Basically, powerbocking is the act of jumping around on spring loaded stilts.  In Jump-O-Mania you jump around various cities, using the items lying around the street as your obstacle course.  You’ll hurdle things like toll both gates, dryers and stretch limos, and that’s just in Russia!  You’re constantly moving, but you can tilt the device left and right to determine how long of a jump you’ll make.  When the time comes you press the jump button to leap in the air.  If you perform multiple jumps in a row you’ll get bonuses.  You also have the option to perform stunts while you’re flying through the air.  This will grant you even bigger bonuses, and the longer you hold the stunt button the more points you’ll get for that stunt.  Don’t get cocky, however, because timing is key, and falling flat on your face not only looks painful, but it ends the round.

You Go, Girl!

This is one of those games where you have to really work to get access to everything.  When you start the game you have one character, one outfit, and one level.  You even only have access to one mode of game play.  As you conquer levels you start to open things up.  Sadly I’ve only beaten the first level, so I haven’t been able to experience things like the second character or other game play mode.  The initial mode is Time Trial, where you must survive for 180 seconds to beat the level.  Scoring is always nice, but I’m not sure it’s a critical element here.  I think as long as you last the 180 seconds you’ll beat the level.  The thing is, that’s not a whole lot of fun, so you’ll find yourself being pulled into multiple jumps and edge of your seat stunts in no time.  And then you’ll watch yourself crumble over a gate or ice cream freezer because your timing was off by just a hair.

The second mode is Survival, though since I haven’t unlocked it yet I can only speculate.  I would imagine it’s a “get as far as you can” type scenario, given the way the game as a whole works.  You can earn achievements, but it appears to be a home grown system as opposed to something like OpenFeint.  My one achievement so far is “50 Falls”, so you have some idea of how skilled I am at this game.  There is also an online leader board you can submit your scores to if you have an internet connection.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never be in the running for top contender there.

Let's Hear It For The Boys...

While the game play is 2D the graphics are nicely rendered in 3D.  The levels have lots of cool details if you can spare a few seconds to look around.  Signs are almost legible, vending machines look full, and all kinds of details abound.  I love seeing the Statue Of Liberty on the New York level, though my favorite background element so far is the bear passed out on the ground in the Russia level.  The character looks really good as well, and the animation is lifelike and fluid.  The only thing that’s a bit creepy is when she wipes out, because then the game sort of goes into “ragdoll” mode and some of the positions look extremely painful.

The sound effects are actually really good in this game.  I love the sound the springs make when you impact with the ground, and I also really appreciate the fact that the stilts make different noises when they impact with different things.  It would have been so easy to cheat in a game like this and have one sound for everything, assuming people wouldn’t pay that much attention to such trivialities.  The moan the character makes when she hits the ground makes it even harder to watch her body crumple up.  The music gets a bit repetitive after a while, but it’s not bad either.  It has sort of a jazzy exercise beat to it.

The first time I played Jump-O-Mania I really wasn’t sure what to make of it, but now I realize it’s a quick to play, easy to get hooked on jump ‘n trick game that will challenge you.  There’s no magic or mysticism to the controls, but there’s definitely something required to master the game.  If you’re looking for a “not-so-endless keep running” game that’s a bit different from the norm, Jump-O-Mania might just be your thing.  I’m glad I got the chance to try it.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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Back then it might have been more original, but nowadays it’s your clichéd story where you are the chosen one, the only person that can save the princess from the clutches of the evil tyrant.  The story gets fleshed out in bits and pieces by the underground dwellers, but not to any great extent.  The story isn’t overly compelling, but just like in the original Legend Of Zelda, it’s not really that important.  The main thing is that you get to traverse an over world conquering monsters in real time combat.  Then you get to enter underground areas where you can conquer more monsters in side scrolling or vertical scrolling fashion.  There are also people you can visit below the surface that will give you potions and other things to help you on your journey.

Blue Snakes?

Once I finally defeated the boss in the first area I was treated to a second section that was much bigger in scope.  It was at this point I realized a map would be nice.  I’m not sure if you ever find one in the game, but one can hope.  As you wander around you’ll discover that almost all the entrances to the various under world areas are initially hidden, and you have to kill at least one or two monsters in a room to open them.  The whole monster thing is interesting, because you only get two monsters at a time, but as soon as one is killed or leaves the screen, another one spawns in its place.  You also get gold from each kill (as far as I can tell), but you don’t actually have to pick it up.  This feature is actually kind of nice, and I wish more games would employ such a tactic.

It all sounds well and good, and actually sounds a lot like the original Legend Of Zelda, but the game falls apart when you must actually move your character around to do all these things.  On the left is a virtual d-pad, which quite frankly is sluggish and easy to “slip off” of.  This isn’t very helpful anywhere, but it’s especially bad when you have a sequence where the level is constantly moving whether or not you’re actually stuck.  The attack button is a little round button on the right side, and while mostly not bad, it’s easy to lose sight of when you’re in the heat of battle.  If this were a turn based game the controls might be okay, but since its real time action they really make the game play suffer, especially when it comes to fighting bosses.

More Snakes... But Bigger

I can’t decide if the highlight of the game is the graphics or the music.  The graphics aren’t great, but then they were created 20+ years ago, and I’m sure they shined in their time.  I still like them though, especially the tiles used for the backgrounds and the portraits of the NPCs you encounter.  The creatures themselves leave a bit to be desired, and while a bit more detailed than what you’d find in the first Zelda, they lack character.  On the other hand, I’m quite impressed with the quality of the music.  I could actually see this soundtrack being used for a modern game, and it’s certainly better than a large percentage of the ones I’ve heard on the many iPhone games I’ve played.

This game has a lot going for it, and once I beat my head against the wall enough and got past the first section, I began to realize why they had the nerve to compare it to Zelda.  However, in order for this port to be considered decent in my opinion, they really need to revamp the controls.  The thing is, as I pondered this dilemma more and more, I realized that with revamped controls this is definitely a game I could sink my teeth into.  As a result, I’ve decided to change my original verdict of Not Recommended to…

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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Lots Of Choices

As OddBlob your mission in life is simply to get from the area of stars where you start to the area of stars at the other end of each level.  Along the way there are various fruits and other items of food you can eat, but none of those are essential to your survival.  There are also hearts you can snag, and those are good because they give you an extra life.  There are also clocks you can pick up, and I think what those do is give you some extra time before the level starts crumbling behind you.  Finally there are pieces of cake, and if you happen to snag one of those you’ll get to a bonus level.  On the bonus level you get one move to try and reach another piece of cake.  If you do you get a bonus, and either way you then get dumped back to your regularly scheduled game.

Your main obstacles are pits that cause you to fall to your death and walls that block your passage.  You can get around both of these things with well placed jumps, but be sure that you’re jumping over or away from them, and not into them!  The final problem is that the level is slowly crumbling away behind you, which you won’t notice right away but will become painfully obvious after a while, especially if you’re playing on the highest difficulty level.  Just make sure you keep moving forward at a brisk pace, and you shouldn’t fall away like the fabled Atlantis.

To help – or potentially hinder – your progress, several of the tiles have springs on them in the form of arrows and circles.  Arrows launch you in the direction the arrow is pointing, and you’ll travel either one or two tiles depending on if the arrow is single or double.  Once an arrow is used it goes away and the tile becomes ordinary.  Circles keep you moving in the same direction as you were traveling when you landed on them, and once again either boost you one or two tiles depending on if there are one or two circles.  Unlike arrows, circles do not go away.  The fun part of “spring” tiles is when you land on one that catapults you into another… then another… The down side, however, is when the last catapult sends you into a pit.  That’s never a good thing.

The game has two modes of play (though I haven’t really figured out the difference between them yet), and there are score boards for both modes.  In addition there are several OpenFeint achievements, and there’s an in-game menu to see them (called Awards) so that you don’t actually have to go into OpenFeint.  One thing I like about the awards in this game is that for the ones where you have to collect so many of something, they actually tell you how many you’ve collected.  Progress meters are nice.

Visually this feels like the spiritual successor to Platypus.  The objects are all rendered from clay, and even though it doesn’t necessarily produce the crispest, most detailed sprites, there’s something about the look of clay that can’t be beat.  The blob is well animated, though the rest of the game is lacking in that department.  Still, I love the look and it’s a nice change of pace from cartoony or doodle-like.  The sound is okay, but the best part of it, which is the noises the blob makes, is highly underused.  The music is actually pretty good, and it reminds me of a cross between two things, but I just can’t quite place what those two things are.

I’m not going to tell you there’s a whole lot going on here either revolutionary or even evolutionary, because there’s not.  What I will say, however, is that this is a solid game with simple mechanics that becomes quite challenging when you try to determine the course that will give you the most points as the level goes crumbling away behind you.  And yes, I took about 3 breaths during that last sentence!  Anyway, OddBlob is a great time waster with a cute character and plenty of clay food to munch on.  It’s also a universal application, and as of this writing it’s only 99 cents, so you win all around.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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Crime Alley

Police Range has two modes – Target Practice and Crime Alley.  Target Practice is first and foremost about hitting a certain number of targets, but secondly it’s about accuracy.  You get points for at least hitting the cardboard target at all, but you score more points if you hit the outline of the figure and even more if you hit a “kill zone”.  It takes a while for this mode to get up and going, but once the required number of targets gets between 40 and 50 the targets start popping up fast and furious like, and you will start missing some.  Thankfully once you’ve passed certain levels you can start at those levels, because while the beginning levels are good for easy points, they aren’t all that exciting.

Crime Alley is the typical scenario where you have a building with people popping in the windows, and you have to shoot the bad guys and not shoot the civilians.  Hitting one of the innocent doesn’t automatically mean you lose, but try not to do that too often.  Overall I find this to be the more interesting scenario of the two, but the visuals can be a bit of a detriment sometimes.  The stylized black and white drawings look cool, but the civilians can look deceptively like the bad guys if you aren’t paying close enough attention.  Add to that the fact that the weapons often blend in with the bad guys and you might do more than your fair share of accidentally shooting the good guys.  Guess I just need some more practice – thankfully they have a range for that!

The game has score boards for both modes, and it also supports OpenFeint.  Thankfully as part of what appears to be a growing trend, Police Range has it’s own screen to show our achievements as well so you don’t have to enter the OpenFeint interface if you don’t want to.  Most of the achievements are of the “I reached level X in one game” or “I’ve beaten X number of levels altogether” variety, but there are a couple of interesting ones.  My favorite is the award for hitting each type of civilian at least once in the same game.  Not sure if that means I’m terrible at the game or I know what I’m aiming for!

The graphics won’t “wow” you, but they aren’t bad either.  The background in Target Practice mode is a bit sparse, but Crime Alley is pretty decent, and the targets themselves look good.  Of course the targets in Crime Alley are much more detailed, so overall I’d say Crime Alley has the better look, which is fine since that’s the more interesting scenario anyway.  I do like some of the special effects like when the cards chip or just get blown to smithereens as they are shot.  Sound is basically a matter of shots being fired and your gun reloading, as I suppose it would be out of place for cardboard targets to scream.  On the other hand, some background music, even if it was subtle, would definitely take care of the intermittent silence.  You can listen to your own tunes, but the Muppets and Hannah Montana don’t really seem like good background music for a shooting gallery game.

I suppose some of the lack of dynamism in Police Range might be due to a desire to make the game feel somewhat authentic, but the end result is that it’s nothing more than a solid but average game.  Granted the Target Practice mode does get more interesting when things go chaotic and the visuals in Crime Alley are neat, but there’s nothing to really differentiate Police Range from dozens of other shooting games I’ve played.  If you’ve gotta have ‘em all then there’s nothing wrong with adding this one to your collection, but there are more interesting choices out there.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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Here Comes The Lightning

The object of the game is to make matches of three or more balls of the same color.  Sound familiar?  That’s about where the similarities between Steamballs and regular match 3 games end.  Instead of some sort of playing field filled with objects, the game board is comprised of a series of tubes at the top of the screen that contain the balls, and a series of scales at the bottom of the screen.  Your job is to swipe the balls from the tubes one at a time to rest in the scales below.

Furthermore, you have to balance out the scales such that three or more balls of the same color line up in a row in order to make a match.  Each regular ball has a weight, and as you drop the balls on the scales the total weights for each arm are displayed under the scales.  The cool thing is that as long as three balls of the same color match at a given point it counts, so as the scales are adjusting to balance the weight at any given time you could make a match.  This is the only way to get points for your matches.  If there are balls touching the matching row that are of the same color, they will disappear as well.  There are no diagonal matches in the game, and vertical matches must consist of at least 5 balls of the same color, which will disappear but not award you with any points.

In addition to the normal balls there is a variety of power up balls.  Some balls will get rid of other balls when they are dropped.  One ball changes the color of all balls on an arm to the color of the ball underneath the power up.  Another ball gives you bonus points when you make a match with balls that are touching the power up.  There are a number of different power ups at your disposal, each having great merit when used wisely.  Overall this game is much more strategy based than most match 3 games, and has a slower pace as a result.  I find it to be quite refreshing.

The controls are real simple in premise – drag the active ball back and forth to move between tubes and swipe downwards to launch the ball towards a scale.  Seems simple enough, but I often find that due to the relatively narrow tubes my ball is not in the right spot when I launch, which I don’t realize until it’s too late.  Ideally an undo would be nice, but if nothing else maybe an alternate way to drop the ball so that you can move your hand out of the way and be sure you’re in the right position.  On the other hand, I do like the fact that you can tap on a ball to get the details about what it does.  This feature seems a bit sensitive, though, as it tends to pop up a lot more frequently than I ask for it.

A Steam Bomb!

While not as slick as certain other offerings like Gold Keeper or Jump-O-Mania, the visuals in Steamballs definitely have a charm about them.  The whole steampunk atmosphere is cool, and the effects correlating to some of the power ups are pretty sweet.  One thing I will give them credit for is that so far I have not had any issues mistaking one color for another, which seems to be a common problem with matching games that rely on the same objects with different colors.

The sound effects actually suit the game quite well.  The power ups that emit steam or electricity sound pretty good, and there’s a useful if not potentially annoying alarm when you’ve got at least one column too close to the top.  The noise made when rows or columns are match is rather interesting as well.  The music for both the menu and in-game are nice, but I think I like the menu music a bit better.  The in-game music sounds a bit like the background to a detective mystery, while the menu music is just cool.  I don’t even know how to describe it, but I could listen to it for a long stretch without getting bored.

There’s no question that Steamballs ups the ante as far as what’s possible for a match 3 game without resorting to mixing with other genres.  The game still feels like a match 3 game, yet there’s enough strategy involved that it’s also something completely different.  If you’re a match 3 fan that’s not afraid to try something different, or someone that isn’t necessarily into match 3 games already, you definitely need to give this game a try.  For everyone else, try it anyway.  You might just like it.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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The Signpost Up Ahead

The premise behind the game is simple.  Each board is a shape, and you have to cut away at that shape by drawing a line from one edge of the shape to another.  A successfully drawn line will cause part of the shape to fall away, and when enough of the shape is gone you’ve beaten the level.  The trick is that each board has a number of balls bouncing around in it, and you can only get rid of parts of the shape that don’t contain any balls.  If both sections of the divided shape have balls in them then nothing changes.  If a ball hits the line while you’re drawing it, the shape will be completely restored and you’ll have to start over again.  To add to the challenge, some of the shapes have partially white boarders.  You can’t draw a line through the white boarders, so you have to go around them.  In order to complete a level you must remove a certain percentage of the board.  Thankfully there’s no time limit, so try to plan your moves wisely.

Controlling the game is simple.  Touch the screen where you want to start the line, then drag to where you want the line to end and release.  If the line is successful you’ll see one of the two sections fall away.  If both sections have balls in them you’ll hear a distinct noise and nothing happens.  The levels are extremely well designed, though I’m not sure the difficulty is balanced very well.  It seems like I’ll often get a really difficult level followed by a level I can beat on the first try.  It would also be nice if they had a “beginner” level where you didn’t have to remove such a high percentage of the level in order to win.  On the plus side, if you do complete the levels there are three different medals you can earn, so if you have the patience there’s plenty of replayability as you try to get the gold medal on each level.  It appears you can only retry a level until you decide to move on to the next one, however, so to add to the replay factor a level select screen would be awesome.

I love the visual style in iSlice.  The background elements are a mixture of what look like cardboard cutouts and counter cross-stitched objects, and the playing field mimics the cross-stitch style.  The playing field is also a recognizable object that fits with the theme of the background.  There’s even a nifty little life saying written on each of the objects.  The sound effects are simple but fitting.  A snip sound means you’ve successfully sliced the object, a light tapping means it didn’t work, and a thump indicates you’ve hit a wall.  The endearing sound of shattered glass says that your line has been shattered by a ball.  The music has a bit of a bluegrass edge to it, and at first makes you feel like you’re in a Countrytime lemonade commercial.

I’m pretty impressed with iSlice.  Technically the game is simple to play, yet there’s no question that it provides a nice challenge.  The levels are beatable without getting too agitating (most of the time), and you always feel good about completing one.  The visuals are slick and the music is good, though it would be nice to have more than one song.  If you’re looking for the next challenging casual game, this just might be it.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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Basically you play Babeorella, who happens to be on a quest to crush alien robots of all shapes and sizes.  She’ll do this with everything from a whip to a hammer, and a lot of firepower to boot (and her boots, for that matter).  You’ll spend your time running around a fairly contained area, demolishing everything in sight and collecting power ups as they arise.  Every killed robot earns you experience points, and you can also collect XP boosters from one of the various power up spawn points on the board (I think aliens might leave them as well on occasion).  These XP points allow you to upgrade things such as long and short range attacks, as well as maximum health and number of bombs you can have.

Pullin' Out The Big Guns

In addition to earning XP you can earn awards, which are basically the home grown equivalent of OpenFeint achievements.  Earn enough awards and you can unlock new outfits for Babeorella.  Finally there are the challenges, which for a while are the most interesting part of the game.  When you get a challenge you have a certain amount of time in which you must earn enough XP to upgrade a particular stat.  If you are able to beat the challenge you’ll earn a multiplier on your XP, which in turn helps you earn stats more quickly.  It’s pretty gimmicky, and actually quite cool for a while, but I’d imagine if it helped you earn all of your upgrades too quickly you’d be at a loss for more to do.  Fortunately I haven’t hit that dilemma yet.

To move Babeorella you have a virtual joystick in the lower left corner of the screen.  This works pretty well for the first few waves, but when the action gets intense and you need to run a lot the control suffers big time from the “slip factor”, the problem where you slide your finger too far and suddenly the joystick isn’t responding any more.  You have two strengths of attack – light and heavy – and three ranges for each (short, medium and long).  Each attack strength is controlled with one button, and the range is determined by the distance between you and the enemy.  This means you must be facing the enemy, unlike the traditional dual stick shooter where you can rotate your weapon as appropriate.  Otherwise I like the fact that you don’t have to worry about switching weapons.

It's Hammer Time (and that's not punny)

Visually Babeorella looks really nice – and I am talking about the game as a whole.  Babeorella can definitely hold her own against Daisy Mae, and the robots look pretty cool, though not as nifty as the alien entries from the buffet.  Animations are well done, and the background is nifty.  The big problem is lack of variety.  The game needs more robot types, and it would be really nice she moved to a new locale every few waves.  This could also help vary the game play a bit, as different terrains present new challenges.  The sound effects are decent enough.  Some things like the heavy gun powering up sound pretty cool, and other things like the hammer noises are almost comical.  The music is good, but like the background it could use a change every once in a while.

I have somewhat mixed emotions on Babeorella.  On one hand, the virtual joystick really drives me nuts.  The button configuration as opposed to virtual joystick has its issues as well, especially when you’re being swarmed from all sides.  The game can even get kind of stale with only 5 robot types and one backdrop.  On the flip side, I can still find myself coming back to this game until such time as I’ve managed to win all the awards and unlock the three corresponding costumes.  Still, that experience would be much more pleasant if the items in the rest of this paragraph were addressed.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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The Future Is Now...

The premise behind the game is really simple – you need to make sure the ball gets to the end of the level without hitting any obstacles or falling through any holes.  The ball is constantly rolling, and the only control you have is to make it jump by tapping the screen.  As you might expect, then, the key to doing well in the game is timing.  Of course I have no sense of timing, which makes this type of game particularly difficult for me, but with great challenge comes great reward, right?  Something else you have to be conscious of is that in some places even though it might seem like you need to jump, you might just want to fall.  The levels are short, so experimentation isn’t the end of the world.  Just don’t play like me and do the same thing 100 times just because you’re sure one time it’s going to work.

Along the way there are stars to collect in order to earn extra points.  You might miss one or two every now and again, but if you seem to be missing the majority of them then you’re probably doing something wrong, because the stars are laid out in such a way that they are reachable just by following the natural course of the level.  I think there are one or two occasions where the level splits and you can only follow one path, but that is a rarity.  There are a couple of things that will help you when you come across them.  Certain signs can speed you up, slow you down, or cause you to reverse direction.  There are also certain tiles that cause you to jump higher than normal.  While you may have the urge to jump over these things at times when you see them, they are almost always there for a good reason, so try to use them when possible.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye...

The visuals are quite a step up from the first game.  Right off the bat you’ll note that there are actually two different themes you can play with: cartoon and futuristic.  Personally I like cartoon a little better, but they’re both pretty nice.  The objects you jump over look to be the same for both, but platform tiles, signs and backdrops change when you pick a different theme.  Yes, this iteration of Fastball has backdrops!  The one on the cartoon theme even changes between day and night.  Cool!  Sound effects are there, which is better than nothing, though I do like the noise the ball makes when it speeds up.  The music is really cool, and there are actually three tunes – one for the menu, and one for each theme.  Like with the visuals I prefer the cartoon music, which for some reason makes me feel like I should be at a café somewhere in Paris.

This is still probably one of the more basic “rolling ball” games that’s actually fun, but I can’t deny that I get hooked on it.  Whenever I start a level I almost can’t put the game down until I get the level finished.  You will probably have to make several attempts at many of the levels, but like I said they’re short, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.  Hopefully decent sales will encourage the developer to add a couple more themes, but the game is pretty solid as it stands right now.  If you’re looking for a nice, simple variant of games like Bounce On or Funkyball Worlds, this would be a great title to pick up.

Final Verdict: Recommended
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[All About Quick Looks]

The basic premise is simple – match 3 or more tiles of the same color.  To highlight a group you tap on it, and to finalize your selection you tap it again.  The caveat here is that the playing field isn’t flat, nor is it a cube.  It’s actually a cylinder that has multiple levels of tiles on it.  So, not only do you have to worry about keeping track of a revolving surface, you also have to be cognizant of the depth of tiles, because even though you can match across multiple depths there has to be a continuous path between all tiles in a group.  This actually makes for some really interesting strategy, especially when it comes to logic mode where you only “get what you get” when you start the game.

Speaking of modes, the game has two different modes of play.  The first is Logic, where you’re presented with a completely full cylinder and you have to get rid of as many tiles as you can.  This mode is actually rather slow paced and requires a bit more thought, but it can be rather rewarding.  You also get a bit of help in this mode in the form of two buttons – one allows you to change the color of a tile and the other lets you delete tiles.  Keep in mind that these actions reduce your score, however.  The other node is Dynamic.  In this mode the cylinder starts with one layer of tiles, and starts adding on layers tile by tile while you’re trying to get rid of tiles.  Once you’ve cleared a certain number of tiles your level goes up, and tile placement gets faster.  I prefer this mode, but unfortunately this is where you mainly see the “flaw” I mentioned in the beginning.

So what is this “flaw” I keep bringing up?  The cylinder is comprised of several circles, each of which can be rotated separately by dragging one finger along the circle you wish to rotate.  To rotate the entire cylinder you execute a two finger drag.  If you want to shift the perspective of the cylinder a bit you can tilt the device, allowing you to see “inside” the cylinder to an extent.  The tilt rotation can be locked down by clicking the lock button in the lower right corner of the screen.  These controls all work well and seem pretty responsive.  The problem comes when actually attempting to select tiles for matching.  Usually the first tap to select a group works okay, but once in a while it seems like that isn’t even recognized.  However, quite often the game doesn’t recognize my second tap, especially when the levels get faster.  As a result I often have to tap 3, 4 or more times to clear a group of tiles away, and sometimes in between the first and nth tap a tile of a different color pops up and blows my match.  You can see why this wouldn’t be such an issue in logic mode, but in dynamic mode it can be downright devastating.

Though there’s not a whole lot going on, Color Swing still looks pretty sharp visually.  The cylinder looks good as it’s spinning around, and there’s just enough of a sparkle when you clear a match so the playing field doesn’t feel dead.  The sound effects serve their purpose mainly in terms of letting you know when you’ve tapped something that doesn’t constitute a match.  There is no music, and while you can play your iTunes collection, the game really needs some built in music, especially for logic mode.

Color Swing puts a fresh new spin on the match 3 concept.  The game looks good and for the most part plays well.  I so want to give this a “Recommended”, but the fact that I have so much difficulty at times double tapping matches prevents me from doing so.  I still suggest that you check it out, however, because you might have a better experience on your device than I’ve had with mine.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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So what happens when the listener wants to improve the overall sound quality?

Most people would automatically think about replacing the whole package with a higher quality digital music player and headphones.  Fortunately this is not the only option. You can invest in higher quality headphones to start. This means a better pair of headphones of any type.

The types available are:

• in ear as in earbuds
• around the ear as in headsets
• on top of the ear as in earpads

There does not seem to be an industry standard as to the naming scheme from what I have seen. There are terms like open back and closed back but these terms do not specifically indicate the size of the headphone cups.

One type I wanted to do a Quick Look on are earbuds that are custom molded to your ears made by JH Audio. So what’s so speciak about the JH Audio custom earbuds since there are a few other custom molded earbuds on the market like:

• Westone
• Earsound
• Ultimate Ears

First, I want to make a quick comparison between general headphones and home stereo speakers. Headphones in general have one driver or speaker for each ear. high end speakers or quality home speakers have 2 or 3 speakers built into one cabinet. It is not as simple as attaching 2 or 3 speakers to one connection cable and placing them into a cabinet. There are precise physics involved based on the cabinet size, size of the speakers and what is called a crossover circuitry which is added to the package to produce the quality sound in 2-way and 3-way speaker systems.

 The interesting design incorporated into the JH Audio custom earbuds  utilizes the similar physics used in home stereo speaker design by adding a 3-way speaker system within the earbuds. This means 3 separate speakers inside the earbud.

low end frequency speaker (Woofer)

mid range frequency speaker (Mid range)

high end frequency speaker (Tweeter)

What’s even more exciting is that the JH 13 Pro includes two speakers per frequency range with the integrated 3-way crossover in this tiny in-ear custom molded earbud. If that was not enough, the frequwncy range of these earbuds range from 10 Hz to 20 kHz which is much lower than what most people can even hear.

 I have not actually tried these earbuds myself since I would require an audiologist to create a custom mold first and then have these molds sent to JH Audio for custom manufacturing of these earbuds. From all the specifications and testimonials I have read about these earbuds, I am certainly intrigued with these earbuds. I would certainly put these earbuds on my wish list for Christmas. The cost is $1099.00 USD for the earbuds plus the cost of the custom molds to be made by an audiologist at anywhere from $100 – $200 in most cases. This does not seem like pocket change but where else can you get home stereo like specs for a pair of earbuds? It’s like getting a 3-way loud speaker with 6 speakers inside each ear.  Just reading the specifications alone makes my mouth water.

Certainly JH Audio has gone above and beyond your typical earbud design and not only provided a custom molded earbud but also some very sophisticated ealectronics inside each earbud. Anyone can insert a pair of earbuds inside a molded case but not anyone has the 6 drivers and a 3-way crossover inside such a small package. Those that can afford the pricetag of a JH Audio earbuds should consider looking into these earbuds. JH Audio seems to have many satisfied customers from all the testimontials showcased online. You can find out more about the JH 13 Pro and other JH Audio professional products at JH Audio.