Apps: Blood Brothers by Mobage

BLOOD BROTHERS
HERS	MEDIA	HIS
Blood Brothers is my favorite app at the moment, no competition. Blue started playing it a few months ago and he would always bug me about how I needed to download it. I was hooked as soon as I did and I wish I would have started earlier because he's level 100-something and I'm at about 70. This game absolutely loves to crash my phone, though, and as much as that annoys me, I still open it right back up. It's always my first choice when I have time to spare. Some days, especially during the events, we'll sit around and play for hours. Blue even admitted to playing on his hour+ drive home from work, which I was not happy about. Enjoyability: 5/5 Blood Brothers is a lot of fun. You start out by choosing your main character, each with his or her own unique attack, and then you collect more "familiars" as you travel through the different lands. The more you play, the more items you get to level up your monsters' stats and special attack. Simple concept. This game also holds weekly events that you can participate in to earn even more items and money. I think the events keep the game interesting. I'd go a few days without playing and then as soon as a PVP or group battle started I'd get sucked back into it and play all day. Creativity: 4/5 When it comes to the concept of the game, I wouldn't consider it very creative. It does, however, have a few really cool features, including the ways your characters can level up and, of course, the weekly event arena. To level up, you can sacrifice the familiars you catch throughout the world to increase the chance of your character using its special attack and you can use crystals to power up their main skills. Another one of my favorites is when you have two of the same and can fuse them together to create a more powerful familiar. They are ranked "common" through "legendary" and depending on how many stars it has, you can make it more rare. With the events, some weeks they'll have "special dungeons" (always makes me laugh) and other times they'll have "raid bosses" where you can ask your allies to help you defeat it and the points are shared between you and your team. Beauty: 4.5/5 The designs are great. The characters look awesome, the lands are simple, and the music is fitting. There's not much animation in Blood Brothers which is probably a good thing because of how poorly it already runs on my ancient phone. I've also played it on blue's phone and my parents' tablet, though, and it ran very smoothly. The most animation the game offers is during some of the special attacks, which is usually where it lags for me, and some of the leveling up. I like the music, too, and as much as we play it, it doesn't get annoying. Overall: 4.5/5 Blood Brothers is awesome. It's easy to play, very addicting, and the events keep you coming back. I have put so many hours into this game and I know blue has spent many more, with his phone glued to his hand. It's my favorite game from the Android store right now and I am always on the lookout for new Mobage games. I just downloaded Cityland, I love games where you build up your own city or island from scratch. Download both of them for free and be sure to add blue and I in Blood Brothers.	Procced a spell. COME AT ME. Update 1/27/13: There are more screenshots available to be viewed here.	Oh man, Mobage really delivered with this game. It's kinda like pokemon meets yugioh in final fantasy land. You collect little monsters (called familiars), take them to battle, level them up, fuse them and evolve them. Even better is that it's MMO style, complete with an auction house and random pvp battles to put your familiars to the test against everyone else's. Like all good MMOs, it's even updated weekly. Each week, there is a new event. Be it teaming up with your allies to take down giant raid bosses, or pitting yourself against the world in a pvp championship, the events really make the Blood Brothers universe feel alive. I guess I'll find out for sure once I read what pink has to say, but once I got her to try this one, she seems to enjoy it almost as much as I do. Enjoyability: 5/5 I sometimes struggle to put this one down and get back to work. It's extremely addictive, and very enjoyable. You can play casually or hardcore, and feel rewarded either way, which is something many MMOs fail to achieve - things are either too easy or too hard. The events that take place weekly in this game help to maintain that ballance. There are rewards for reaching milestones (casual) and there are rewards for ranking highly at the end of the event (hardcore). Another very important thing about this freemium game is that it truly is freemium. Everything in the game is obtainable without spending a dime (although, I've personally spent a dollar). The items you can buy, the familiars you can buy, are all available for free, and the working auction house lets you trade for the premium content. Creativity: 3.5/5 This game isn't incredibly creative. It isn't an entirely new concept. Catch monsters, level them up, and fight them. Pretty simple. I gave it a 3.5 for it's seemless combination of different games across different genres and making it massivly multiplayer. Beauty: 4/5 The game is pretty. I love the art direction, the sound effects fit perfectly. There's even a few League of Legends refrences (one of the familiars is named Pendragon, for instance). Some of the spells do share animations; though, and that can be visually frustrating at times. Other than that, this game is visually pleasing. Overall: 4.5/5 This is my go-to app whenever I have time to play it - and sometimes even when I don't have time (at work, etc). It's provided me with hours of entertainment, and is likely to provide me with hours more (I'm only level 116 of 150.) Oh, and once I got her started on it, even pink enjoys this one - even if it causes her phone to crash on occassion. If you decide to download this one for Android, input my friend code to get some extra stuff when you start out: 7KRzKQ
TOTALS Enjoyability: 10/10 Creativity: 7.5/10 Beauty: 8.5/10 Overall: 9/10

Apps: Scramble With Friends by Zynga

SCRAMBLE WITH FRIENDS
HERS	MEDIA	HIS
Scramble is one of my favorite games from the Google Play Store, definitely in the top three. I play it every day and it never gets old. We usually have at least 3 games going at once and sometimes up to 5 or 6 while we're at work. You can log into it with your Facebook account and connect with your friends that way, making it really easy to get started. But if you're like me and have only one or two people that you play with, there is a leaderboard that pops up from the main screen and lists all of the top scores from the people on your friends list that play as well. Not only does this keep you coming back to steal the top spot, but it helps you find more people to challenge. The scores are reset on a weekly basis and I am happy to say that I have claimed the #1 spot for the past few weeks with blue in 2nd place. ;] Enjoyability: 5/5 It's so much fun to play and such a simple game. You'll quickly pick up how it works during the first round and then be hooked by the second one. Scramble has a few different items that you can use when you're stuck and can't find anything. You can do things like freeze the clock, reveal words, and, of course, scramble up the letters. You use tokens when you select these items but your tokens regenerate over time so you don't have ads popping up every 2 minutes asking you to buy more. It's a very competitive and fast-paced game. There are three rounds, each lasting only two minutes so it's easy to sneak in some ass-kicking even if you don't have much time to spare on video games. Creativity: 2/5 Scramble is basically a touchscreen version of Boggle so I can't really give it a higher rating here. Most of the games that Zynga has made have been similar to other games, though, including Scrabble and Hangman. But the powerups and leaderboard add a nice touch and turning it into a game available for touchscreen phones and tablets was a great idea. It has made an already fun game more enjoyable and social because of how easy it is to challenge your friends and family. Beauty: 4/5 The game was designed very well. Much like the gameplay, it's simple and straight-forward. The main screen has different sections where you can start up new games, view older games, and check the high scores with smooth navigation throughout the entire app. Once you start a round, you pick your items and then it takes you to a grid of letters where your games begins. The graphics are smooth and the sounds are nice, too. My only complaint is the sound for the timer because it's easy to lose track of how long you have left. So if the time runs out before you use your items, those tokens are wasted. Overall: 4/5 Scramble is a great game. I was addicted as soon as I started playing and I have it up ever day so I definitely recommend it. I do want to point out that it freezes my phone up sometimes but I have an ancient Android so that's expected. Other than that and the sneaky timer, though, I have no complaints. I downloaded it months ago and it's still one of my favorite apps.	His first word was "farts"	Scramble is tons of fun. I'm a huge fan of social games, and anything that I can make into a competition, so naturally I really enjoy this app. The weekly leaderboard is a fantastic new addition to show you how you stack up against the rest of your friends - and shooting for top score of the week is a great motivator to play. One of the perks of this game is that it only takes two minutes to play a round, so they're easy to squeeze into a busy schedule. I love playing against my girlfriend while I'm at work, and getting a new game or new round is more exciting than getting most texts (naked pictures excluded). This app is definitely worth the download, though as with most Zynga games, the paid version probably isn't worth it as all it offers is ad free and slightly faster coin generation. Enjoyability: 5/5 This app is timeless, really. The first match is as enjoyable as the rest. This is important to me because I can't stand when games start fun and get boring after a few hours. The most enjoyable part for me is kicking the butt of pink over there (though to be honest she wins more times than not - but I'm beating her for top score of the week atm!) Creativity: 2.5/5 As with most Zynga games, they're not very creative. They take ideas that have worked v in the past and rehash then - usually adding a social element. Scramble is basically boggle with friends. I gave them a 2.5 for some innovating features that they've added, that keeps the game fresh. Power ups, for instance are tons of fun. They force your to ask yourself "would I rather play more rounds or get higher scores" which is fun, and they're pretty useful. Beauty: 4.5/5 The art in this app is easy on the eyes and the colors are easy on the eyes. The limited animations are well executed, smooth, and fitting. The sounds are equally well done. Overall the art direction of this game adds to the playability and enjoyability of the game. Overall: 4/5 I recommend this game to anyone that loves to kick their friend asses at games that involve some thinking. The fast paced, brain wracking, game play will have you coming back for months and months. Asside for it not being extremely creative (if I was Hasbro I would hate Zynga) its a near prefect game.
TOTALS Enjoyability: 10/10 Creativity: 5.5/10 Beauty: 8.5/10 Overall: 8/10