Best Apps and Games of the Week

These are some of the best apps and games that came out this week.

iTranslate

iTranslate is a translation utility that lets you translate words from one language to another more. You can type out the words to translate them or speak them out and you can choose from various dialects and gender to have the translation read out to you. iTranslate also has a dictionary that shows you meanings of the words it translates in different languages so you have a better idea of what it means. Romanization turns non-Latin characters into Latin characters so they are easier to read and works for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Hindi, Russian, and Thai. The app also comes with a Today widget for Notification Center and also an Apple Watch component so you can translate on the watch itself.

Price: Free

Download: iOS

Giphy Cam

Giphy Cam lets you record videos, which it then converts into GIFs to be shared. You can add filters and effects to them.

Price: Free

Download: iOS

The Everything Machine

The Everything Machine creator is an app for kids that lets them create basic machines using simple buttons and objects and the iPhone’s camera, microphone, speaker, and motion sensors. It’s simple programming then should keep some of the older kids busy for a while.

Price: $2.99

Download: iOS

StockTwit

StockTwit combines a stocks app with a Twitter client. Not only can it show you your favorite stocks, it also shows related tweets so you know what’s going on in the market. You get real-time feedback and opinion on your stocks and you can also message other traders and investors from within the app. There is also an Apple Watch component.

Price: Free

Download: iOS

Pac-Man 256

Pac-Man 256 is a reimagining of the classic Pac-Man game and created by the same people who bought you Crossy Road. You play the game mostly the same way, moving around the grid by swiping on the screen, trying to eat as many dots as possible, collect items and avoid the ghosts. In this game, as you play, the bottom of the grid keeps collapsing so you have to keep moving upwards and as you play you move faster. There are also powers to collect, which give you additional abilities. It’s a lot of fun and although some elements are lifted straight from Crossy Road, including some sound samples, it’s still pretty cool game overall.

Price: Free

Download: iOS • Android

Horizon Chase

Horizon Chase is a pretty cool arcade style racing game. The game has minimal mechanics and harkens back to the olden days of 2D arcade racing. Despite that it’s still quite fun and almost as difficult as games used to be back then.

Price: $2.99

Download: iOS

Final Fantasy VII

The original Final Fantasy VII is now finally on iOS and should probably be coming to Android soon. FF7 is one of the most popular games in the series and also one of the most popular RPG games of all time. This isn’t exactly a remaster and is a straight port of the PC version, with some changes for iOS such as virtual controller, option to disable enemy encounters on the world and area maps and a Max Stats command. This is mostly recommended for fans of the series who know what they are getting into.

Price: $15.99

Download: iOS

Tales from the Borderlands Episode 4: Escape Plan Bravo

Telltale Games has released the fourth episode in the five part series Tales from the Borderlands. If you haven’t played these before, the series is based in the same universe as the Borderlands games but features a completely different point and click adventure style gameplay common to Telltale Games with new characters and an episodic format. The final episode will be coming out later this year but if you’ve played till episode there there is no reason to stop now. Conversely, you could wait till all the episodes are out and perhaps pick them for a discount.

Price: $4.99

Download: iOS • Android