Further into the game you have different types of ninja stars – some that explode after a certain time into lots of smaller stars, some that almost disappear as ghosts and others that I’ve yet to unlock. You also get steel bars on the edge of the wood that you cannot slice through. Cutting off certain larger chunks of wood gives you bonuses such as extra lives, slow-motion for a few seconds and a random star that gets removed from play via a nice little explosion.

The looks, sounds and feel of the game are very very slick. It’s a joy to play, it’s perfect for simply picking up and playing while waiting for the wife to come out of Morrisons (you know, when they just ‘pop in for one or two things…). It’s just the right difficulty – not too easy that you complete it in no time but also not so hard that you get fed up and give up. There are also a good number of Game Center challenges and achievements to try to beat too. I’ve had this game for a few months now and it’s one that I still keep coming back to. At 59p (99c) it’s a bargain!

iSlash iPhone Game Trailer from Duello Games on Vimeo.

Zombies is a turn-based game where your aim is to, rather unsurprisingly, kill the zombies. This is not, however, the usual gore-laden shooter commonly associated with zombie games but, rather, an amusing little gem that is so addictive in it’s simplicity. How many other zombie-based games have the lead character saying in their best British accent ‘oh dear’ when devoured by the living dead?!

It is, apparently, based on a daleks turn-based game and the aim is to destroy the zombies by making them collide. When they do collide they burst into flames with a groan. To keep things interesting there are ‘banish’ spells dotted about on some levels and also the ‘flee’ button. Banish spells destroy any zombies one ‘square’ away from you so it’s handy to pick them up and save them for some of the later levels. The flee button sends you to a random point on the screen accompanied by a python-esque ‘run away’ which does, sometimes, result in another ‘oh dear’ situation…

As you progress to the third set of levels you find yourself surrounded by a random number of zombies and banish spells. It keeps things interesting to say the least!

Zombies has a catchy theme tune as well as some amusing character voices but does lack some features. The ability to edit or remove players from the roster would be appreciated and I, personally, would like to see a level editor allowing you to create your own levels with, perhaps, the ability to share these with other users.

All in all for a (currently) 59p game it is fun and addictive – the randomly generated levels keep it fresh every time. Zombies is one of those games you can just pick up and play for 5 minutes while standing in the queue at Morrisons!

A good start and I’m looking forward to the updates!

Brawn GP F1 race game

There are a lot of race car fans out there, and the pinnacle of car racing is Formula 1. Currently the 2009 season has been dominated by Brawn. Now is your chance to drive a virtual Brawn F1 car and experience the magic of Ross Brawn and his engineering team with the Brawn GP Racing iPhone Game developed by FISHLABS.

Not only do you get the gameplay you also have the chance to win a real Mercedes SL sports car. Check out www.brawngpcontest.com.

The game is available on the Apple AppStore for $3.99 or £2.39.

The full Brawn GP Racing press release:

Brawn GP Racing F1 game

Brawn GP Formula One Team brings F1™ racing and real life winnings to iPhone and iPod touch

Brawn GP partners with Upstream to bring the first F1™ racing game to iPhone and iPod touch users that includes a chance to win a luxurious Mercedes SL Roadster

London, United Kingdom, 9 July 2009 – The Brawn GP Formula One Team is currently leading the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship after the first eight rounds. To reach out to its fans and make the thrills of winning available to a wider audience, Brawn GP has teamed up with Upstream, to create the Brawn GP Racing Game for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch that includes a chance to win a luxurious Mercedes SL Roadster. The racing game is developed by leading iPhone games developer FISHLABS.

More information about the game and the contest, including its live global leader board, official trailer and download instruction, can found at www.brawngpcontest.com.

iPhone 3GS unlocked

The iPhone Dev Team are continually playing cat and mouse with the Apple developers providing access to an open platform and the ability to use any SIM in the iPhone. This is termed as Jailbreaking and Unlocking. Although they had perfected the process for iPhone OS3.0 on the iPhone 3GS they were not going to release it until Apple launched the OS3.1 software. This is because Apple would work out the vulnerability used and close it. The release was pre-empted by the purplera1n jailbreak release using the same vulnerability so there was no reason not to release it.

There are 3 basic steps to Jailbreaking and Unlocking your iPhone 3GS, all of which are pretty simple and can easily be performed by anyone who is reasonably computer literate. I did this on my Macbook Pro. I found it really handy to have WiFi connectivity to download the unlock application over the air.

Warning Before you start this process be aware that you could potentially ‘brick’ your iPhone and this is a risk that you must assume yourself. There is no responsibility or comeback on any of the sites or application developers.

Adding the ultrasn0w source package

Step one: Save current configuration
To ensure that you can always revert back to an iPhone OS that can be Jailbroken and Unlocked you need to save 2 files that are specific to your iPhone. The tutorials on iClarified provide a step by step guide. Note that to download the .ipsw file you need to use FireFox as Safari will unzip and unpack the files. FireFox allows you to save the files as they are.

Step two: Jailbreak the iPhone
This is where things start to get tricky. Before you can unlock your phone you need to Jailbreak it. This is done using the iPhone Dev Team’s redsn0w software.  Again iClarified have excellent step by step tutorials.

Step three: Unlock the iPhone
With the Jailbroken iPhone you will have an application called Cydia installed. You use this to install the unlocking software. This is called ultrasn0w to use this you need to start Cydia, click on “manage” at the bottom of the screen, then sources, then “Edit” and “Add” finally enter “repo666.ultrasn0w.com” to load the ultrasn0w software. Follow the on screen instructions. The iClarified tutorial shows you how to do it.

iPhone 3GS ultrasn0w unlock

Step four: Configure your APN
After you have unlocked your iPhone and inserted your desired SIM you should get a signal, but you will not be able to access any data in your apps. To enable the data you need to run settings and then select general>network>cellular data network and complete the details for the APN of your carrier. If you dont know what the settings should be you can either Google for them or ask the support desk for your carrier.

To have got this far you will now have a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone 3GS that you can use anywhere in the World with any data SIM.

Our thanks to the iPhone Dev Team for their sterling work in developing redsn0w and ultrasn0w and to iClarified for the step by step tutorials.