Epic Eric ($1) — The noble knight is back in a nice 2.0 update of this popular one-touch platform-puzzler. Epic Eric must swing, bounce, flip and slide to victory across gears, wheels, and trampolines, collecting stars and making his way to rescue the beautiful princess, Erica. Or, in a nice turnabout you can reverse roles and take Erica on a journey to rescue Eric. Fifteen challenging new levels and three new gameplay mechanics join new character animations to make the game even more fun and engaging, and in case the Save The Knight soundtrack gets stale, players can now listen to their own music while playing the game.
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions ($5) — Released for Mac and other platforms earlier this year, Sierra now brings the latest installment of its epic arcade shooter franchise to the iOS platform. Featuring the classic arcade action and space-warping three-dimensional grids of the Geometry Wars franchise, the iOS version provides the dedicated single-player Adventure mode along with five unique companion drones and five super abilities that can be upgraded for greater firepower and utility. The mobile iteration is fun and engaging with unique one-touch controls along with support for iOS game pads, and in addition to the 50 challenging Adventure mode levels, two new exclusive stages have been added in the iOS version along with five Classic modes inspired by earlier chapters in the series. The mobile version also now provides the ability for players to compete against their Facebook friends for high scores on each level. iCloud game saving and Game Center achievements have also been added.
Sago Mini Boats ($3) — Kids’ app developer Sago is back again with Sago Mini Boats, another fun and interactive experience for young children. Kids set sail on a high seas adventure with Harvey the dog to visit one of their favorite Sago Mini friends, packing their bags, and choosing from one of ten boats and five different destinations. This open-ended game encourages kids to explore freely with no specific objectives, in-app purchases, or ads; kids can simply zip along the water, making big waves, diving into the ocean, collecting treasures, and more. Boats range from a tugboat to a pirate ship, and young players can choose destinations from tropical islands to the big city, with lots of fun surprises along the way.
Google Drive (free) — Ever since last year’s Google IO conference, the company has been on a quest to add its new Material Design ethos to its collection of iOS apps, although it’s been a somewhat slow process. This week’s update comes to Google Drive, with 4.0 getting the new design refresh, accompanied by performance improvements to syncing, image viewing, and scrolling. Swipe gestures can also now be used to go back to a previous folder.
Slack (free) — The popular team communications app — our go-to solution for our staff here at iLounge — gets a major rebuild with a new 2.0 version number that boosts performance and usability in myriad ways. Offline support now provides faster loading of messages on launch and the ability to see your current conversations even when you don’t have a data connection. The app is also much zippier and memory usage has been reduced. An in-app web browser allows for quick viewing of links without having to jump out to Safari or Chrome, and tapping-and-holding URLs brings up an iOS Share Sheet so you can open them in an app of your choice or add them to your Safari Reading List.
Transit App (free) — With this latest update, Transit App now gets real-time Service Alerts, complete with push notifications. Disruptions that might affect you can be viewed as part of route planning, and you can subscribe to get notifications of problems on your favorite routes, and even limit notifications by time of day, so that messages only pop up when you’re actually commuting. Out of the gate, this update provides support for Boston’s MBTA, New York’s MTA, San Francisco’s BART and MUNI, Washington DC’s WMATA, Montreal’s STM and AMT, and Toronto’s TTC.
