The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is an adventure game for the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. The iPad version is in HD and contains exclusive puzzles. The iPad version will cost you $2 more than the iPhone/iPod touch version. Jim and Frank head out on an adventure given to them by Jim’s grandfather. Every year on Jim’s birthday his grandfather sends him an adventure to undertake. Jim’s friend Frank has always gone on the adventure with Jim and seems to enjoy them a bit more than Jim.

The adventure game wraps players in a story and uses puzzles to progress the story line. The player will listen or read a piece of the story and then have to walk to a location. Each location walked to brings a puzzle to be solved. Some of the puzzles are easy, but some of them are very difficult. There are all types of puzzles. There are math puzzles where you have to figure out people”s ages based on a word problem of sorts. There are logic puzzles such as requiring players to board off pigs in a pen by using three pieces of rope. Players have to figure out the correct pattern to separate all of the pigs.

The puzzles are more on the difficult side and take some thought to complete. There is a hint button, but you only get three hints and the  hints. The hints provide clues on how to finish the puzzle and usually require two hints to get the answer to the puzzle. The player can buy more hints, called Eureka’s. They sell the hints in bundles. Personally, I don’t like this method of making money. Players already pay for the game and they shouldn’t be required to pay for hints. Usually, you can earn hints throughout the levels or earn items that get you hints. Some players may not mind this style of game play, but it is a turn off for me.

The graphics in the game are cartoonish, but nicely done. Each location is drawn clear and crisp. The story line keeps the game moving and keeps the player engaged. There is just enough mystery keep the player going.

Over all, The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is a challenging game. If you are a player that enjoys challenging puzzles, this is definitely the game for you. The puzzles take some thought. If you are a player that gets frustrated easily, this may not be the game for you. The game does contain a good story, but without getting the puzzles solved the game will come to a halt. If you are looking for a challenging puzzle game, check out The Jim and Frank Mysteries in the Apple App Store.

The venerable Worms franchise has been around since 1995, developed by Team17 as an offbeat variation on the classic Scorched Earth tank game in which you and your opponent took turns taking potshots at each other on an uneven terrain, as physics played with the calculated shots. Worms infused the genre with a wacky sense of humor, and it struck a chord with gamers.

Team17 has developed their latest in the series, Worms Reloaded, and if this was the last game ever produced in the series, it would be a marvelous tribute to the history of Worms and a fitting end to the series. This is the best game in the series, and the most fully packed.

For starters, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. The game has always featured cartoon-style graphics, but now, the images are crisp, with some fine details and smooth animation, all in loving high def. In addition, the sound has been jacked up as well – there are 70 speechbanks, 50 of which are from the previous Worms titles, and 20 all new speechbanks.

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Mushroom Age HD is a hidden object adventure game for the iPad. The player takes on the role of Vera. Vera has to help find her fiance that has gone missing. The search brings Vera through different points in history. She finds herself dealing with dinosaurs and even robots in the future.

Vera’s fiance, Tom, work in a science lab and she has not heard from him in a few days. The  wedding is fast approaching so Vera goes to Tom’s work to find out what is going on. She finds that Tom is missing and she has to go find him. The search for Tom is the main focus in the game. There are different pieces of the search. Some times the player will need to search for hidden objects in a room or area and other times they will need to solve puzzles to progress through the levels.

Some of the hidden object games give the player a silhouette of the object that needs to be found. The player has to find those objects around the area. Within the hidden object games are some puzzles too. Players will find locked drawers and cabinets that need to be opened before they can be looked through. The key has to be found or a way to open the locked item. The locked item usual contains things you are looking for. The way players search for hidden objects changes from time to time, which keeps things interesting.

The puzzles in the game range from untangling lines to rotating items to connect to each other. Some times the puzzles are not explained and the only thing the player knows is figure out how to get out off this level. The player has to explore the level and figure out what can be used to get them off the level and make something happen. That type of level can be frustrating to the player that likes direction in their game, but there is a hint button that can help you through it.

The graphics in the game are great. The iPad is capable of displaying amazing graphics and Mushroom Age HD takes advantage of that. The touch mechanics in the game work well. Each touch was recognized.

Over all, Mushroom Age HD is a fun and entertaining game. The game takes the hidden object genre and mixes in puzzles and a fairly decent story line. There is enough mystery to the story line to make you want to keep playing the levels and find out what happened to Tom. Each period in history brings new objects to search for and new puzzles to solve. If you enjoy hidden object games, you can’t go wrong with Mushroom Age HD. Players can buy Mushroom Age HD in the Apple App Store.

Farm Frenzy 2: Pizza Party is a simulation game for the iPhone/iPod Touch where players have to farm all the ingredients and then use those ingredients to make pizza. The first few levels players get us to growing the ingredients on their farm.

After the first few levels, the players grow more and more food and ingredients. Along with the ingredients they get more and more animals to raise on the farm. It has hard to have cheese for the pizza without having cows to produce the milk. The levels start out simple and get the player use to the game mechanics. The first animal is chickens and the players feed the chickens until they produce eggs. The eggs are collected and can be sold to make money or, eventually, used to make egg powder and other egg products, which sell for more than the eggs.

Another source of income are the animals that come to destroy the farm. The players have to catch the animals to be able to sell them. The animals are caught by tapping them a few times. Each time the animal is tapped pieces of a cage are constructed around them. The animals can then be sold for money.

Each level has goals that have to be met before the level ends. The goals are in line with most simulation type games, get an allotted amount of money, produce a certain amount of product and things like that. The controls are simple and are all touch based. Touch the screen to plant the seed to feed the animals, touch the truck to bring the product to the market and touch the eggs the chickens lay to collect them.

The graphics in the game are well done. The animals look like the animals they are suppose to be and the area of the screen is big enough to touch and not hit something else by accident. The touch mechanics work as expect, as well. There was never a touch that didn’t register.

Over all, Farm Frenzy 2: Pizza Party is a fun and entertaining game. Players will have to like simulation/time management style games to enjoy this game. The levels start out as a learning tool and don’t get difficult too fast. It may seem slow for veteran time management players, but is a good pace for people not too familiar with the time management style of game play. The game definitely gets challenging and faster paced as time goes on. If you are looking for a good simulation style game, check out Farm Frenzy 2: Pizza Party in the Apple App Store.

Supermarket Mania HD is a time management game for the iPad. The game is a bit different from most time management games. Instead of making or delivering food to customers to keep them happy, Nikki, the main character, has to keep the store shelves stock. She works in a grocery store and needs to make her grocery store better than the big chain grocery store that replaced her with a robot.

Nikki now works at the grocery store down the street. The store was going to shut down, but Nikki is trying to save the grocery store with the players help. Each day starts out with shelves that need to be stocked. The stocking cart can stock four shelves before it is empty. Players have to balance keeping the shelves full and keeping the customers happy. If the customer wants something on an empty shelf, they get a green face above their head. The player needs to stock the shelf before that face turns red and the customer leaves.

The goals of the game are similar to most time management games, make the allotted amount of money and pass the level. A few levels get tricky and require the player to make an allotted amount of money and scare three thieves away or other tasks like that. There are thieves that will show up or screaming kids running around the store that need to be handled. Players deal with these issues by click on the security guard in the store. The thieves must be stopped or they will steal groceries from the store. The thieves make things more difficult because while they are stealing items they are taking the items off the shelf leaving less items for customers to buy.

The controls for the game are easy, everything is touch based. Players touch shelves to stock them and touch the supply room to fill the cart. Players even touch the security guard to get him to do his job. The touch controls are accurate and respond as you would expect. There was never a time the shelf didn’t get filled or garbage didn’t get cleaned up.

The graphics in the game are really nice looking, which is not surprising since the game is for the iPad. All the graphics are clear and crisp and the items that need to be clicked on are big enough to easily click and not get something else by mistake.

Over all Supermarket Mania HD is a fun and entertaining game. Each level brings different obstacles to conquer. Each time the player figures out one obstacle the game throws a different one at them, which keeps the game from getting too monotonous. The goals usually stay the same, but there is always something challenging standing in the way of the goal. The challenge keeps the game interesting and players wanting to play the next level. If you like time management style games, you can’t go wrong with Supermarket Mania HD.