Mini Reviews: Action Bowling Free, I Love the 80s, and Dots Online

Go Bowling, play dots online, or guess who originally wrote 'Smokin' in the boys room' all for free.  Or sort of.  Here are some iPhone  games that start off free, but lead somewhere else.

Action Bowling Free

Strangely enough Bowling is a real life sports game that
does lend itself pretty well to the iPhone and iPod Touch.  This mainly seems to be that developers of
iPhone Bowling games seem to have two choices for control: sliding along the
touch screen or using the motion sensors on the iPhone.  Action Bowling Free, a free iPhone Bowling game
that has reached high levels of popularity, uses the 'slide along the iPhone
touch screen' concept fairly effectively. 
You are asked essentially to line up the Bowling ball to the position
you want it to be and then to slide it forward to get it rolling toward the
pins.  This is the basic premise of the
game, and what else seems to make Action Bowling Free a nice free iPhone game
is that all the features of competitive Bowling are in place.  You can keep score easily, adjust your
positioning, and really get into the game flavor.  There are not a whole lot of features
including in Action Bowling Free, and you can clearly see that it exists as an
advertising module for the developers.  You
get links to other games from Kronos and banner ads, but thankfully they do not
come into normal play.  This is a nice
way of purifying the Bowling gampelay so that it is nice to return to.  Like more 'Free' versions of iPhone games
there is a pay version of Action Bowling that costs $2.99.  This is hardly worth it unless you are just
absolutely obsessed with Action Bowling Free. 
With this title it is best to stick with the free version, so try to get
your fill out of it.  It does not stand
on top of the entire crowd of free iPhone games, but it still earns its place.

I Love the 80s

Hey, do you remember that song 'Rappers Delight?'  What about leg warmers and hairspray?  Yes, everybody loves the 80s and VH1's I Love
The 80s is a commercial monster that will never seem to die.  Of course they have extended this to the
iPhone in the form of a game that, though it portrays itself as a free iPhone
game, is actually quite expensive to really get into.  I Love the 80s for the iPhone works itself as
a trivia game.  In this format it is
mildly interesting, with pictures and media to try and spice it up.  In the end it still ends up as just a trivia game,
but you likely know already if that is your cup of tea.  You have a few different play modes, but how
often are you really going to find friends that want to play a two player
version of I Love the 80s through Bluetooth?  You start with the standard I Love the 80s
Quiz Pak, but that is limited to only fifty questions.  After this you have other packs, such as I Love
the 80s 3D and I Love the 80s Rewind. 
Not only are these packages extremely vague as to what they actually
have included, they are also $0.99 a piece. 
To get enough questions to make I Love the 80s even worth the download
time you will have to spend five or six dollars.  The software is not worth even close to
that.  Why couldn't VH1 just include a
free iPhone application that gave you media and interviews about the 80s, all
of which would act as a 'pull' version of the show?  It raises the image of the program and they
could even include ads to get revenue.  Instead they simply insulted their audience
with this marginal use of time and money. 

Dots Online by PlayMesh

The iPhone has breathed life in to classic time wasting
games that most people have totally forgotten how to play.  Dots Online is the newest rendition of this,
and is part of the new classic game series from PlayMesh.  PlayMesh is the popular developer of text based
iPhone MMO RPGs and often gives away free PlayMesh Points for those who
download each of their titles.  The free
PlayMesh Points can then be used in their different RPGs, but there does not seem
to be any obvious free PlayMesh Points offers here on the surface.  Dots Free from PlayMesh seems to be just as
successful as the other online classics that have come in their series, like
Roshambo Online and Checkers Online. 
With Dots Online you may have to go back and look up how to play it, but
you are again paired against an online player to go head to play dots.  This all works very smoothly and the Lobby feature
actually makes communication and game searching easy.  You can get a clear profile for your account
so you can see exactly how well you have done and other statistics.  This is even more relevant in Dots Online
than in others because the game itself is somewhat difficult and requires a bit
of a learning curve.  Like the rest, Dots
Online is the free iPhone game version of Dots Online Premium by PlayMesh.  This full version is $4.99, which is way too
expensive from the start.  The free
iPhone game version is adequate and will do almost everything you need, so
there is really no reason to upgrade.