I saw the new Spider-Man movie and I liked it quite a bit. When I heard there was an iOS game out that was actually pretty fun and let you free-roam (or free-swing?) around New York City I had to check it out. It’s a bit pricey at $6.99, but after buying it and playing it all week I can say that if your’e a Spider-Man fan, it’s worth it.

I’ve been a fan of Spider-Man video games as long as I’ve played. I remember loving Maximum Carnage on my Genesis and being obsessed with the first Spider-Man game on Playstation. They’ve gotten a bit repetitive over the years, but swinging around town as Spidey is still one of my favorite things to do in video games.

The Amazing Spider-Man by Gameloft is a pretty nice Spider-Man game considering it’s for mobile devices. It sure beats the hell out of the old Game Gear game I use to play. The graphics obviously aren’t as great as you’d find on Xbox or a Playstation 3, but they’re on par with Wii graphics.

You’re given a surprisingly large area of New York to explore (which is probably why the game is almost 700 MB), and various missions and challenges to keep you busy. There’s a level system to upgrade your moves, and some fun mini-games where you can snap photos (like the one above).

The mechanics are simplified for the touch-based game, with one button swinging and a pretty easy combat system. It makes for a really fun game to keep you busy whenever you have a few spare moments to kill. On my old, spazzy iPhone 4 the game is a bit laggy, but I imagine it works just fine on newer or not-so-jacked-up devices.

My four-year old newphew loved it too. He kept yelling “I killed the bad guys!”

You can buy the game for $6.99 on iTunes.

I’m jealous of kids today. I mean, I’m a kid at heart and I have no qualms spending my time watching cartoons, buying toys, and blogging about said cartoons and toys, but to be a kid right now in the age of iPads and Angry Birds and actual Avengers movies would be pretty awesome. I got bored with storybooks pretty quickly when I was little, and I’m sure flipping through the app equivalent of a storybook on an iPad would have kept my attention at least a little bit longer.

Like the Spider-man origin story app Rob reviewed a few months ago, Disney and Marvel have released two Avengers storybooks on iOS devices to coincide with the movie, and they were kind enough to send me some download codes so I could take a look. Avengers Origins: Assemble! and Avengers Origins: Hulk are both available for the iPhone and iPad.

Avengers Origins: Assemble

The awkwardly named Avengers Origins: Assemble! gives kids one version of how the Avengers all got together. It focuses on Captain America getting frozen in the ice and the Avengers finding him a few decades later. The line-up used in this story contains Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp, and the threat is non other than Namor himself. I’ve never understood Namor very much (read: casual comics fan), and this app actually taught me something.

Stan Lee narrates both of these stories and it’s great hearing him read. His voice is as iconic as his face, moustache, and sunglasses, and hearing him read about his heroes is a blast. I’m not sure if kids appreciate an old man narrating their stories as much as older geeks, but I’d like to think they don’t mind.

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‘Tis the season for giving and apparently EA is feeling very generous. All of their games for the iPhone and iPad are on sale for either 99 cents or free. The discount even includes “big ticket” items like Madden NFL 12 for the iPad which regularly sells for $12.99.

I’m looking to pick up a few of their games I don’t have yet, like The Sims 3 and Trenches II. Even though I don’t have an iPad (yet) I’ll probably buy a few of those enhanced apps. I also recommend the very entertaining Spy Mouse HD. The cat-and-mouse puzzle game is a ton of fun. Touch Arcade has an abbreviated list of the EA games included in the holiday sale along with their regular prices for comparison.

If nothing excites you in the EA catalog, try Gameloft. This publisher is also doing a 99 cent sale. They’ve got some good licensed games like Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, James Cameron’s Avatar, Fast Five the Movie: Official Game and Iron Man 2. Once again, we give a tip of the top hat to Touch Arcade for providing a list of all 17 Gameloft games included in the sale.

I love art. I love Star Wars. I really love free stuff. There’s a good chance you do as well. Here’s how to get your very own Star Wars-themed copy of ImagineFX, the magazine for fantasy and sci-fi digital art.

If you’ve upgraded your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to the latest iOS 5, you have access to Apple’s Newsstand app which gives you instant access to thousands of periodicals. Launch the app on your device and head to the store section. Search for “ImagineFX” and get their free magazine app. (Alternatively, you can go to the iTunes Store and do the same thing.) After you’ve installed the ImagineFX app, you can go to their store of back issues to download a bunch of recent magazines for $6.99 each.

To celebrate the launch of Newstand, you can also grab their October 2011 issue free for a limited time. This is the impressive, Star Wars-themed issue filled with great visuals from the legendary franchise. There’s even a tutorial that teaches you how to draw a very menacing Darth Maul.

There’s no telling how long this offer will last so download it today.

Like any new technology, the field of e-books for kids is still experiencing growing pains. In recent history there have been a few exceptional examples of e-books done right, most notably with the classic The Monster at the End of this Book starring the loveable, cute, and furry Grover, as well as this year’s exceptional, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Now Marvel Comics has gotten into the game with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man: An Origin Story, currently available for the iPhone and iPad for $6.99. Can the House of Ideas keep up with Sesame Street and Charlie Brown? Let’s take a look.
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