Contre Jour is a new release from Chillingo, a developer already connected with great games that sometimes verge on the strange.  Contre Jour does more than verge on strange, it fully crosses that line into a weird and wonderfully artistic universe unlike any you’ve played before.

The main character, Petit, requires your help to get through each level; this help will come in the form of guiding Petit’s through lovely surroundings in order to speed him on his way to each level’s exit.  The landscape presents one part of Contre Jour’s puzzling nature. Aside from the physical puzzles of the game, Contre Jour gives off a mysterious air of its own which is its own puzzle.  Black and grey landscapes, animated with a flowing backdrop for little Petit’s amazing travels.

Contrast is provided by the softly lit, glowing orbs which Petit collects along the way.  And the environment itself, while always portraying the same dreamlike style, offers up some intriguing variety; blue tinted environments with slightly altered physics create an underwater world with ambient lighting, while Petit navigates in the open air, far above the ground from time to time.

To help little Petit, who certainly needs it, since he can apparently only engage in a nearly helpless rolling motion, players must solve the puzzle of navigating each level by creating a Petit-friendly path through its obstacles and pits.  The controls to do so make simple use of the touch screen, leaving players to expend their energy not on complex maneuvers but on mental aerobics.

Contre Jour tries hard to be magical, and it succeeds beautifully in an enchantingly minimalist manner.  Rather than basing its surreal appeal on acid-drenched coloring, Contre Jour seems to be all about subtlety.  Finesse is the name of the game here. Contre Jour is so good at creating its delicate, twilight world that the strangeness seems to disappear; what began as very odd seems normal and beautiful once players are engaged in the game.  The one criticism would be the puzzles themselves—there aren’t enough of them, and because of how few there are, even at the end they don’t provide really significant challenge.  Contre Jour could easily offer twice as many hours of gameplay without worrying about wearing out its welcome.

The really impressive thing about Contre Jour is how each of its elements work together.  The creative design behind the game is top notch, and the animation has a light touch that lets the minimal designs come to life.  The professional score that accompanies Petit is perfectly timed to the game’s visuals, right down to the natural rhythm of Contre Jour’s in-game physics engine.

Contre Jour gives users much more than $0.99 worth of enjoyment.  While I would beg the developers to expand this game in the future, I’d also expect it to come with a higher price tag at that point.  Contre Jour is a doorway into a different world that you don’t’ want to miss out on.

So here’s both the good and bad news: the game is bound to keep you on your toes (well… fingers), provide endless entertainment, and serve as another way to keep in touch or make new Friends. This means it will be yet another addiction to add to the list, and if you’re like me, another realm of competition to obsess over. But worse things have happened.  Zynga: I think I can reasonably say that your games are changing the frontier of how the phone can be used to connect, play, and ponder. I thank you for your Friendly developments and I can’t wait to see what kinds of wordplay will come next!

Speaking of hands though, what does this mean for mobile? While a Civilization app exists, will the Facebook integration turn it into a social app on mobile devices as well? Will we see people building their civilizations with each other across multiple devices and platforms as well as from many places? As the new title, Civilization World, suggests, there is certainly a new world for the game to conquer, and it is social, mobile, and expanding. What civilizations will Civilization World conquer next?

ViewdleFaces: This social addition will enable you to automatically tag and share photos to a variety of social networks, including Facebook. Furthermore, you can use pictures from your social networks to create Faceprints.

ViewdlePlaces: Similar to the app above, the Places element will be the first of its kind, enabling you to automatically tag and check-in your friends to Facebook’s “Places” application.

Viewdle Gaming: Viewdle has a game in the works that will be the first ever mobile augmented reality app to be based on real live people. The games will take place within the camera’s viewfinder, and should add and interesting enhancement to everyday interaction.

For more about what Viewdle will do for your mobile and what it can do for your desktop, visit viewdle.com

CauseWorld (Free): If you already check-in, update statuses, and social network everywhere you go, CauseWorld is can bring some added meaning to your routine. Simply keep doing what you’re doing, and whenever you check-in at various stores, sponsors donate to a variety of causes at no extra cost to you. Furthermore, you choose where you want to sponsors to donate the money allocated from your “karma points”. The app is free, the actions are free, but the reward for checking-in is priceless.

Raise the Village (Free): This game lets you build a village both virtually and in real-life. Every item you buy to build up your village in the app helps donate or purchase a related item for a Kapir Atiira, Uganda, thus not only helping a society desperately in need, but also stimulating their local economy. Furthermore, you can track the progress of the actual village with live pictures, videos, and interactions. See raisethevillage.com for more information on how it works.

VolunteerMatch (Free): Based on the web service (volunteermatch.org), this iPhone app is perfect if you’re looking for a more hands-on way to contribute. It allows you to search from over 62,000 volunteer opportunities, read reviews from other volunteers, find opportunities nearby, and share activities with friends and family.

Tipping Bucket (Free): This exciting app is based on the idea that a dollar can save the world. All users need to do is tap to donate a dollar to the project in the bucket. The app has a funding goal and time limit, and each tap corresponds to one drop in the bucket. If users drop enough into the bucket and tip it before time runs out, then all collected donations are forwarded to the project in question. If not, then everyone who donated receives a full refund. It’s up to you to tip the bucket!

Make Poverty History ($.099): Again, based on the premise that $1 (or, in this case, $0.99) can save the world, all you have to do is buy this app. All proceeds go to Make Poverty History, you can select one of the cool White Band wallpapers for your iPod Touch or iPhone, showing to all how you are helping to make poverty history. Let’s see if we can get the many millions of iPhone users to sport the White Bands…

Words With Friends: Available in a paid ($2.99) or free (ad-based) version, this game is similar to Scrabble in premise, but differs in the fact that it is strictly mutliplayer, so it doesn’t require you to do anything in order to set up and play games with friends (beyond invite people or opt for a random opponent). Engage in up to 20 games simultaneously, chat while playing, invite competitors through Facebook and Twitter, and use it as a fun way to keep in contact with new and old friends from all over.

Chess With Friends: Made by the same makers as Words With Friends, Chess With Friends is also available in premium ($2.99) or free (ad-based) versions, and is essentially the same thing as its sister app but with chess. It is the only app to offer multi-player, multi-game, push-based chess competition!

UniWar: This $0.99 app is like chess or checkers on steroids. The strategy is similar, but the game requires its players to take turns building and battling their armies while making use of the various terrains. With many maps to choose from, board options, multi-game support (up to 20), leaderboards, and endless other fun options, realtime wars certainly rage on..but in the safety of the virtual realm.

So while there is certainly merit to the simpler times, to playing with imagination instead of electronics, apps like Bronto Family Adventure certainly show how the technological times can be beneficial and enjoyable to people of all ages.

Angry Birds Halloween: That’s right! This beloved game has come out with a ghoulish special edition, and it is already topping the charts! With Halloween themes, pumpkins to pulverize (in addition to the pigs), and all those beastly birds, this is the perfect way to launch into Halloween madness.

Doodle Jump: Doodle Jump hopped on the Halloween bandwagon as well by adding a Haunted Halloween Theme to its repertoire. Jump on bones and eyeballs, fire away at the scariest looking creatures, and rack up Halloween cheer.

Cookie Doodle: Make Halloween themed cookies without the mess (or the calories)! The perfect game for kids, Cookie Doodle allows you to bake and craft cookies that you could only dream of. Mix, roll, shape, bake, and decorate the cookie dough, send your creations to friends, and fashion fabulous cookie creations perfect for Halloween time or any time! An added bonus: the recipes on the app seem to be use-able if you want to brave them in real life…

Halloween Pumpkinizer: Turn yourself into a Jack-O-Lantern! Using the Pumpkinizer, you can superimpose an image of yourself onto a pumpkin — a fun way to create Halloween greeting cards, or to just get yourself and your friends into the Halloween frame of mind. The options are endless, and the fun is too.

Hallowcarver: One of the best parts of Halloween is carving pumpkins. However, sometimes you just don’t have the time, space, or wherewithal to take on the task and deal with the mess (and subsequent rotting pumpkins). Fortunately, you don’t have to miss out on the carving craziness, since Hallowcarver lets you customize and carve your ideal pumpkin right from your iPhone. Share it with friends, save it to your photo library, and enjoy Halloween creations that will never rot away.

The title describes the main character of this action RPG. The player takes on the role of Hikaru, a young girl who has lost her memory—of course, the player knows that she wields a magical sword and that her family was slaughtered by the evil Delta-M in his attempt to gain possession of that weapon. As Hikaru, you fight your way through more than fifty quests to protect the sword and avenge your family. To succeed, you have to master fighting combinations, improve your swordsmanship skills, and collect a vast number of treasure items and various types of equipment. Hikaru’s a busy girl—she also has to raise a pet. More on this unexpectedly awesome addition to the game in a bit!

Controls will be familiar for RPG veterans; there’s also a full in-game tutorial and user guide to help those new to the RPG world master the coordination necessary to succeed as Hikaru. I wouldn’t say the controls are “easy”—they’re intuitive enough if you’re used to role playing games, but the action facet of the game provides plenty of complexity. It’s easy enough to pick up and play, but you’re not going to finish the game without giving the controls some attention, because Samurai Girl is a very action-heavy addition to the genre. Hikaru spends more time fighting than strolling through worlds, and you’re going to have to master special combinations.

There’s really not a whole lot I can criticize about this game. It’s been a while since I came across such an action intensive iOS game, and I’ve never come across one as fully and beautifully developed as Samurai Girl. There’s an engaging story—it’s not just a flimsy backdrop for streetfighting. There’s the scope of the game—four impressively engineered worlds. And, there’s the phoenix. Now, pet-raising isn’t exactly new to video games but a fully developed pet-raising module inside of an RPG isn’t common. And given Hikaru’s penchant for action it shouldn’t come as a surprise that your pet turns out to be a real help on your future journeys. Raise a phoenix up right, apparently, and you get to use him for transportation.

The graphics aren’t revolutionary in execution. The game is pretty standard for a side-scrolling action RPG in that respect, although I do have to say that they are well done. Since it’s basically a two-dimensional game, the designers have focused more on giving Hikaru a fierce (but cute!) attitude rather than wowing you with graphics technology. The music, however, is just as action packed as Hikaru herself.
If you are an action game fan, an RPG fan, or a fan of video games with adorable ninja school girls, don’t hesitate when it comes to Samurai Girl!

The iOS installment of Rainbow Six is right in line with the previous games as far as concept. No big surprises there, since it’s unlikely the franchise is going to depart from the concept its title is based on. If you haven’t played a Clancy Rainbow Six title, first, shame on you. Second, here’s a rundown of what to expect. Rainbow Six is the cover name for an elite team of black ops, specially trained in counter terrorism tactics. It’s an international operation with team members from around the globe, run by a super secret agency. You’re good guys but you’re practically mavericks. Clancy games usually focus on real world tactics—okay, probably not all that real world, but they require some thinking, not just run-and-gun. So be prepared to take cover. There are a couple of different modes you can play in—campaign, which takes you through the counter terrorism story line (single player), co-op, which lets you play a campaign level you’ve unlocked with friends, and just for fun FPS deathmatch mode.

No real surprises with the controls either. They are on the complex side, if you’re a very casual gamer who isn’t into the FPS scene, but if you’re familiar with first person shooters they won’t’ take too long to learn. They can get a little cluttered on the iPhone screen, though, with so many team members to orchestrate and the emphasis on shooting from cover. Assigning everyone a place to dodge bullets can get iffy.

If you collect Rainbow Six or Clancy titles in general, it’s a must-have, and you won’t be disappointed. No spoilers but you will get to meet a few new Rainbow Sixers you haven’t seen before. Same goes for those who are into the more advanced FPS offerings—this is about as good as it gets on iOS. That’s not to say there aren’t a couple of issues with the game, which I’m about to get into now, though.

Graphics. Okay, so far I’ve said nothing about this game surprised me, and while pleased with it, I wasn’t too impressed with the pretty shallow attempt at a storyline (or bothered by it, I’m here to shoot bad guys), or the controls. But the graphics and the layout of the levels are really pretty awesome for iOS. Except… maybe too awesome. Here’s the thing, if you’re going to do great graphics, make sure the OS can handle them. In a couple of places, the graphics hang up severely—bad news in a fire fight.
You knew this game wasn’t going to be cheap, but $6.99 is worth it if you want a console quality game on that teeny tiny phone of yours.