I've already spent $5 on Nintendo Badge Arcade; how about you?

Did I say $5? What I meant to say was $10.

What on earth prompted me to hand over $10 of real-world money to play the just-released 3DS application-cum-bottom-line-stuffer called Nintendo Badge Arcade?



I'll give you three reasons, with the first being the BOXBOY! badges Nintendo plopped onto its claw machine-esque app in early November, and the second and third being the Pikmin and Pushmo badges that followed closely behind.

Thankfully, I've since come to my senses and I haven't plunked any more of my hard-earned cash into Nintendo Badge Arcade for at least a couple of days now.



All bets are off, though, if Nintendo cruelly decides to tease me with some Ice Climber or Kid Icarus badges in the coming weeks.

Strangely, despite my unhealthy fascination with the Nintendo Badge Arcade and a good portion of its offerings so far, I've yet to do a whole lot with the spoils I've yanked from the app.

In fact, at the moment, I've simply got a handful of adorable Pikmin creatures traipsing along the top of my favorite 3DS icons. (Previously, I used my BOXBOY! badges to conjure up a slightly more creative scene, but I quickly replaced it because I found it too busy.)

How about you guys and gals? Have you put any time into Nintendo Badge Arcade? If so, which of its many digital pins have most attracted your attention?

In case you haven't heard elsewhere: I'm now on Instagram!

The very first thing I did after setting up my newly acquired iPhone a week or so ago was download as many games and apps as the wireless router in our basement could handle.

And given my love of photography, one of the first apps I nabbed was Instagram.

Should you be the sort of person who likes to follow others on social media, and should you specifically be the sort of person who wants to follow someone like me on Instagram, you can do so by punching my handle, rainbow_blight, into whichever smartphone you tend to choose.

You'll be seeing more of this sucker in tomorrow's post.

Or, if you don't have an Instagram-able smartphone, you can view my photostream (or whatever verbiage Instragram uses here) by aiming your browser to instagram.com/rainbow_blight.

I've only uploaded three photos so far, one of which is seen above, but more will be added in the coming days, weeks, months and (hopefully) years, I can assure you.

On a related note, I'm also on all sorts of other social media sites these days, including Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, so check them out if any of them are your kind of thing.

Please share your iOS game and app suggestions and recommendations here

In news that is sure to thrill my pal Simon, the oh-so-British proprietor of the Red Parsley blog, I recently bought my first smartphone.

Specifically, I got an iPhone.

Which means, of course, that I'm in the market for a whole bunch of iOS games and apps.



Have any of you played any iOS games or used any iOS apps that you think I should experience as soon as possible? If so, I'd really appreciate it if you'd name them--and tell me why you like them, if you're willing--in the comments section below.

Just so you know, I've already purchased the following: Drop Wizard, rainblocks and Sunburn!

I spent a few minutes with both Drop Wizard and rainblocks over the weekend, and I found the former game, especially, to be a lot of fun. (I also liked the latter, but I'm not sure it's something I'll return to all that often.)