Free-App Hero sweeps in to save you... money
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a free app
The App Store is littered with free app apps, which generally fall under one of two distinct categories.
Apps such as FreeAppADay and OpenFeint's Game Channel offer you a free app everyday - normally in partnership with the games developers.
On the other hand, apps such as PandoraBox merely highlight the vast number of newly available free titles.
Free-App Hero falls into the latter category, albeit with a unique twist.
How it worksEach and every day, Free-App Hero's game reviewers sift through the newly available free apps in order to separate the gems from the gibberish - theoretically removing the need to trawl through them yourself. Only those that are deemed 'good enough' are included.
Free-App Hero is divided into two main sections – recent and permanent - which can be switched between via a tabbed bar located at the bottom of the screen.
The recent section, unsurprisingly, showcases the latest free apps and games available to download, listed by date. Tapping on an app will display a comprehensive review, its file size, a couple of screenshots, and a direct link to the App Store.
Post-dated inclusions can also be viewed with apps that have returned to original price outlined in red. Furthermore, an A-Z of all previously included apps can be viewed if you wish to read their reviews.
Games found under the permanent tab are continually free, so there is no rush to download them. Currently, Free-App Hero highlights over 120 of the best permanently free apps such as Get Set Games' perpetual jumper Mega Jump.
The RulesUnlike the various other 'free app' apps available on the App Store, HeroSoft promise only to feature 'proper full games' and not Lites, freemium versions, or titles with in-game ads.
This rule, however, has been broken for Real Racing GTI - a Lite version of Firemint's original outing – on the basis that it contains more content than most full-featured games.
Furthermore, HeroSoft claim that all games featured within its app have actually been played by real people, with no robots dumbly scraping the App Store servers for any old rubbish with a price cut.
All in a days work
Overall, Free-App Hero appears to be a very useful tool for anybody that regularly downloads games on their iDevice. At £1.19 / $1.99 the app is bound to pay for itself in no time.
Slow loading times and the occasional crash slightly hinder Free-App Hero, but with promised updates on the way, these issues will seemingly be fixed.
A free ad-supported edition of the app is also available which contains 100 fewer games than its full-featured brother.
