Sega’s Go Dance ($2) is an iOS dancing game, actively tracking your body movements using a FaceTime camera. Your hand, arm, and torso motions automatically are registered by the camera, which moves the on-screen character to follow your motions, hitting or missing beat-based triggers. Songs such as LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” come pre-loaded, while other songs are available as in-app purchases. Go Dance also supports AirPlay, letting players with an iPhone 5 or fourth-gen iPad view the game on an HDTV. Although the app is universal, we found that it’s much better when played with an iPad — standing at a distance from the iPhone’s small screen while trying to follow required dance movements presents obvious problems.
Joust Legend ($2) is a jousting game, though fans of classic arcade games may regret that no platforms or ostriches are involved. Rebellion Games has brought an authentic jousting game to iOS, with warriors charging at each other on horses, using lances to knock their opponents off their trusty steeds. The graphics are striking in Joust Legend, highly detailed with excellent polygon counts that really show off Retina displays. Gameplay itself is largely timing-based, with swipe and hold gestures determining the speed of your horse and direction of your lance, though the game gives players the option of upgrading armor, skills, and tricks before the joust.
Omer Shoor’s Photogene 4 ($1, aka Photogene4) is now a universal app for iPad and iPhone, essentially phasing out the iPhone-specific Photogene 2. Version 4.0 of the photo editing app lets users do photo editing in the RAW photo format, and RAW files can now be opened in full resolution. The app has also added the prior IAP-based Pro package for no additional cost. Other new features allow for Flickr and XMP exporting.
Plasma Globe by Infinite Dreams is a free app that nicely mimics a real plasma globe, which creates currents of energy that “connect” to any nearby conductive object. Since it’s an app, however, Plasma Globe lets users make a number of changes to the orb: colors, sounds and effects can all be changed and tweaked. There’s even a plasma-based game to add to the fun.
