Fantastic Particles, Man: Doin' whatever a particle can.

I find myself playing with the silliest of applications.  They are not games, they are not terribly useful, but they kind of mesmerize me deeply.

Fantastic Particles by NisseSoft falls into that category.  The application is simple--there are five particle generator presets.  Pick one and begin touching the screen.  Amazing fireworks of light erupt in different ways based on your presets.  You can use different presets to build different images.  If you build something very cool, take a picture and keep it forever.

This is a gripping commentary on mondern-day school lunches.

I honestly don't think this one is geared toward "art creation" though.  Nothing I have created is that cool, to be honest.  Instead, I use it to let my brain go into mush mode and chill out for five minutes.

The app has a lot of problems.  If you add more than five or six effects, the image begins to stutter and eventually stops responding.  I attribute this to processor speed, but I would think there would be a failsafe built in that would not allow you to go too far with the effects.  Also, the particles do not respond to movement.  You choose the origin of your particle, and that is where the effect stays.  I'd love a version that lets you wipe your finger across the screen and leaves a trail of fairy dust.

...And this is a still from Radiohead's visit to the Colonoscopy Clinic.

It would also be very nice if you could change backgrounds to different colors or even use a picture from your photo album.  All of a sudden my picture of a volcano has MAD CRAZY LAVA SHOOTING OUT OF IT!  That would be cool in a kind of stoner way.

But there are some cool features.  You can show or hide the effects toolbar on the bottom, allowing you to take unhindered stills.  And within the settings tab, you can play with the presets and change their duration, position, pixel variation, color and all other kinds of things.  It's a surprisingly sophisticated customization menu...almost too much for such a silly and simple app.

I can't really recommend it for the $0.99 because of the processor/freezing issue, but there is still some worth to this app.  I think if the bugs can get worked out, it will be well worth the money.

You can get Fantastic Particles HERE.