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Paper platformer

Paper Monsters is a polished traditional platformer with some added extras and winningly cute art and sound design.

Paper Monsters will instantly evoke other classic platformers, but in a good way: the play and interface are intuitive (a roaming virtual joystick on the left, a jump button on the right, which you tap twice to double-jump), and levels with collectible coins ("buttons"), warp pipes, enemies to jump upon, checkpoints, and lots of hidden pick-ups and paths to encourage repeat play. As the game progresses through its four chapters, with four levels each, the enemies and environments get more … Read more

Great results if you work at it

Paper Camera offers up a unique photography experience using a cute interface to produce simulated hand-drawn results, but you'll need to select your shots carefully. The interface looks like a camera made from paper (appropriately), with hand-drawn arrow buttons for switching effects; controls for contrast, brightness, and line weight on the right side; and a save button in the lower right. You have the choice of taking shots directly with your iPhone camera (showing the effect in real time) or selecting an image from your photo library.

Paper Camera is a neat concept, but in addition to requiring you … Read more

Turn your images into masterpieces

MobileMonet lets you make great-looking hand-drawn and artistic representations of your images. Though there are many photo apps in the iTunes app store that let you distort and add effects to images, with MobileMonet you can create truly unique projects using a two-step system. You either start with a photo from your library or you can snap a fresh picture using your iPhone camera. From there, MobileMonet makes a black-and-white line drawing of your image. Touch the screen to use a spray-can tool to add colors back in to your photograph with paintlike effects. You have a number of variables … Read more

preGame 26: Drawn II, Shank

Today on preGame, we demo a gorgeous point-and-click adventure-puzzle game for the PC and Mac as well as slice up some baddies in the latest 2D side-scrolling beat-'em-up title for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

As promised, today we finally demo the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network title Shank. The game is heavily influenced by graphic novels and edgy, campy movies that feature over-the-top action. We'll play the first few minutes of the game and show off some of its unique art style.

We'll also take a look at Drawn II, the highly anticipated … Read more

Physics based puzzler--with bombs!

You can't turn around in the App Store without tripping over physics-based puzzlers and games with a hand-sketched, graph-paper aesthetic--but Doodle Bomb still manages to be a fun, above-average entry into these two crowded subgenres.

Your goal in Doodle Bomb is to throw bombs--as few as possible--to escape each level. From your torn-out-paper perch, you're trying to blow up a green control panel to open a door and end each level. Along the way you have to blow up blue control panels to activate parts of the environment (such as hinges or wheels) and either avoid or exploit … Read more

Hand-drawn bowling

Doodle Bowling is a free, ad-supported, one-player bowling game with a cute, scribbled sketchbook aesthetic.

The interface is attractive but fairly limited: you're looking down a bowling alley with a scorecard in the foreground. You touch the ball to pick it up, and then flick to roll it down the lane, with your flick controlling the direction and speed. Once your ball is rolling, you can swipe right or left to spin it (and the more slowly you send your ball rolling, the more time you have to do this). The physics are fairly predictable, but at times the … Read more

Mix and match to create funny characters

Slide-a-ma-jig gives the iPhone treatment to a popular children's board-book format, with a touch-screen app that lets children create a huge variety of comical characters by mixing and matching different heads, torsos, feet, and so on.

It's not really a game in the sense that there are no rules or points to score--but that's perfect for the intended audience of young children. The interface is easy to master, accompanied by satisfying sound effects: you start with a silly character (30-odd in all, anything from a hulked-out bodybuilder to a self-repairing robot to a badger-loving fairy), and you … Read more

Tilt your phone to keep the objects dry

Levers is a clever puzzle game with an artsy aesthetic and relaxing--almost hypnotic--sound, graphics, and gameplay. Spare by design, this balancing game makes even learning how to play part of the challenge. The object is simple: you have to keep a series of increasingly bizarre objects out of the water, by tilting your phone and dragging and dropping them onto a mobile-like set of hangers that you build out as the game progresses.

Without spoiling too many of the game's surprises, you soon discover that the objects--including a bowling ball, a pipe-smoking snowman, and a birdhouse with three very … Read more

The 404 371: Where we get viral with DJ & The Fro

From the creators of "Drawn Together" comes "DJ & The Fro," a new daily, animated show on MTV. The 404 speaks to the creators, Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser, about the show and talk about how Michael Jackson's death almost ruined the shows' first few episodes.

The show creators call it a rip-off of "Beavis and Butthead" for the viral video generation. DJ and the Fro are two twenty-somethings, who spend most of their day watching viral videos and commenting on them. Sounds eerily similar to what The 404 guys do all day long. Anyway, the guys tell us about how the show came into being and let us know that a "Drawn Together" straight-to-DVD movie is coming out as well!

"DJ & The Fro" reminds us a bit of "Tosh.0" on Comedy Central, which premiered just a few weeks ago. The 404 guys think we should have jumped on to this bandwagon a long time. This is what we do already for the show every day!

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the abbreviated show along with our Michael Jackson commentary. He will be missed. Spend your weekend listening to your favorite MJ jam and reminisce about the fond memories you had while karaoking to "Billie Jean."

EPISODE 371 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Turn the world upside down

And Yet It Moves is a cleverly designed, rule-breaking 2D platformer game in which you rotate the entire game world (basically, changing the orientation of gravity) while moving through increasingly complex levels and solving environmental puzzles. The game's interface is very simple: key commands let you move left, right, and jump, as well as rotate the game world 180 or 90 degrees, clockwise or counterclockwise--and you often have to time your avatar's movement precisely with the world's movement, as you navigate through tight passageways, walk off (and then onto and under) precipices, and avoid falling objects. In … Read more