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I now turn my attention to honorariums of the Star Wars franchise.  And by that I mean apps that try to rip off the iconic images and themes that George Lucas used in his original trilogy.  Even the name logo of the app shamelessly steals from Lucas' movies.

Star Words is a marvellous way of simulating the "scrolling text" beginnings of all the Star Wars movies without actually paying George Lucas any money.  Naturally, since no license fees are paid, the text and background feel like a cheap knockoff, but it can be fun if used correctly.

The app is pretty simple.  First off, it doesn't come with any Star Wars music, but it does play any music in your music library.  So, if you can get your hands on an mp3 copy of the Star Wars theme and transfer it to your device, you're good to go.

The app actually begins with some pre-defined scrolling text, but you can alter it with a tap fo the screen.  Once there, you can enter your scrolling text in a textbox.  You can also choose your background music and choose between two types of fonts.

My big complaint about the app is that "Star Words" is automatically the first words that appear on the screen.  If you're trying to swede your own Star Wars movie, that would be a serious hindrance.

Fortunately, the creator figured out a perfect way to prevent Lucas from bringing around a lawsuit: the app is free.  For the price, it's worth the download for any Star Wars fan.

UPDATE: My bad.  The app is, in fact, $.99 and not free.  Watch out for Lucas' lawyers, folks.

Cat Juggling is one of those apps that was offered free for a day in the App Store from a special promotion.  I got it on the basis of its name alone, thinking of a sketch from Steve Martin in the movie 'The Jerk'.

The app itself is cute.  You are a juggler and the objective is to swipe the juggler's hands under the cats as they fall from the top of the screen.  When that is done, the cats will catapult (pun intended) back upwards.  The more cats you keep from falling to the ground, the higher your score.

The app is cute but doesn't quite reach its full potential.  For instance, I would have a cat sound playing at each hit.  The app simply has some annoying background music which I turned off.  I would also make a 'splat' sound whenever the juggler misses a cat.

You can change the look of the juggler or the items juggled (if you aren't into cruelty to virtual cats).  The app also has a button with the names of some cat-related charities, so obviously the cat torture aspect of the game is meant in jest.  As it says in the fine print, "no cats were harmed in the making of this game".

The app is mildly addictive once you start playing.  This is a good app to kill a few minutes with when your waiting for the bus or in the doctors office.  I would recommend picking it up if it's available for free.  If you're a cat hater, it might be worth the buck.

From the makers of Reel Director comes the app that could be called the Hipstamatic of video photography.  While it doesn't work as smoothly as I would prefer, it is a handy app for creating a variety of different styles of video.

Basically, the app allows you to take video either from the camera or the library and alter it to different styles and colors.  It's a bit like changing the camera type and lens after you have already filmed.  You can apply multiple lenses and effects simultaneously to the same video.

The app is intended as a supplement to Reel Director and doesn't do any of the functionality of that app such as video or sound editing.  Oddly, it's possible to launch Reel Director from the information screen in CinemaFX, but not vice-versa.  I would wonder why the two apps are not combined into one, then I realized that the creators could use the income.

Like Hipstamatic, you can purchase additional video effects and lenses for an additional fee.

Once the video effects are done, you can render it locally to the device or upload it to YouTube.

I do have one complaint that is fairly major.  In order for the app to work, the video has to already be created (whether by the camera or already in the library).  It would be nice if you could use the video camera to record directly from the app like with Hipstamatic.

However, the app is fun and worth the buck, maybe even the two additional bucks for more effects.

iKitt used to be offered for free, but no longer.  Glen Larson or someone must have gotten wind of it and now for the honor of having William Daniels as the voice of your car, it will cost you a buck.

If you're a Knight Rider fan, the app is very cute and definitely worth the buck.  If you've never heard of Knight Rider or couldn't care less, there are probably other purchases you could make. 

For those who are fans, you can even mess with people's heads and put it on your dashboard acting like it's the voice of the car.  However, it only says a set of about a dozen pre-recorded messages from the show (unlike the Knight Rider GPS with Daniels' voice, which is more interactive).

The app is very simple to use.  Tap one fo the buttons around the voicebox or the voicebox itself in the center to hear Daniels say a phrase as KITT.  Double-tap the voicebox to zoom in on it and have it occupy the entire screen (double-tap again to zoom out).  If you turn the device to landscape, it becomes the famous KITT speedometer and keeps track of your car's speed via the GPS.  Obviously, if you are on an iPod touch, you don't get all this functionality.

It's a fun and nerdy app to own, but to truly make this app go to 11 on the cool scale, make it a full-blown auto GPS application for the iPhone using Daniels' voice (like the Mio version).  That would be worth the inevitable $50 price.  In the meantime, just for some fun and games with friends in the car, it's worth the buck.

What do you get when you take your basic top down shooter arcade game, get rid of the entire level except the boss, and then multiply the bullets on the screen, and give your ship a giant laser? Well, you would then have cult classic rRootage. This action game, released by Kenta Cho of ABA games, charmed the hearts of gamers on the Mac and PC, and is now available for the iPhone from Fraglab.

To be honest, this game has been ported once to the iphone during the early days of the app store. This official re-release, aims to be a more faithful rendition of the computer version, as well as implementing online scores, and iOS 4 compatibility. In rRootage, you control a green rotating cylinder with a red dot in the middle . Your mission is to destroy the giant geometric boss at the top of the screen while he, in turn, fires the very definition of "barrage of bullets" at you. The term I think this game coined was "Bullet Hell", and that is a very accurate assessment of the game. The only saving grace is that your ship can only be destroyed by the solid dots in the middle of the bullets and only if they hit the dot in the middle of your ship. This advantage only gives you a fighting chance since the bullet barrages grow increasingly dense and the fire patterns become more complicated.

Each boss has two forms which gives you a short break in the action during a level. Each level has five waves, and ten levels per game type so you will have no shortage of gameplay.

The normal mode is as described above, while a PSY mode lets you scrape bullets to gain invisibility for a short period of time. IKA mode lets you collect bullets of the same color as you. Those can then be fired back at the boss from your laser, while the GW mode gives you a force field to deflect bullets back at the enemy. These game modes add a lot of depth and playability that will keep you coming back for more. rRootage is a classic shooter with a unique style and one that should not be missed on the iPhone.

Your race has been run, and your soul is finally ready to shuffle off this mortal coil. In the deviant minds at Kydos Studio, death is just the beginning with their indie game Soul. This game has made quite a splash in the xbox live realm and now is is poised to win the hearts of the iPhone gaming public. With hand drawn artwork and horrifiying style, this is one title you wont want to play in the dark.

The game takes place in a building that looks like it would fit as a scene in the movie Saw. You exit your body and from then on out, everything you see is hostile to your mission of escaping the building to reach heaven. Not only must you avoid all walls, elevators, and even stalagmites, but you must also be ever vigilant to avoid the evil creatures that will lunge from the walls to put an end to your journey.

Each level holds its own challenges, from dark caves where you can barely see in front of you, to air currents and rising water that chases you through the tunnels. Touching anything will cause you to die, but you can re-attempt each screen without any penalty. There are three levels of difficulty, and the only control is the accelerometer. The game offers an option to calibrate the accelerometer, but I found that any other position beside the default suffers from difficulty in moving either up or down. This bug does make playing the game more difficulty since the device must be held facing up. This one annoyance is not enough to detract from the wonderful artistic vision that the developers have created, and is certainly something that can be resolved in short order with an update. If you enjoy immersive atmosphere and great indie games, you will certainly enjoy everything Soul has to offer.

Zombies are still popular — the craze that everybody wants to be a part of. The latest example of this is Zombie Duck.

Zombie duck is a hunting game—using the accelerometer, you tilt your iPhone to put the cross hairs over a duck that’s flying across the screen. When the crosshairs are firmly over the duck, press the ‘gun’ button to fire and shoot. If you don’t kill him fast enough, he turns into a zombie (IE: a red duck). If you don’t kill the duck within 5 seconds of that, you lose a heart. Once you lose all your hearts, the game is over.

 As you progress through the levels you can select different guns—ones that fire faster or hold more amo at once.

The controls on the game were difficult to use—although using the accelerometer as a means to aim made sense, I thought that using “buttons” in the corner of the screen to load and shoot your gun were awkward. If you were going to use gestures/motion to aim the gun, I thought it would make more sense to continue this metaphor and tap the screen and shake the phone to shoot and reload?

Sure this one is free, but we think it isn’t worth the space on your phone.

TripTik is AAA's entry into the navigation / GPS app market.

In terms of routing it's pretty straight forward.  You enter your starting point (which can be either your current location or an address) and an ending point.  TripTik then find the path to your destination.  Generating your path is accurate and fast.

As you start your trip, the complete directions are announced.   While traveling along the path, your current location, as you'd expect, is updated.   When it comes time to turn, however, TripTik doesn't announce that a turn is approaching. Likewise, after you make the turn, TripTik doesn't announce the distance until the next turn.   To make it announce the rest of the trip you must push the copilot button or shake the phone.

While testing the app, there were several times when my location would suddenly move to a different road only to return to the correct location in the next second.  I think this may have been due to poor GPS accuracy in the phone, but it may prove to be an issue if you are in an unfamiliar area.

Besides not having turn by turn announcements, TripTik is missing other features found in most stand alone GPS devices. Things like detour mapping, or choosing if you want to use highways, non-highways, or both.

Exploring the maps works as you'd expect--swiping, pinching, etc are app supported and update quickly.

TripTik has quite a large database of points of interest--gas stations, restaurants, hotels, etc. Which could be very handy especially if you are in an unfamiliar place.

For free, TripTik is good replacement for the maps app built into the phone,  but it's lacking many features built into my old GPS, so i think i'll keep that one around a bit longer.

Just one last "Geek Week" review for the celebration of the San Diego Comic Con.  We will now turn our attention on an app based on the British science fiction program "Doctor Who".  This app doesn't appear to be officially licensed, so if you're a fan you may want to download this one as soon as possible.

The app emulates the Sonic Screwdriver device handled by the main character of that program.  He is called the Doctor and he is an alien time traveler.  Anytime the Doctor dies, he can regenerate into a completely different person, which is why the show has lasted close to fifty years.  The app gives a choice of screwdriver's from the past (David Tennant as the 10th Doctor), present (Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor) or future (from an episode in which someone from the Doctor's future was given a Sonic Screwdriver).

Each Sonic Screwdriver slides out from a swipe on the screen.  If you tap and hold it down, the app makes the pre-requisite sound and glowing color (blue for past, green for present, blue for future).  It's possible to switch between them from the icon on the upper right.  Each Sonic Screwdriver is an artist rendition so the creators probably think they can avoid the lawsuit by having something similar but not exactly the same.  There is an information icon on the upper left, but it doesn't really tell you much.

And that's it!  Is it worth the dollar?  If you're a "Doctor Who" fan, then it's probably the cheapest replica on the market.  If you're not, then it's simply a silly app for a buck that makes a light and sound.  I leave it to you.

POW is one of those apps that you download on a whim on those days when you're perusing the App Store for weird, free stuff.  Taking a page from the Batman TV show from the 60's, the app makes a punching noise when you hold it in your hand and move your arm forwards and back, pretending to hit someone or something.  It can be adjusted between right-handed and left-handed people.

The app is somewhat tricky to use and the sounds don't always occur when you make the motion (perhaps the app is trying to adjust when you move rapidly).  The app is free and has to be supported somehow, thus there are ads running along the bottom.

It is possible to customize the sounds the app makes and there are even duck quacks.

It's not a great app.  The graphics aren't really impressive and the sound quality is only fair.  It'll keep you occupied for maybe a minute as you kid around with a four-year-old boy and pretend to hit him.  Then he'll want to take it and pretend to hit his friends.  And so on.  And so on.  But it's not a great app.

Despite it's price, I can only recommend this one if you have the free space on your iPhone or iPod touch and like to pretend hitting people.  The app would be more cool if it had more of a Batman 60's TV show theme, but you can't have everything.