iQi Weekly Round-Up

27th November 2010

The Moron Test passes 3 million downloads on iPhone

Indie start-up DistinctDev decided to make life simpler for, well, the simple folk by releasing The Moron Test for iOS. 3 million app downloads and a high Qi rating later, this collection of trick questions and entertaining mini-games has become one of the biggest selling titles on Apple’s digital storefront. Four full sections featuring over 100 steps each challenge your and, more importantly, any swaggering family members’ levels of stupidity.

Sega’s ChuChu Rocket! updated with 100 extra levels

ChuChu Rocket! first blasted onto Sega’s Dreamcast console ten years ago, introducing some frantic cat (evil KapuKapus) and mouse (lovely ChuChus) puzzling action and a revolutionary online mode. A faithful iOS port crept onto the App Store last month to critical acclaim, and as part of a free update, Sega has beefed up the Puzzle mode, rewarding its players with an additional 100 levels, alongside various bug fixes and UI improvements.

Cosmic Box update to Cut the Rope

After notching up 1 million sales in record time back in October, Chillingo’s devilishly simple physics-based puzzler continues to delight and frustrate in equal measure. Cut the Rope’s all-new Cosmic Box contains a further 25 levels of cord chopping mayhem, set against an entrancing anti-gravity backdrop. Additional tweaks to the scoring system and sound FX, plus Retina display support for pin sharp graphics, round out the contents of the free update.

Skyfire Web Browser lands in the UK

The Skyfire Web Browser - now available in the UK for the first time - manages to get around Apple’s famous Flash restrictions by rendering pages on its own proprietary server, converting them into HTML5 (the iOS friendly format), and relaying the content onto your iPhone. Social networking support has been improved in the latest update to this ultra popular app, with links shareable on Twitter and Facebook.

Follow the Quality Index on Twitter

If you don’t already know, Qi trawls the print and online media for game and app reviews from respected sources like Macworld, TiPb, 148Apps, and GameSpot. A unique Qi formula is then applied to each site and publication to establish a definitive Qi score for the app or game. Top 5 recommendation lists, news round-ups, and regular industry analysis complement the dynamic Qi charts. Qi has its own Twitter feed, too, @qualityindex.

Notable changes to the Quality Index charts

Whilst Noodlecake’s platforming-cum-physics lesson enters the Qi clubhouse again this week out in front, the overnight tower defence sensation Sentinel 3: Homeworld threatens to putt Stick Golf in its place.

In the third part of Origin8’s acclaimed survival series, the outer space roles are reversed, as YOU front up to the alien marauders on their home patch.

Protecting your under siege base with an arsenal of weapons of which both Arsene Wenger and Pocket Gamer would be proud, Sentinel 3: Homeworld delivers “a compelling mixture of depth and immediate action, tactics and strategy, fun and challenging gameplay.”

Blasting of a different kind attracted favourable critiques from across the iPhone universe, as the five-day-young Push Panic became the second highest new entry on the Qi recent releases chart.

Appular has somehow managed to achieve the impossible in this colourful and frenetic box tapping challenge by injecting new life into the oversubscribed match-three puzzle market.

148Apps fought off the irresistible urge to play Push Panic one more time, commenting that “the various power ups and score barriers required to progress add a slight element of strategy to proceedings so that Push Panic never suffers from the monotony that other, similar titles can have.”

And just like magic a Harry Potter game appeared on the App Store in time for the theatrical release of Part I of the Deathly Hallows.

Marrying the timeless appeal of LEGO with the bespectacled wizard’s early adventures at Hogwarts has conjured up a winner for Warner Bros. and toy brick enthusiasts everywhere.

Casting what appears to be a universal spell over iPhone reviewers, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 has summoned no fewer than 11 positive articles in the space of eight days for a deserved spot on the Qi Top 10 rundown.

Will the unwilling sorcerer wave a magic wand or three and dislodge the chipping maestro from the summit of the leaderboard?

Qi can’t wait for the action to unfold.