Articles by Travis Ehrlich

I have loved playing Sudoku since it became a craze appearing in newspapers. My wife bought me a book full of puzzles one year and I would often print some out for my students to work on if they had down time in class. I love word and number games that require higher level thinking skills. I believe that it is like working out your brain and leads to increased brain power in many areas. Sudoku games have had a home on my phone as long as they have been developed. While the game itself does not change, not all…

I remember a day when gaming was simple. The graphics were simple but made the point and game play required timing and easy actions to get as many points as possible. It is not that I do not love new games with fancy graphics and complicated game play, but sometimes it is fun when I have a few minutes to kill to go old school with a nice side scroller where timing is the name of the game. Castle Runner does just this and in a truly challenging manor. Let’s take a look. Castle Runner is an action themed side…

As a huge fan of Angry Birds, I have come to love puzzle/physics games. I really enjoy the thought process to release an item on the screen to begin a series of events that solves a goal. The games take planning, critical thinking and a bit of skill. As I searched the app store Clowning-Around caught my eye reminding me of the Atari 2600 game Circus. Upon further inspection, it actually reminded me of Cut The Rope and Angry Birds all rolled into a cool circus theme. Let’s take a look at Clowning-Around for the iPhone/Touch. Roll up, roll up,…

I started checking out this game searching for my Blue Plate Special app and was not sure if it could make the grade, but after a few minutes of playing I started getting hooked and found myself trying to beat more and more levels. HellOut!-Volcano Adventure reinforces my theory that simple, fun game play along with easy controls makes for an enjoyable IOS playing experience. Let’s take a look. The idea of this game is quite simple, but conquering it has proven to be another story. Your job is to guide a small dragon up to the top of the…

I remember a day when searching for a game I worried about 3D graphics and realistic gameplay. Of course those things are nice and cool in a game, but IOS has brought me back to the day where simplicity and fun were more important than realistic explosions. I recently tried to explain to some of my students how fun gaming was “back in the day” when graphics were terrible, but the games were just fun and could be replayed over and over. This idea has proven true for me again with IOS games where simplicity, enjoyable game play and the…

I did a strange thing this morning. My alarm is set for 5am but I actually woke up 10 minutes early. I grabbed my phone from the charger next to my bed and searched the appstore for the new Angry Birds Rio game. Most would think I am nuts for doing such a thing, but if you are a fan of the Angry Birds games, you understand my excitement. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I hurried to my office to play through some of the levels before it was time to wake up the family and get ready for…