Mini Reviews February 10: Camera Dialer, Flick Kick Field Goal, and Red Ball Reviews

From camera applications that will dial phone numbers for you to red balls that seem to cost more money than they are worth, here are a few iPhone games and applications that may or may not be worth the price tag that the App Store is charging.

Camera Dialer

Camera Dialer is a strange application, but only an inventive sense of the word.  It ends up being so simple that it is surprising that no one else has thought of it.  The premise of Camera Dialer is to take images of phone numbers and directly integrate that into a phone call.  Camera Dialer will open up your camera in an altered form that will give you a green rectangular box in the middle of the screen.  You then position the green box over the number that you are seeing.  Camera Dialer will then register that number and call it directly, which saves you all the trouble of actually dialing the number.  This is a fairly elaborate set up for what is only a moderate function.  Is it really that important to go through the process of capturing the number from a visual source instead of just dialing it yourself?  At the same time there are moments when it misreads numbers, but over all it is surprisingly accurate.  Camera Dialer is worth the $0.99 that it costs if you are going to use it.  Either way it is quite remarkable in what it uses the iPhone's built in features to do. Four out of five stars.

Flick Kick Field Goal

iPhone gaming itself has been established around the "pocket gaming" phenomena.  Before cell phone and mobile gaming pocket gaming often referred to travel games or things that could be made on the spot for quick play.  Even though the iPhone opened up what was possible in this realm, much of what was developed was still in this model.  Flick Kick Field Goal is, like it sounds, a game where you kick a field goal.  In many ways this is similar to the paper footballs that were made in basement origami to pass the detention period.  In Flick Kick Field Goal, which is this popular new free iPhone game, you actually have nice graphics to support it.  You line up the football against the poles ahead and flick your finger along it so that it will knock your points forward.  What makes Flick Kick Field Goal worth the download is the variety of different play options, the different options you have for the software setup, and even nice little quotes that come in between.  There is not a lot of progression or depth that can happen in Flick Kick Field Goal, but it does the single gameplay type that it does well.  Most of the gameplay types are pretty similar, but if you have a lot of fun with one you will likely have it with all the others as well.  Three and a half out of five stars.

Red Ball

Red Ball is a strange free iPhone game that asks you to accomplish several arbitrary tasks with a red ball.  You start with the red ball on floating pieces of land arranged like an obstacle course.  You are then asked to do things like jump over crevasses or hide from large metal balls.  This is all well and fine, and the controls and cartoon visuals are decent enough.  The problem with Red Ball is that is masquerades as a free iPhone game when you really only get seven levels for free.  The rest require you to purchase them from the iTunes' App Store for $1.99.  The free Red Balls levels are passively fun and if it was a complete free iPhone game then it would definitely be worth it.  Since it is just a teaser for the ten pack that you can buy for two bucks then it is somewhat offensive.  It is one thing when the temporary free iPhone game versions are labeled things like "lite," but when they remained unnamed and require you to purchase the substantial content it is an annoying way to get what is basically an advertisement onto your iPhone.  Red Ball may be fine for its free levels, but that is not enough to justify this moderate title.  Two out of five stars.