Rating the iPhone's Top 25 Free Apps
Apple has a list of “top 25” free applications for the iPhone, but how good are they?
By Drew Seman
September 17, 2009
Forking out anywhere from $0.99 to $19.99 for iPhone apps can start to add up. But Apple has its own top 25 free apps list on the iPhone App Store. How good are they? Campus Progress gave them a test drive so you don’t have waste your time downloading lame apps.
Many of the “free” apps are really just samples or “lite” versions of apps to get you to pay for the full versions. We gave each app two ratings. First, an overall quality score on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. And, since iPhone app usage is notoriously short-lived, the second score is based on how long it stayed on our iPhones before deletion. The range here is from “2 seconds” to “keeping it.”
1. Finger Security Lite
What is it? Pretend you’re in the Borne Ultimatum with this finger print scanner to gain access to top secret information.
Is it worth it? For the ability to trick one really gullible friend into thinking you have a real finger print scanner, yes. But you’ll be surprised by how unimpressed they are.
Score: 2 stars
Time on iPhone: As long as it takes you to fool one friend
2. Uno Free
What is it? It’s the game of Uno you played with your grandparents—except it’s as if your grandparents paused halfway through game to sell you a timeshare.
Is it worth it? The game is glitchy, often quitting midplay in an attempt to force you to buy the full app. The name recognition is probably the only reason this app ranks number two on Apple’s free app list.
Score: 1 star
Time on iPhone: 2 seconds
3. Mr. Aah!! Lite
What is it? You swing your Spiderman wannabe character from platform target to platform target. The closer to the center of the platform you land, the higher your score.
Is it worth it? Relying on touching, not dragging, on the screen is a smart move. Doing so makes the game feel more consistent and allows you build a nice rhythm. The only problem is that you reach the end on the lite version in about a minute.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 week
4. TightWire Lite
What is it? This game has a simple concept that seems slightly ripped-off from Mario Party 8: tilt the phone side-to-side and forward to keep your tightrope walker on the line.
Is it worth it? The game has fun graphics and a variety of falls, but it has glitchy animation. Plus, it’s weird viewing angle. Rather than putting the point of view straight over the character’s back, it puts the view at about 5 o’clock. The game becomes more about watching the balance meter than your tightrope walker.
Score: 2 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 day
5. World War 20 Honor Points
What is it? It’s a massive multiplayer game. There are units, bases, experience points, missions, and you can attack fellow players.
Is it worth it? The advertisements make it abundantly clear that World War, Kingdoms, Vampires, Ninjas, Racing, Zombies, Rockstars, are all essentially the same game by developer Storm8. With dozens of weapons and missions, the game has some depth. There aren’t any cool battle scenes—just a text read out of energy spent, money won, etc. once you take action. A big downside is that to do well, you have to build military alliances by emailing your friends a request they get the app. Warning: this may cause ridicule.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
6. Max Injury Lite
What is it? The concept is pretty simple: you push a crash test dummy down a set of stairs.
Is it worth it? This may sound cool, but the animation is slow, and it doesn’t feel particularly painful when you watch it. Max injury light doesn’t require a lot of skill or provide much comedic value. Can’t imagine what about the Lite version would make someone want to pay for it.
Score: 1 star
Time on iPhone: 2 seconds
7. Yahoo! Fantasy Football
What is it? Yahoo! Fantasy Football is a basic app to help you manage your team.
Is it worth it? If you have 13 active fantasy sports teams like I do, this app is well worth the download. It has a clean look, the ability to drop and add players, and the option to change your starting line up, but it also has limited info on opponents or other teams in league. It also doesn’t work on leagues where you have to pick the winners of the games, which is a lame limitation.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
8. BATTLE BEARS
What is it? This is a third-person shooting range game with a sadistic sense of humor. You shoot purple bears that look like Teletubbies hopping down a hill with unicorn horns. You know the bears are dead when their heads fall off and rainbows shoot out.
Is it worth it? The game has nice graphics and scenes, as well as a smooth touch-screen interface. Once you get the hang of the sliding to aim and tapping to shoot, you can master it. The main drawback is the free version only has one level.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 Week
9. Biker Blast-Off!
What is it? This game has you drive a motorcycle off a ramp, Evil Kenevil-style.
Is it worth it? This is by far the worst app in Apple’s top 25. The game features glitchy balance and controls that are in no way relevant to actually driving a motorcycle. What it lacks in quality it makes up for with a boring concept.
Score: 1 star
Time on iPhone: Two Seconds
10. ESPN ScoreCenter
What is it? You use it to keep track of the latest professional and college sports scores.
Is it worth it? This app offers more leagues and a cleaner look than other sports score apps, but pretty hard to find information. Users can’t find league standings unless you click into a specific game score. Developers also made three menus to get to a box score—not a particularly bright decision.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping It
11. Bump
What is it? Touch your iPhone to another iPhone and instantly transfer photos and/or contacts.
Is it worth it? This is an app with a good concept, but big problems. Users can only transfer up to 4 photos or contacts at a time. Although the transfer takes about a minute, both phones need to have Bump. But how awkward is the idea of meeting someone and asking them to bump you their digits?
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 week
12. Facebook
What is it? Facebook.
Is it worth it? This app is the expanded 3.0 version. It’s a lot like Facebook on your computer, but better. It has great features like the ability to look up contacts as a phonebook, and the app makes it super easy to create photo albums. The only big negative is that opening an email from Facebook through the iPhone’s email programs still open links in the browser, not into the Facebook app.
Score: 5 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
13. Boxed In
What is it? This game has users move boxes onto switches, then gears to get through a maze and exit.
Is it worth it? It has a simple concept, but takes a lot of logic skills and thinking ahead. Failure can mean many restarts. There are 50 levels, so this is no lite version.
Score: 5 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
14. Pandora Radio
What is it? Internet radio…er, iPhone radio
Is it worth it? The iPhone app version of the Internet radio station has seen major improvements in freezing and skipping since I originally downloaded this app two years ago. The app has always has a wide range of music like the online version; it has the ability to create new stations and vote songs thumbs up. One of the big drawbacks of the earlier version was the length of time it took to load a new song if you asked it to skip those you don’t like. The new version is much better, but it still takes several seconds for the new song to load.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
15. Vampires Live
What is it? This app is the same massive multiplayer game as World War. Only instead of building tanks, users learn vampireic abilities like “Smell Prey.”
Is it worth it? Despite the ridiculousness of the premise, the game has no sense of humor about it. Only serious Twilight fans need apply.
Score: 2 stars
Time on iPhone: 2 seconds
16. Sheep Launcher
What is it? Shoot your sheep as high into the air as you can, tilt the screen side to side to hit stars and bonus targets like pillows and rockets. If users tap the sheep when he’s falling, it ensures the sheep doesn’t hit the ground.
Is it worth it? Sadly this isn’t a Kitten Cannon rip off. In practice, it quickly becomes apparent that all you have to do is tap the screen constantly and you’ll never die. Graphics are enjoyable and there are enough bonuses to make it interesting. But, it only took two tries to reach the end of the free version.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 day
17. Flickr
What is it? It’s essentially the same as Flickr.com, the Yahoo owned photo-sharing site that lets you create albums and share photos with your friends and people from around the world.
Is it worth it? It has a clean look, but some usability issues. When I tried logging in, it kicked me out of the app and I landed on a random yahoo page (lame). It took me four tries before I could log on. Once I was in, I could see photos, comment, and view contacts. Unfortunately, if you’re not a Flickr user, like me, it’s not worth it.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 2 seconds
18. Dirt Moto Racing Lite
What is it? This app is a pretty straightforward third-person ATV racer.
Is it worth it? The flat trees glitch when users get to close to them—it made me reminisce about Playstation 1 racers. The driving simulation experience is only so-so, but there is a variety of race tracks, the ability to do tricks, and customizable tuning. But there are only four tracks in the lite version, which is limiting.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
19. Paper Toss
What is it? This is a simple game that’s a mainstay on the top 25 list—toss paper into a basket while judging the wind factor of the desk fan.
Is it worth it? The game’s addictive because you feel like an idiot when you fail on the easy setting. It isn’t clear if those who are good at it have skill or if the app just has a glitchy touch screen.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
20. GearedFree
What is it? This is another puzzle game with a simple concept: Drop gears between two wheels to get both spinning.
Is it worth it? The screen’s a sheet of graph paper, a concept that’s overplayed in iPhone games, but that’s actually useful here given how precise placement must be. Here the app relies more on trial and error than on mental challenge. The five levels in the lite version took me an embarrassingly long 14 minutes to beat.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 day
21. Doodle Buddy
What is it? This one is a basic drawing app, like Microsoft Paint.
Is it worth it? There isn’t a huge variety of brush sizes, and it lacks the ability to make shapes. The depth in this app is really in the backgrounds. In addition to drawing on your photos, developers also built in simple games (like Tic Tac Toe and Hang Man) so you don’t have to mess up your TGI Friday’s menu. For anyone who can’t recreate the Mona Lisa in Paint, it gives the app some staying power.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
22. iGlowStick
What is it? A digital glow stick.
Is it worth it? Are you at a rave? Did you forget your glow sticks at home? No problem if you have iGlowStick and two iPhones. This app has the creative idea of letting the user “crack” the glow stick and the app lets you choose from a variety of colors. The glow sticks are fairly bright, but no brighter than a blank webpage.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 week
23. Google Mobile
What is it? Google.
Is it worth it? The only thing that’s special about this app is its voice-activated search feature, which is good if you’re driving or—for some reason—don’t have thumbs. Of course, when I typed “Campus Progress” into it, the first results were Pampers diapers. Otherwise, there’s an “apps” tab that turns out just to be a tease. There also isn’t integration of Google calendar or docs, just links to the web browser versions.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: Keeping it
24. Jurassic 3D Rollercoaster Rush
What is it? This game is another Addictinggames.com-style roller coaster animation. Users increase and decrease ride speed to make jumps and give the best possible ride.
Is it worth it? The 3-D graphics are well done and make you feel more like you’re on a roller coaster, sort of. This can be more nauseating than fun. But with only three courses on the free version, you won’t have to worry about getting sick for long.
Score: 3 stars
Time on iPhone: 1 day
25. College Football
What is it? This is the app for college football from Associated Press/Stats, Inc.
Is it worth it? Load times are much faster than ScoreCenter or any other score app out there. It also has really deep content with favorite teams, stats, headlines, and rankings. Baseball, football, and basketball are also available. The big downside is that each sport requires a different app.
Score: 4 stars
Time on iPhone:Til the 2010 BCS Championships
Drew Seman is the online communications associate for Campus Progress. All iPhone screenshots are from his phone.
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