Store's top lists are currently frozen -- Apple will release what's in the top spots on the marketplace tomorrow (after the holiday), but until then, everything's staying exactly where it is. While we haven't seen a lot of numbers just yet, it's clear that EA was a big winner on the App Store this year. The company dropped prices on lots of its titles earlier last week, then claimed a good bit of the top 10, top 20 and the top 200. The rumor is that as soon as it can, EA is going to raise prices back up on these apps, so if you want to grab this recently-released port of <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ultimate-mortal-kombat-3/id408070814?mt=8">Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3</a> at just a buck, now's your chance.<br />
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Some of the reviews on this iOS version of Mortal Kombat are iffy. The port suffers from the usual fighting game problem of having no buttons on the iPhone, so controls don't feel responsive. Often the controls actually <i>aren't</i> responsive, though there is an S button to make some of the more common moves easier to pull off. But for just a dollar, playing UMK 3 right there on your iPhone is pretty awesome.<br />
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Whether or not you agree with EA's stunt -- some say it was a cheap way to get some attention, while others say apps are worth what people will pay for them -- I do think it's pretty impressive that a big, traditional gaming company found an interesting way to take advantage of Apple's usually eclectic marketplace. We'll have to see if other bigger studios pick up on this kind of thing in the future, or if indie developers can find a way to take advantage of it.<br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ultimate-mortal-kombat-3/id408070814?mt=8">Source</a>

App: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Much like all of that snow outside your door, the App Store's top lists are currently frozen -- Apple will release what's in the to...

Daily App: Secret of Mana

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Here we go. A few of the hack-and-slash RPGs we've covered in this space have been compared to Secret of Mana, but now Square Enix has gone ahead and <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/secret-of-mana/id407949800?mt=8">released the actual thing on iOS</a>. Secret of Mana borrows a little bit from Legend of Zelda in that you always see all of your enemies on screen, and hack away at them in real time rather than in a turn-based battle or a separate mode.<br />
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Otherwise it's a JRPG all the way around, as you wander through towns and dungeons, level up and earn weapons of various powers, and explore a big story of an unexpected hero saving the world. This is a good one -- it's a little retro, considering it first came out back in 1993, but it's a great title.<br />
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The only drawback? It's been released at <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/secret-of-mana/id407949800?mt=8">US$8.99 on the iPhone</a>, and while it's probably worth the price to some of you, most of the App Store market (especially this week, after so many big titles and so many sales already) will probably find it a little too rich for their wallet. If that's a little high, just wait -- Square Enix has done more than a few sales in its time, so we might see it a little cheaper sooner or later.<br />
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<h6></h6><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/secret-of-mana/id407949800?mt=8">Source</a>

Daily App: Secret of Mana

Here we go. A few of the hack-and-slash RPGs we've covered in this space have been compared to Secret of Mana, but now Square Enix has ...