Tech News on G4 Ramp Champ an Addictive Dec 9, 2009 By Greg Gazin - Apple Gazin’ - G4 Canada

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Whether you’re 8 or 80, you can just never get enough of Amusement Park games and especially if you like Skee-Ball and shooting gallery, then you’ll really enjoy version Ramp Champ by  The Icon Factory and DSMedia Labs. Designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Ramp Champ is a new twist of a classic Carnival Game. The basic idea is that you roll a ball up a ramp with he intention of knocking down moving and stationary targets. You roll the ball by moving your finger – or flicking the screen. Ramp Champ uses the iPhone’s built-in inclinometer- so it’s sensitive to your movement in speed, velocity and distance to send the balls rolling towards the targets. 4 Ramps There are 4 different “ramps” or games:  Clown Town, Breakwater Bay, Space Swarm and Icon Garden. Each one works on a similar premise but the targets are different. To gain maximum point and win, you need to refer to the “Goals” of each game. For example in Clown Town, there are a series of Clowns you need to hit. You score points for hitting each one. Eliminating a row, releases  the “duckies”. Using only 9 balls, you need to knock down all the clowns, hit 5 duckies and earn 10,000 point to win. (So far, I’ve only been able to make it to 7500 points, but the holidays are coming so there’s still time. I’m currently testing out some cool diagonal cross shots and slowly mastering knocking down multiple target with one ball.) You earn trophies for achieving milestones and just like at the amusement park, the machine dispenses  “tickets”- you get one for every 500 points, that can be redeemed for incredible rewards like red fuzzy dice, inflatable pencil (everyone should have one of these), teddy bears, kazoos and many other useful prizes Now these aren’t real tickets, but then again the prizes aren’t real either. I’m sure that your Mother, Father, or significant other would be very pleased that you’re not cluttering up the basement with them. But you can display them nicely on your virtual wall. If you feel that you’ve done really well, you can “Boast & Gloat” to your friends with built-in support for Facebook and Twitter. You can also turn on and off the arcade sounds or if you prefer, you can now listen to your iTunes tunes while playing, but that takes the “feeling like you’re really there” atmosphere away. Free For a Limited Time What even best about Ramp Champ is that it’s recently been updated to version 1.1 and for now, it’s free, but only for a limited time and it’s available at the Apple App Store. There is no indication as to how long. You will to ensure that your iPhone or iPod Touch is running iPhone OS 3.0. Once you’ve had enough but really want more, you can order add-on packs Voyage, Adventure, Challenge and Halloween Pack. Each contains 2 ramps, 6 goals and of course new trophies and virtual prizes. Each pack goes for $0.99. Overall, Ramp Champ is a nice little “roll” playing game, highly addictive and a workout on you poor little fingers.     Greg Gazin can be reached at  gadgetguy “at” telus “dot” net Or GadgetGreg.com

About G4 in Canada
G4 launched on September 7, 2001 as the ultimate television resource for technology news, information and entertainment. Co-owned by G4, Rogers Media Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., G4 is Canada's first television channel 100% dedicated to technology, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The channel features the latest technology news, information and entertainment in an exciting and high-energy format. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite.