Lots of free offerings today on our Download Discounts list, including a couple of games — a two-stick shooter and a running game, both of which are similar to other entries in their genres, but stand apart for a couple of reasons. We also have iCarBlackBox, an app meant to record information about your car trips in the event of an accident, and even notify your emergency contacts and 911. Check all three out below.
Nano Fighter! 2.1 (iPhone) Free (was $0.99)
While it isn’t much different from other two-stick shooters, Nano Fighter does manage to get hectic and challenging in a hurry, increasing its difficulty without becoming insurmountable. As a tiny nanobot, you’re constantly coming under attack from parasites, viruses and white blood cells as you fly through the arteries of some unknown organism, clearing it of hazardous enemies.
Graphical style, controls and constant action are what make Nano Fighter worth checking out. It does a nice job of giving you a lot of real estate to work with while you’re fighting, while always keeping the action close at hand and manic in its density. While it doesn’t include support from Game Center, Open Feint or a similar service, developer PDJ Apps has got its own means of sharing scores online, so you’re not completely closed-off from challenging friends to see who can pull down the highest score.
iCarBlackBox (iPhone) Free (was $0.99)
You’ve heard about an airplane’s black box, which records data from the flight like speed, altitude, voices from the cockpit and other things. The idea is that it helps investigators figure out what happened if the plane crashes. iCarBlackBox turns your iPhone into a black box for your car, recording information about how fast you’re going and even shooting video of your drive. If the worst should happen, the app is ready with data that might help in the aftermath of a crash.
While the black box functions might sound like they’re not extremely useful in a car crash scenario, iCarBlackBox does have one possibly great function — it uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to gauge if there’s a sudden hard stop or change in speed, like what would be experienced in a crash. If the iPhone encounters one, the app will automatically call emergency services with a number you specify when you set it up. I haven’t had occasion to actually test it in a crash scenario, but shaking and jarring my iPhone triggered a call to my girlfriend, whom I’d listed as my emergency contact. For free, iCarBlackBox potentially offers some help in a situation when you might most need it.
Run Like Hell! (iPhone) Free (was $1.99)
This freemium version of the popular side-scrolling running game captures what’s cool about Run Like Hell!, like its obstacles of varying sizes and demands for speed rather than just avoiding falling or crashing. Instead of making you pay for the app outright, however, you can play the game in “Endless” mode for free. Once you log enough distance in the free modes, you can unlock the game’s “Story” mode, along with additional levels. If you’d rather just open up the different chapters, however, you can grab them for an in-app purchase of $0.99 each.
Run Like Hell! does do some things better than a lot of other running apps. You’ll climb up objects you fail to jump over, which slows you down — you’re actually being chased by enemies like cannibalistic tribes or yetis, so keeping your speed up and snagging power-ups along the way is key to not being captured. Game Center support rounds out the game, adding in some achievements and leaderboards for you to use to show off. It is also included with the free portion of the game.
