Flips: More Bloody Horowitz Review (DSiWare)

A 14-year-old boy and his mysterious octogenarian neighbour he can't seem to get out of his head. A murder gone horribly, horribly, horribly, laughably, horribly wrong. The whiniest family of reluctant tourists ever to visit New York City. All of these tales, a "horror" soundboard and more await in EA's latest Flips entry on DSiWare. Dare you enter?!?!?!

This here collection pulls stories from the book More Bloody Horowitz by Anthony Horowitz, an author better known for his Alex Rider series of books as well as creating the ITV shows Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders. As the double entendre implies, the stories are tongue-in-cheek horror tales. They're no Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or even Goosebumps, but still not bad. They're all kind of cheesy, but considering the younger target audience the cheese factor is at its expected level.

We've seen numerous other Flips editions up for download, so the mechanics of it all have been well documented in our virtual pages before. In short, it feels good to flip pages and navigate the stories, there are little collectibles strewn about the pages to keep things "interactive," and the app bookmarks where you leave off. The biggest issue is the DSi hardware itself, namely its screens; like most electronic devices that don't use e-ink screens, they're not suitable for extended reading unless you really like straining your eyes.

Perhaps most notable here compared to other Flips downloads is that the price has been chopped, from 500 points to a measly 200. If you've been curious as to whether the Flips series is something you or someone you know might find interesting but haven't felt like plunking down the extra points, More Bloody Horowitz is a good place to begin.