I don’t pretend to know much about the inner workings of Freeverse, but I can say this; they like their labs puzzling, and their monkeys burning. Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab came out for the Macintosh back in 2000, and it was pretty good. Although it featured various single player games (most notable of which was “Zen” mode, in which the tone settled down and the blocks never sped up), it really shined in multiplayer versus mode. Here, it was no longer enough to just align the descending balls; you needed to line then up in a certain way so you could send “bad” balls to your opponent. The games were more intense, more fun, and (thank heavens) shorter.

It’s not at all surprising, then, that Freeverse selected Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab (BMPL) as one of their first Mac to iPhone ports. The iPhone screen orientation is perfect for falling blocks and balls and what have you, and the graphics are well suited to the iPhone’s capabilities. It’s just a great match. And yet, BMPL for the iPhone/iPod touch left me wanting.

I gotta be honest with you; I mainly only go bowling with the anticipation of the alley being attacked by The Blob. Or the Son of Blob. Or the Beware! The Blob! Whatever. The point is, expecting a blood red, gelatinous mass to come rolling up the lanes at any moment adds a sense of urgency and terror to the game that really enhances the overall effect. This is why I’m largely disappointed with bowling video games. Nobody really dies in them.

But, I won’t hold that against Freeverse’s Flick Bowling for the iPhone and iPod touch. What it lacks in terror, in makes up for with “awesome balls,” as they put it. And I suppose the balls are pretty awesome. Unlike real bowling, where you’re mainly stuck with the ball you chose at the beginning of the game, Flick Bowling changes the balls up on you constantly. They don’t affect your game, but not a whole lot does. That’s not really the point of Flick Bowling. Rather, the point is to just show off your iPhone a bit more, and have fun doing it.

One of the perils of being a fake Mac journalist is that every four or five years you have to review new versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Together, they’re the death and taxes of Macintosh gaming. Now it’s Freeverse’s turn with them, and I’m afraid they’ve gone all ironic on us. Freeverse games, you see, are normally all about personality. Well, not all about, but the personality of the Freeverse cast of characters is often enough to drive fans to purchase one of their games even if they have no interest in the genre. So, it’s ironic that Freeverse would be the company to publish the most personality-free versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune to date.

And this isn’t just because Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak and Vanna White are nowhere to be found. The video snippets of Alex and Vanna killed the MacSoft versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, respectively. The load times were annoying, and the live motion video overtop of the computer animations were disjointed and kind of creepy. Even though technology has progressed since then, I’m still quite certain I wouldn’t want live video of these people in the game, but CGI characters or even voiceovers could work. Instead, we get nothing.

As I mentioned, though, that’s not the real problem here. Jump past the break to find out what went wrong.

Freeverse, Inc. today revealed plans to release more than a dozen game titles for iPhone and iPod Touch. Available immediately with the opening of the iTunes App Store will be Wingnuts Moto Racer, Big Bang Sudoku and the infamous, Jared: Butcher of Song. Available by September will be Big Bang Chess and various Flick Sports and 3D card games. To add that touch of mystery and wonder, they also point out that they have “…several other unannounced games and applications in active development.” I would ponder their identity, but I’m stuck on how Jared: Butcher of Song will make use of the iPhone’s accelerometer.

Game details after the break.