Happy Street (iPhone App)

Title: Happy Street

Developers: Godzilab

Category: Games

Cost: Freemium

Rated: 4+

For more information, and to download this app, go to its iTunes Preview Page.

STEPH SAID

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Happy Street is literally the cutest, most colorful game I’ve had in my iPod. The cheerful, intriguing characters and the simplicity of the game make it entertaining.

In this game you have a street and you have to fill it with houses, shops and decorations. Each house has a different set of personalized animal tenants: from pirates to cowboys to robots. Each house comes with an accompanying set of shops to buy separately: the pirates like to buy in the bazaar, the cowboys in the saloon and the robots in the watchmaker’s. And with a birthday cake you can change the characters’ appearance.

However, Happy Street doesn’t have a full background story that keeps developing throughout the game, but it constantly gives you quests to fulfill, which develop a small standalone story.

It can be played offline! (Having an iPod instead of an iPhone makes this a big deal for me.) Nonetheless, having an internet connection when you play will give you an opportunity to accelerate your progress, and to enjoy certain parts of the game only available online. The former may be achieved by asking your Game Center friends – who also play Happy Streets— to help you by sending you stuff. Need a rope to finish a quest but don’t have the materials? Ask a friend to send you one! The latter involves visiting these friends I mentioned and constructing a Hotel so your friends’ characters may visit your street. Also, to get the daily bonus you need to be connected to the internet. These are not necessary to enjoy the game but will surely help.

What I liked the most about it (besides the availability of offline playing), is how easy you can obtain Flooz, the premium currency. Generally, freemium games give you a gem or two once you reach the next level, and that’s it. In Happy Street you will win Flooz when you reach the next level, you will get at least one in the daily bonus, you can get up to three Flooz a day by visiting your friends, you will get one almost every time you finish a quest and you can get some more in certain mini-games. One day I made 17 Flooz! So to buy the premium houses and shops you don’t need to invest money, only time. Nevertheless, this game is so beautiful, unique, original and easy to play that I will spend a few bucks in it, just for the sake of supporting the developers.

Warm Bodies (Movie)

Title: Warm Bodies

Year: 2013

Director: Jonathan Levine

Rating by MPAA: PG-13 for zombie violence and some language

Synopsis: After R (a highly unusual zombie) saves Julie from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world.

Official Page and IMDb Page

Official Trailer

ELL SAID

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When I hear Zombies, I think halloween. When I hear drama, I just roll my eyes. When I heard the two together, I was intrigued. I went to see Warm Bodies and, honestly, it was really good. It had a great cast and was a very uniquely made story, with magnificent make up and visual effects. Many funny parts dot the movie and the obvious cheesy moments too, but it had suspense and action and even a bit of gore. After all, you can't have zombies without gore. This love story based on a post-apocalyptic world of zombies makes for a great movie to watch for both guys and girls because of its excellent mixture of action, romance, drama and comedy.  In fact, it's a movie even my mum enjoyed, and she's not into comedy nor zombies. Here's hoping that other loves stories follow this movie's example going forward.

STEPH SAID

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Review:

When I first heard about Warm Bodies, about what it’s about, I decided to not watch it. I didn’t even watch the trailer. I don’t like zombies or horror movies, and after Twilight, I’m skeptic about love stories involving a fantastical creature. However, I was very surprised with, and intrigued by, the amount of guys that told me they wanted to watch it. I mean, if a guy wants to watch a love story there may be a catch somewhere. I decided to watch the trailer. Two days later I was in the theater watching the movie.

It is everything you’d expect from the trailers, and more. It has the perfect combination of drama, comedy, gore and love. The dramatic parts made me shed a few tears and the comedic parts had me laughing out loud. What was more amazing was how subtly the movie changed from one to the other. Usually, movies are funny at first then, get all dramatic. Warm Bodies kept moving back and forth. This is why, I think, it attracted such a large and varied audience: it wasn’t a comedy with a happily ever after nor a drama with a few jokes, it was a perfect mixture of both genres.

The story’s general development is foreseeable; nevertheless, it is entertaining to watch. On top of it being entertaining, some unexpected plot twists will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Nicholas Hoult excelled in his performance. He managed to look dead and still be funny and portray emotions. His character made the movie likable and, surprisingly, very relatable. Trying to seem “normal”, to fit in and to not freak out the girl/boy of your dreams is, I think, every teenager’s goal.