App reviews: Spiral Splatter, Mimicker Alarm

Put your hand-eye coordination to the test with Spiral Splatter as you drag a ball through increasingly complicated mazes. In addition to twists and turns, players will have to deal with obstacles such as electrified barriers and wormholes. The goal is to move as quickly as you can to the end, which makes it easy to get sloppy and graze the wall around you - but if you do, you die immediately and have to go back to the start.

This app is ad-supported, but you can pay $2 to ditch the ads. They aren't terribly intrusive but could be annoying for some users. Overall, it's a pretty funny challenge to balance speed and accuracy; it keeps your fingers nimble.

Free, for iOS devices.

<h3 class="breakHead">Mimicker Alarm</h3>

Do you have a hard time waking up in the morning? For those of us who have worn a figurative groove in the snooze button or smartphone screen, it may be worth trying Mimicker Alarm. This app asks you to do an activity before it will turn off your alarm. Once you hear the alarm and slide to turn it off, you're faced with a challenge of some kind that's meant to shake you into consciousness. Challenges include, for example, having to say a tongue twister into your phone's microphone, having to take a picture of yourself matching a certain emotion or running to find an object of a certain color.

The app is made by Microsoft but is only on Google Play. You don't need an account to use the app. Free, for Android devices.