BitLife

BitLife
     Ever wanted to play SIMS but without all the graphics?  Ever miss the days of text based games like Legend of the Red Dragon?  This incredibly fun and addictive game allows you to take control of lives immediately after birth and make all of their important life decisions leading up to their inevitable death.  Rinse and repeat...

     I'm not entirely sure why I downloaded this initially.  I'd never heard anything about it but when I saw it in the app store the idea of a text based game intrigued me.  I used to love text based games back in the 1990s.  I certainly was not let down with this one.

     The app has actually been updated a couple times since about a month ago when I first downloaded it, so a few of these screen shots are already out of date!  the app developers are sure on top of their game.  I really enjoy loading it up and seeing what new options they've added in.

     The app is really simple.  Users press the New Life button to begin a new journey and boom!  Instant origin story.  The app gives you a random set of parents (Or sometimes a single parent), a place of birth, a gender, siblings (Or sometimes no siblings) etc.  Your parents and siblings have their own characteristics such as how religious or generous they are, how much money they earn, their occupation, etc.  The app even tells you exactly how you were conceived which can often be quite funny.

     Every year you can make several choices and interact with your family (And later with people you enter a relationship with), but the first few years have very limited choice making as you are still a baby.  I would very much encourage you to avoid fighting anyone before age 10 if possible.  The amount of times I have died in my youth by engaging in simple squabbling with my siblings, I can not even tell you.  I even got murdered at age 7 by my two year old brother... Murdered by a two year old!  this game really throws some curve balls...

     Your character can get sick from time to time which means you should take them to the doctor.  this is free until you are no longer under the care of your parents (IE graduate).  After this point you have to foot the bill so you might want to try saving up for emergencies.

     You have to abide by the laws of your country of origin unless you move.  Sometimes this means not being able to buy a car or drive until later years or not being allowed to date people of the same sex.  One character I decided to make a homosexual woman but I was born into a country where I could not marry the same gender so I and my girlfriend emigrated to France so we could get married.  In another life I was a gay man and I kept being arrested and put in jail for dating other men, even years after we had broken up.  I was in and out of jail a lot in that life.

     Speaking of jail... avoid it if you intend to try earning a lot of money.  Once you go to jail, for any reason or no matter how short the sentence, you will automatically not be allowed to get hired for a ton of different occupations.  You'll either have to do really low wage jobs that aren't really interesting or you'll have to lead a life of crime... I generally turn to the life of crime.  It's just more fun.

     Characters can begin a life of petty crime at a fairly young age, even before they can drive sometimes.  Stealing cars, pick pocketing and even murder are on the table.  Recently they added burglarising a house to the options.  This one requires you to play a short mini game to determine what you steal and whether or not you get caught.  As for the others, it's random but i find the more you do crime the less a chance you run of getting caught.  this could just have been my luck though.

     Stealing cars can save money and you can always sell them on the black market to earn money.  Just remember any crime you commit runs the chance of you going to jail.

     A fun story was one life I had where I lived a fairly uneventful life aside from stealing over 60 cars over my lifetime.  However, as I got closer to age 100 years I decided that for my 100th Birthday I would celebrate by committing murder.  Age 100 came and I went out to murder a random rabbi.  I tried pushing him down the stairs but he didn't die and called the police.  I bought the best lawyers and was found not guilty... No jail for me.  But I did say i would celebrate my 100th Birthday by committing murder... so I went out again and tried to murder my ex.  He fought back and beat me up pretty bad... He escaped.  Third time's the charm!  I tried to kill another ex of mine and I succeeded!  Finally finishing celebrating my murderous Birthday I went to jail.  I got an 80 year sentence.  I didn't feel like trying to escape (Which you can do when you go to jail), so I just aged up.  Year 101 of my life I died peacefully in my sleep.  Life well lived.

     Users can lead great lives, successful lives, horrible lives, etc.  I once lived a life where I had almost 20 children and we all lived together in a 1 bedroom trailer.

     Users can purchase houses and cars, go on holidays to other countries or on cruises.  There are tons of occupations to choose from as well.  You can emigrate, get plastic surgery (Even a sex change), go to the spa, sign up for a dating app, go to the gym, donate sperm, go to the club, gamble at casinos and horse tracks, play the lottery, etc.  there are so many options available you just have to keep playing to see how many combinations you can get.

     The game has achievements you can earn as well as special ribbons awarded at the end of a life on the tombstone.  the ribbons are related to the type of life lived, 'Jailbird', 'Geriatric', 'Mediocre' and 'Unlucky' are just a few ribbons users can get.  It is fun to try to collect them all.

     Find your real life boring?  This application allows you to live hundreds of more interesting lives.  I find myself really enjoying this and laughing at some of the silly things that end up happening.  I love sharing my stories with other people who play the app. and comparing my lives to theirs.  I highly recommend this app.  I even paid to remove the ads.  The ads are a minor inconvenience and don't hinder the play at all.  They aren't excessive like some apps.  I paid to remove them purely because I enjoyed the app and wanted to support the creators.
Rating: 5/5

• Free
• Seller: Candywriter, LLC
• Category: Games
• Size: 67.3 MB
• Languages: English
• Copyright: © 2018 Candywriter, LLC

You must be at least 17 years old to download this app. Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling Frequent/Intense Mature/Suggestive Themes Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity

Death - Fatal love with Tender Reaper

Death - Fatal Love with Tender Reaper
     A young woman falls in love with a grim reaper.  Cute graphics, a story translated from Japanese (Not very well) and a whole lot of pop up ads.

     This is one of those application games that has very little actual game play involved.  It is very similar to an app I reviewed a while back called Zombie Boy.  This one is a lot shorter, with fewer options and story, however.

     The little reaper wanders around your bedroom.  You can tap him to hear little conversation snippets.  Now and then a cat will wander across the screen giving you an option to watch a 30 second ad video to get a free item.  You can choose to ignore it but I suggest watching the video.  This is because using the Move feature will earn you 20 souls at a time.  Then you have to wait for it to reset to get more.  Using the Bonus Stage item you get from the cat can earn you between 100-150 (On average) souls at a time, depending on how fast you are.

     The Move and Bonus Stage is how you gather souls to feed your reaper.  Don't waste time tapping them one at a time, use your finger to quickly swipe across them on the screen.  This will especially come in handy on the Bonus Stage when you are timed to gather as many as you can.

     Feeding souls to the reaper will level him up.  He will go through different forms as you feed him more and more souls.  Each new form comes with a new story piece and a change in the look of the reaper.  You don't get a CG image until the end of a story play through.  There are 5 CGs total.  One for the intro, one for each of the three possible endings and one for the true ending which you earn after you get every other end.

     The story pieces are somewhat interesting but the English is pretty rough and broken.

     There is one part of the game I think is really cute and that is that petting the cat will allow your reaper to level up faster.  There are a lot of stories that suggest grim reapers and demons like cats.  I support this lore.  The cat petting button in the top right has 3 charges, then it needs to replenish over time.  You can always watch the reaper pet the cat in the Death's Diary page.  This area allows you to see the reaper forms you have unlocked and read the story so far.

     The reapers you get through out the game are as follows: Baby Reaper, Newbie Reaper, Soul Reaper, Sickle Reaper, Growing Up Reaper, Promoted Reaper, Mask Reaper *Which is the one on the icon), Reaper-Looking, Almost Reaper, The Reaper, Minister, A Human Child.

     Some of the different forms depend on the choice you make when you are given your 'wish'.  Wishing to stay with the reaper will grant you the Human Child ending.  Wishing for world piece grants the Minister ending and the billionaire one provides The Reaper ending.  Once you finish an ending it resets to the beginning and you can play through for another ending.

     The billionaire choice will change the souls into stacks of money.

     Now... about those ad popups.  There is the cat that allows you to watch an ad for an item, and I am not opposed to this.  However, I have played the app for less than a 3 minute segment and gotten more than 5 popup ads in that time.  Here are some of the things that can prompt a popup ad in this app.  Using the last cat petting charge, feeding your reaper the last of your souls you collected, clicking Move, using an item, closing the Death Diary or Memiors, closing basically any window within the app.  There is also an ad banner at the bottom of the app.  This just feels like way too many ads for a game that isn't even that impressive and doesn't have a great deal of content.

     Users can choose to pay for items in the app to gain more souls, but  considering how easy and fast this app is to complete for free, there isn't really a point.  A better paid feature would be to remove the ads, but there is no such feature, sadly.  The items are the same ones you get for watching the cat's ad.  they cost 0.99USD, 3.99USD or 19.99USD.  I feel bad for anyone who pays 20 USD on this app... honestly.  Please don't do that.

     The app is cute, the story is ok (Would be better with decent translations), the ads are obnoxious but it is an ok app overall.  I would give this a slightly higher rating if not for the ads but... I found them to be incredibly frustrating.
Rating: 2/5

• Free
• Seller: Agali Inc.
• Category: Games
• Size: 28.8 MB
• Languages: English
• Copyright: © Agali Inc.

Rated 4+

Villain Rush

Villain Rush
     Want to play a single player card game fighting application that forces you to spend more time watching ads than making in game choices?  Then this is the app for you.

     That introduction may seem a bit negative but it is absolutely accurate.  The artwork is good, the maps are a fun and slightly educational element.  The story plot is... a bit weak and confusing but the one true takeaway from playing this app for me was the outrageous amounts of ads you need to watch to do... well... most anything.

     You may think that paying a fee to remove ads would improve the situation, and to a degree it would.  But paying to remove the ads only removes the ads that appear immediately after a defeat (AKA Kaizin Death).  There is no way to get rid of the ads required to be watched in order to perform most actions.  But let us forget the ad problem briefly and focus on the rest of the app.

     You control Kaizins, these are cards who work together to defeat enemies in the parts of the world that particular Kaizin is assigned to.  Kaizins can not be changed as far as location goes, and collecting them is purely luck based through a sort of Gacha style system.

     The unlocked Kaizins can be viewed from the Lair part of the app.  Users can view where each kaizin is assigned, their rarity and the full card art.  Kaizins can be upgraded (The upgrades are so minor it seems a waste to even spend stones on them) and evolved but this takes a great deal of Kaizin Stones and these stones are rare drops.  The easiest way to obtain them is to Rebirth, which resets everything causing you to start all over with some rollover boosts.

     Ideally one wants to rebirth when they get stuck and can't proceed any further without a rebirth.  You want to defeat as many countries as many times as possible.  To do this we have to look at the World map.
   
     The World map is divided into continents, each which a set group of countries the Kaizins can fight in.  They fight lots of enemies from bootleg Superman to bootleg Power Ranger.  Every time they defeat one they go to the next stage.  But every 10 stages has a boss.  They will not automatically fight the bosses (Though the in between stages they will auto fight).  You must engage the boss fights manually.  There is a Boss Auto button but this costs gems and only lasts for a small amount of time.  The more useful button is the Boss Fight All one in the top left of the World map.  It will allow all the boss battles to start at once.  if you want all the boss battles on all continents to be chosen you will need to watch an ad.

     Any fighting is actually very stunted unless you use boosts.  How do you use boosts?  Well, you can either pay for them or watch 30 second ads for each individual boost.  The boosts last for 15 minutes each.  ATK Booster and the ATK SPD Booster are the most important ones as these will make battling easier and faster.  Otherwise users will need to manually tap the Kaizins in a battle to force them to attack the enemy.  But the speed boost will cause them to attack as soon as possible after each attack's cool down without forcing the user to be watching the entire battle.  This means several boss battles can be fought at once more easily.

     The application has a lot of areas to draw a user's focus such as weapon, armour and accessory upgrades, There is also drawing new Kaizins, upgrading your deputy and lair, levelling your Great Leader (Who gives you extra boosts when you level them up, which also takes Kaizin Stones), raids, adventures, and so on.  It's all a bit over complicated.  Plus the constant ads you have to watch to boost, to revive kaizins, or after Kaizins die gets frustrating.

     At the end of the day the app is attractive and the basic concept is fine as well as the main game play.  However, I think they added too much unneeded content and there are way too many ads.  You will honestly spend as much time watching ads as doing anything else in this app.  I just didn't enjoy this and don't recommend it unless you really like watching ads.  I am giving this a two of five because it does work, it is playable... it just isn't really enjoyable.
Rating: 2/5

• Free
• Seller: DAERI SOFT
• Category: Games
• Size: 187.7 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese, Korean
• Copyright: © Volantestudio

Rated 12+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity

New Twitter Account!

     App'La Mode now has a brand new Twitter account which anyone can follow to keep up with new app review posts.

Check it out or follow @AppLaMode on twitter.

https://twitter.com/AppLamode

Weather Apps

Weather Apps
     So, this review will be for 3 different weather apps in one post.  I downloaded all of these while looking for a cute weather app.  I wanted to see if any of them would be able to replace the default weather app I usually use.

かりんの天気予報 (Karin Weather Forecast)
     I thought this app would be similar to an app that is no longer available called Moe Weather.  I was never able to use the app but it had a character read the local weather for you.  I can't really compare the two since I never used the Moe one but that was what inspired me to download this app.

     The Karin character featured in the app is cute.  However, there is nowhere in this app to set your location.  I assume it uses your current GPS and only uses locations in Japan.  Since I am not in Japan... this did not work.  It doesn't even give you the Japanese weather if you're curious to know what the weather is in Japan.  I can only assume you have to be in Japan for the app to work at all.

     There is a scroll bar on the side to make Karin smaller or bigger so you can see the map behind her.  She reacts when you tap on her but she does not make any noises.  Putting your finger on the screen and dragging it around will result in her following your finger movement with her head.  Users can also select an outfit for her from the settings menu in the top right.  The options are a Gothic Lolita costume, and two uniforms in pink or blue.

     The translation for the options menu is as follows:
Sound options
On Off
Bookmark startup location (Meaning to remember the location you initially access the app in rather than changing based on current location)
On Off
Change Clothes
3 options available...

     The top left toggle on the main screen is whether or not to show the temperature.  The right side of the board shows the current date.

     This visuals of the app are fine but the app not working outside of Japan or having any languages available aside from Japanese are a problem.  I would not recommend wasting time downloading this application for weather.

Rating: 1/5

• Free
• Seller: Satoru Umezawa
• Category: Weather
• Size: 41.9 MB
• Languages: Japanese
• Copyright: © 2018 dailyanime.news

Rated 12+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity

Boo Weather: Pomeranian Puppy
     For those who have not heard of Boo, Boo is a Pomeranian dog who's photos have circulated all over the internet.  It is a cute and happy looking dog with a round headed teddy bear Asian fusion cut.  The images in this application of of this specific dog.  They are randomly generated for each location and cycled every hour (Like the Yahoo Weather app).
 
     When you start the app cute text pops up saying 'Boo: The world's cutest dog'.  Seems a bit presumptuous off the bat.  However, the app itself is easy to understand and fairly user friendly.

     This works just like the Yahoo Weather app.  Swiping left and right cycles through locations you have added.  To add new locations there is a +City icon that allows users to add more cities to the list.

     Tapping the Boo head button at the bottom brings up an option to pay 2.99USD to remove the ads from the app.  The share button is pretty self explanatory.  The settings app allows users to change the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius or visa-versa.

     Within the Settings users can also opt to get notifications when new Boo images are added, Help/FAQ/etc, the Booweather website and the ability to pay to remove ads again.

     On the main screen when checking the weather, aside from the dog image in the background you will see the city name, temperature, the day's high/low and what the weather condition is (Snow, overcast, fog, etc).  Swiping up will allow access to more information.

     In the swipe up section wind, humidity, UV index, visibility, 7 day forecast, radar, hour by hour forecast, sunrise and sunset time as well as some other information... and several ads.

     The popup asking users to rate the app is quite aggressive.  Upon opening the app I got the popup 3 times in under 5 minutes.  Of course I'd assume adding my rating to the app page would stop these.

     The app is alright... basically a dog themed version of the Yahoo Weather app.  The ads can sometimes get in the way, but not terribly often. That being said it is a solid application and does what it is supposed to.

Rating: 3.5/5

• Free
• Seller: Weather Creative Inc.
• Category: Weather
• Size: 78 MB
• Languages: English
• Copyright: © 2017 Weather Creative Inc.

Rated 4+

Weather Kitty: Forecast & Cats
     This is a cat themed weather app that is essentially identical to the Boo weather app I just reviewed above, at least in functionality.  However, there is some minor difference in the options.

Like the Boo app the main screen shows the city, temperature, etc, along with a random cat image.  Some of the cat images are cuter than others.

     Swiping left and right changes the location, and more locations can be added with the button at the bottom of the screen.

     In the Settings menu there are the same options as the Boo app but there is no link to the BooWeather website.  Instead there is a link to the featured animal shelter.  Clicking this gives you some information on the shelter and a link to the website for that shelter.

     Swiping up is how you get to the more detailed weather information where you can find the forecast over the next several days and so on.

     The buttons at the bottom of the main screen have the added bin icon to remove ads as well as a Kittens button.

     Unlike the Boo Weather app the ad removal here is a bit different.  To remove the ads users have to sign up for a Meow Prime Plan.  these are subscription packages that range from one month to 6 months to a lifetime subscription plan.  The subscription removes the ads but also gives you access to all of the Kitten themes.

     Kitten themes can be accessed by tapping the Kitten button at the bottom of the main app page.  All users have access to the Default theme which is what the app has upon downloading.  There is a free theme called Crazy Cat Art as well.  There are several other themes but users need to have Meow Prime in order to download and use them.  These themes include Yoga Cats, Sphynx, Holiday Kitties, Kitty Love and many more.  Users can even create their own theme by uploading their own cat images (Requires Meow Prime).  The themes will change the images available for the main page backgrounds.

     The app is cute and does what it is intended to do.  The functionality is simple and it has an easy user interface.  I think the fact that you can upload your own images is a great feature, though I'm not sure I'd wish to pay for it.

Rating: 3.5/5

• Free
• Seller: Weather Creative Inc.
• Category: Weather
• Size: 124.5 MB
• Languages: English
• Copyright: © 2015 Weather Creative Inc.

Rated 4+

Karin's Weight Diary

Karin's Weight Diary
     This is an anime girl themed weight diary that gives dietary tips, tracks your weight and allows you to keep a calendar chart of when you exercised, overate, had sweets, etc.

     I have been trying out a few diet apps because I am almost constantly trying to maintain a decent weight through diet and exercise, but it really helps to have something keeping me motivated.  I thought the app looked cute so I gave it a try.  I found that it didn't really keep me motivated and using it seemed like more of a hassle really.  However, I will share some details about how the app works, what I didn't like, what I did like and how to get around one part of the app that most people are finding difficult, but I figured out how to make it work...

     First off, this app is very attractive as far as graphics go.  It is bright and colourful with little stamps for your calendar tracking, two costume options for your diet cheer coach, Karin, and even the ability to make Karin gain and lose weight along with you.  So there is a visual appeal.  But there aren't really any fancy animations or fun interactive visuals to partake in.  Well, aside from tapping the screen makes Karin's head slightly move in that direction and tapping her makes he head jiggle a bit.

     As for sounds, there is no music but it does turn off any music other apps may have been playing when you start the app up (IE Pandora, etc).  It has sort of bleep bloop sounds when you tap certain things but these can be turned off in the options.

     The app was clearly originally intended to be in Japanese and some of the translation is questionable or has unusual choices in grammar or wording.  That being said, it is pretty clear to understand what certain phrases intend to say.

     Now onto the functionality and using the app.  The first thing users will want to do is to go over to the Settings page and enter in their information so that the app can track their weight changes.  Here you can choose between English and Japanese language settings, toggle sounds, enter height and weight and set a weight goal.  users can also choose whether or not Karin will diet with them or not under the Mode setting.

     Diet Together will allow the graphic of Karin to become thicker when users gain weight or to look thick prior to them reaching their goal.  If Karin is dieting she will have a sports kit on complete with shorts and a polo top.

     Rather than to have Karin dieting with the users, they can change the mode to Cheering Mode.  This makes Karin wear a cheering uniform to help motivate the user to do their best.  Her pompoms will move around on the main screen in this mode  She will also perform a couple cheer stances.

     This next bit is important... One would assume that after they enter their information into the settings they should tap the Initialize Data button.  As such many users are complaining that after entering in this information that Karin will not retain it and the app won't work.  Do not press this button.  After entering in the information, simply switch back to the Home screen.  If you press the button the app will not start using the information you have entered.  This is clearly an issue in the app's code.  However, simply not pressing the button seems to work just fine.

     On the Home screen users can see Karin in the costume that is associated with the mode they have chosen.  They can also see their height, current weight, target weight, how much weight they have left to use and a spot for BMI that doesn't seem to work.  Tapping on Karin will cause her to display a speech bubble with some sort of dietary information such as tips and facts associated with certain foods or how to stay fit.  Unfortunately sometimes these facts can be quite wordy which causes the speech bubble to expand past the edge of the screen making it impossible to read all of the text.

     On the right side of the home screen users can record their current weight each day so Karin can keep track of how much has been gained or lost and keep a record of the fluctuations.  Tapping the Record Weight button makes a piggy appear with arrows pointing left or right that can be tapped to adjust the weight.  Users can also tap the Report buttons with the happy or sad faces.  If they have done something good such as exercise, walking, eating smaller meals or fasting, they can hit the happy report button.  If they did something that will negatively affect their weight loss such as eating or drinking too much, not getting enough sleep or snacking, they can hit the sad face report button.  A sticker associated with their report will be added to that calendar day.  Multiple stickers can be added to each day.

     The Graph button takes you to the screen that keeps track of any weight fluctuations on a line graph.  It can be viewed in latest, week, month or year mode.

     The Calendar button is where you can see any stickers you've added to a particular day.  This allows users to track how much good or bad habits have been performed.  tapping a particular day allows for that day to be edited.  Here more stickers can be added or if one was added on accident, it can be removed.

     That covers all the parts of the app.  The app does have an ad banner across the bottom of the app but no popups occur so that is a plus.  I generally don't mind ad banners so long as they do not interfere with the functionality of the app.

     In case you may be wondering what happens after you meet your goal... nothing happens.  It doesn't even stop tracking your goal.  There is no happy sound, animation, or congratulatory message...  It is all a bit anticlimactic...

     In summary, the app is cute, but some of the functionality either doesn't work or needs to be worked around to work properly.  Watching Karin get fat even if you only gain .1 LBS tends to do less motivating than demotivating.  I didn't find the app helped me diet and it didn't motivate me to continue using it.  I don't think I would recommend the app to anyone who is serious about dieting or losing weight.

Rating: 2/5

• Free
• Seller: Satoru Umezawa
• Category: Health & Fitness
• Size: 62.4 MB
• Languages: English, Japanese
• Copyright: © 2018 dailyanime.news

Rated 4+