Price: $0.99 Score: 8/10 Category: Entertainment
Midnight HD is a self described “interactive particle simulator.” In in plain language, it’s an outerspace-like app that fills your iPad screen with soaring particles that respond to your touch.
Designed by Hyperbolic Magnetism and released this month, this app is a sort of alternate take on Uzu. It provides the same escapist zen garden effect, but provides more of an environment that mimics outer space.
Instead of providing users with multicolor experiences that tend toward the neon, Midnight HD uses a particle color palette that’s dominated with whites, electric blues, and the kinds of oranges and purples you might see in a NASA picture. The app also shies away from the long linear particles that Colordodge Labs’ Uzu thrives on when it comes to multiple touch responses.
While Uzu has more effects for different touch points, something about Midnight HD feels less predictable and far off. While I’m not sure what to attribute this sentiment to, I think it’s because the particles on Uzu tend to soar beyond the screen while Midnight HD features more of a bouncy experience, as if the edge of the iPad screen was the edge of space and time.
Despite the differences, both apps are founded on the same principle. If you like the therapeutic nature of one app, the other will deliver the same kind of experience with a different aura.
All in all, Midnight HD is the kind of outer space escape that leaves you feeling calm and powerful. If you’re looking for that zen like escape, the app certainly does it’s job. If it doesn’t really capture your attention and stay on your mind though, you may look at it once, marvel at its wonder, and then forget about it later.
Still, Midnight HD is like the next generation of particle simulators so often associated with music programs. Instead of responding to bass lines and drumbeats though, your touch dictates everything. If you’re interested in the specific nuances of your touch as it applies to Midnight HD, see how the app responds to your actions in the list below.
One Touch – Particles Scatter in All Directions
Two Touch – Rotate Around the Center
Three Touch – Rotation, Third Touch Affects the Center
Four Touch – Particle Freeze
Five Touch – Light Saber Type Projection
Six Touch – Rotating Spherical Mass
Bottom Line: If you had the ability to let the iPad totally and completely envelop your senses, Midnight HD is the kind of app that might have you thinking you’d teleported to space and started floating.
