An update to tasty treat app Made is your first app worth downloading today. It lets you order baked goods and desserts from local food makers in your area and have them delivered to you. A big influx of games also has hit the App Store this week, so we’ve got two for your consideration: the elegant puzzler Color Zen, which is about carefully clearing objects in the right order from each of its levels, and Defense Technica, a strategic tower defense game with some unique riffs on the genre.
Made update (Free)
What’s it about? Bakery app Made lets you find delicious, hand-made treats and order them for delivery to your door.
What’s cool? Made takes a local approach to helping its users find great baked goods. App users search through various kinds of treats and desserts, and allows you to find what you’re looking for from a local maker and order it for delivery. The idea is that the app combines a handmade approach to food with the ability to order online. You can place orders, favorite items, and share what you get through social networks. The latest update to Made lets users search through local food makers and see their favorite items, rather than just browsing through the foods themselves.
Who’s it for? If you’re a Chrome user on the web, you should try the mobile app; it’s also great for anyone looking for an alternative to Safari.
What’s it like? Skyfire is also a solid browser alternative, as is Dolphin Browser.
Color Zen ($0.99)
What’s it about? Puzzler Color Zen is all about carefully clearing colors in the correct order from the screen – a simple but challenging logical quandary.
What’s cool? Each puzzle of Color Zen presents players with shapes of various colors, and a border around the edge of the screen that is made up of one of the colors represented in the shapes. The goal of each level is simple, once you understand how the game works: when you move two shapes of the same color together so they touch, they fill the screen with that color. Touch two other shapes together, and the new color wipes out the old one. The idea is to remove each set of shapes and colors until only the border color remains. There’s really no way to lose and no score in Color Zen, but its elegant design and challenging puzzles keep things interesting along the way.
Who’s it for? Puzzle game fans who like something mellow but challenging should check out Color Zen.
What’s it like? Both Zen Bound 2 and Amazing Breaker are two solid, easygoing puzzlers.
Defense Technica ($0.99)
What’s it about? Tower defense title Defense Technica brings great graphics and some interesting alterations to the genre.
What’s cool? Like most other tower defense games, the goal in Defense Technica is to place various defenses along the path of a group of enemies that are working to reach a goal you have to defend. As you earn money for killing enemies, you can spend it on building more towers or upgrading the ones you have to make them more deadly. The cool thing about Defense Technica, though, is that it features a more nuanced strategy. Instead of a set path for enemies around which players have to build towers, you have the ability to rotate paths, giving you the ability to create different strategies in different areas for various enemy types. You can also combine “tower cards” to make new kinds of towers and change strategies.
Who’s it for? Tower defense fans, you’ll want to try Defense Technica’s take on the genre.
What’s it like? Kingdom Rush: Frontiers is another great tower defense game worth your attention.
