New Apps + Games
Caviar (free) — Out of Square’s purchase of the online delivery service Caviar comes an iOS app by the same name, allowing you to order food from your favorite restaurants in an immersive experience that lets you browse photos of food, customize your meal, and track your delivery right in the app. While limited right now to only nine major urban areas, the app provides delivery from restaurants ranging from favorite little local places to high-end Michelin-rated venues, and the gallery of food includes stunning photography, all taken by Caviar’s team.
Noda (free) — Underneath the deceptive simplicity of this new puzzle game lies a more challenging experience than you’d expect. The objectives are simple: swipe numbered dots around to divide and combine values, with the goal of arranging them into the required results. Swipe an even number, and it splits into two equal numbers, while odd numbers split, well, oddly. Dragging dots together adds the two numbers, but no two dots can add up to more than 9.
Working within this framework, with a limited number of moves, and two colors to work with, you’re challenged to create a required number of dots with the right number and color. The app features cool, flowing animations in a minimalist interface, and 120 levels to work through. There are no timers – only move limits, which you can undo and rework as often as you like, making this far more of a meditative puzzle experience than a fast-paced adventure. The app is a free download for the first 48 levels, so it’s definitely worth a look if you’re a fan of puzzlers like Threes, and once you’re addicted, you can unlock the remaining 72 levels – and apparently all future levels – for only $1.
Peggle Blast (free) — A new entry into Popcap’s well-known Peggle games, Peggle Blast takes players through another series of ball-and-peg smashing adventures, as the mystical Peggle Masters take you through multiple worlds and teach their special powers unique to each level. The free-to-play version provides access to at least the first 20 levels, and a collection of additional tricks and power-ups such as gem drops, time bombs, and rainbows, keeps the action fresh and exciting.
New to Peggle Blast is the de-linking of those power-ups from Peggle Masters—you can use multiple powers kept in reserve, a la Bejeweled Blast—and the addition of a multi-ball end-of-level bonus point tally. The app is notably presented in portrait orientation rather than landscape.
Updates
Angry Birds Star Wars II (free) — The second installment of the Star Wars-themed bird shooter gets a brand new chapter: Revenge of the Pork! If you can’t get enough of Angry Birds, Star Wars, or both, you’ll appreciate these 32 new levels set on Geonosis and Mustafar, as well as the 16 new Master Your Destiny levels.
Asphalt Overdrive (free) — Gameloft’s Asphalt spin-off gets its first major content update, adding a new game mode and two new cars to the mix. Joyride Race has you running against the clock to see how far you can get as you speed from checkpoint to checkpoint, and even lets you use cars above your current level. Higher-level players will also appreciate the addition of the new Renault Alpine A110 and Lykan Hypersport to the Overdrive fleet, and a new storyline and tutorial has been added to keep the plot going and help you master boosts and combos for higher scores.
Autodesk Pixlr (free) — Formerly known as Pixlr Express, this major update to Autodesk’s photo-editing app brings the user interface and feature set into line with Pixlr for Mac released earlier this fall.