Category Archives: App Of The Week

Name: Let’s Go Rocket
Platform: iOS
Price: Free

I’m always on the look out for fun new games whether they are for my computer or my mobile device, so when I ran across Let’s Go Rocket I was quick to check it out. This free iOS game is very simple. You are given a rocket and you have to navigate it through a series of obstacles. You can vary the speed of your rocket by either touching it to speed up or letting go of it to slow it down. Sounds simple, right? However, there are a lot of additional details that make this game quite complicated. First, you have to ensure that your rocket moves fast enough that it doesn’t drift off of the bottom of your screen. If it does, you lose. Moreover, you can’t move side to side at all, so avoiding obstacles is not as easy as it might first seem. And, there are a lot of different types of obstacles that will keep you on your toes. Along the way, you also encounter gems to gather and aliens to pick up along the way. To add to the fun, you can choose which rocket you would like to use when you first start the game and there are options to buy or unlock other rockets as you go along.

Though Let’s Go Rocket is fairly simple, I have found it very enjoyable and almost frustratingly difficult. Even when I know exactly what my objective is, the app manages to make achieving it difficult with the sensitivity of the controls and the limited range of motion for the rocket. The app indicates your best result on the screen as a sort of “finish line” that you can cross, which is a nice way to keep track of your progress and motivate yourself to keep pushing further. The artwork in the app is very cute featuring not only an array of rockets, but also adorable aliens and great backgrounds that make the game very engaging.

Let’s Go Rocket is a good combination of simple controls, fun artwork and difficult gameplay elements. This makes it a nice option for both those who like casual games and those who want a bit more difficulty in their games. Though the app does include additional features that can be purchased, it can be played without these add-ons, meaning that it is a nice free option to recommend to teens at your library.

Have a suggestion for App of the Week? Let us know. And find more great Apps in the YALSA Blog’s App of the Week Archive.

Title: Lenka
Cost: Free
Platform: iOS and Android

Lenka is an interesting photography app for those who want to create artistic photos with their mobile devices. The unique feature of this app is that it only offers the ability to take black and white photos. While this might seem like a limitation when compared to other photography apps on the market, in the end, it is what makes the app stand out.

Created by a photographer, Lenka clearly focuses on allowing anyone to take a beautiful black and white photo. Though it offers only a limited number of options, they are nice features that make sense for the purpose of creating artistic photos. For example, rather than offering a standard flash option, Lenka only offers the option to turn your device’s light on or off so that you have continual illumination if you opt to use the light rather than a flash. The other options that you can customize for you photos are the exposure level, contrast, and ‘temperature’ or tint of the photo. Each of these options is controlled by a slider that allows you to exercise a fairly subtle level of control over these levels. While the app autofocuses photos for you, it also includes a manual focus slider for users who want to exert more control over the focus of their images. Finally, another feature that demonstrates the level of thought put into this app is the option to take photo either by tapping a circle on the screen as is so frequently the case for smartphone apps or by pressing the device’s sound buttons. While this may seem like a minor feature, it is a nice alternative that can make it easier and more comfortable to take high quality photos. Finished photos are added to your Gallery within the app and can be edited by cropping, resizing, or rotating them and then shared to Instagram or exported to email, SMS, or Twitter.

Lenka is a great option for photography fans. It offers limited but excellent options that will make even newbies feel like accomplished photographers. I think this is a great app to recommend to teens who are interested in photography and want to add an artistic look to their smartphone photos. Playing around with the settings is a lot of fun and can create impressive final results.

Have a suggestion for App of the Week? Let us know. And find more great Apps in the YALSA Blog’s App of the Week Archive.