Here’s my Metro reviews for the week of July 27th
The Art of Cardboard
By Lori Zimmer
Kindle/iBooks/Kobo
From creating childhood castles to using storage boxes for our memories, cardboard boxes have long been a trigger for our imagination. Filled with zoomable photos, this gorgeous ebook explores the intricate roller-coasters, geodesic domes, and astonishing sculptures of eco-artists who see the spirit of sustainability in playful packing cartons.
Prune
iPhone/iPad
Rated: Everyone 4+
At its heart, Prune is about caring for trees. Not every seed in nature lands in the most convenient of soil and this puzzle game is about the struggling ones that find themselves inside cave systems and at the bottom of crevices. It’s a relaxing game where you must trim branches away from danger and guide them to grow towards the sun.
It is an exercise beautiful in visuals and poignant through music, so very original in creating an abstract world while evoking the Japanese painting aesthetics you’re bound to be reminded of. It uses gradients of colour to represent different bands and intensity of light which pays off when your tree reaches them as each level of light triggers the tree to blossom in different colours of reward flowers.
The challenge of the puzzles is inspired. By slicing off branches facing the wrong direction you force the tree to invest in the branches that have the right idea, but that also changes their weight too, causing them to bend and curve in inconvenient ways. Every cave system has obstacles to wind around, some including pockets of poison to avoid, while others hold surprising sources of beneficial light and soil.
The success of the game is that it eventually leads to a deeper meaning of what’s going on and that emotional revelation combined with the stark originality of its puzzle should place this among the year’s best.
Roald Dahl’s Twit Or Miss
iPhone/iPad
Free
The first is a series of apps celebrating author Roald Dhal, this mischievous food fight game has you deflecting the gross dinner morsels of fish heads, broccoli, and bird pies from Mr. Twit’s beard to protect his wife’s ever-boiling temper.
Nike+ Running
iPhone/Apple Watch/Android
Free
A new music update to the popular fitness tracking app means you can now use Spotify to generate a 100-song playlist based on a target BPM (bests per minute) determined from your own recorded pace goals and musical tastes.
Blue Apron
iPhone
Free
This weekly supply of seasonal, step-by-step recipes is richly presented with how-to videos, cooking tips, ingredient guides, and even a camera app with fun filters and effects. Although tied to a US-only delivery service, the recipes are handy on their own.
