iPhone reviews roundup

Posted July 19, 2011 by Kevin Pabst.

This week we take a look at a new spin on Snake, a retro game collection, a falling turtle, and a snowboarding simulator. Which sparkle and which sizzle? Read on to find out.

Bruce

I don’t mean to impose a theme here but last week I looked at Turtle Fly, a game about a flying turtle, and this week I’m looking at Bruce, a game about a falling turtle. Coincidence, or my secret plan to exterminate all turtles? Either way, Bruce is pretty good.

It’s essentially a “falling down” game where you only have control over left and right movement, but Bruce is (almost) always falling down. There are obstacles like bouncing mushrooms, pylons that speed you up, and clocks that add to the time limit. Your goal is to collect as much cabbage you can and fall as far as you can, but why cabbage? Bruce loves cabbage! You need to avoid cheese, as it knocks your cabbage-multiplier down to one. Why? Bruce hates cabbage! It’s all very simple, but levels being semi-random keep it from getting too repetitive.

You can control Bruce with tilt controls, but there’s also an option for (the superior) side-of-the-screen button controls. Being on the side of the screen, the buttons never get in your way, and makes the game control much tighter. Again, it’s all very simple, but that plays to the strength of mobile gaming. You can pick up Bruce and play for five minutes on a bus ride, but playing for more than that is hard to do without losing interest. Bruce controls well enough and gives enough of a randomization and enough variety in gameplay elements to keep things interesting for short bursts.

Score: 7.9

Price: $0.99

iTunes Link

 

Arcade Essentials

It seems like every two weeks another “retro collection” is released, containing every Atari game ever wrought, every Intellivision game, or some other system from the 1980′s that is getting a collection for the sake of nostalgia and only nostalgia. Arcade Essentials goes a little further than that and instead of merely repackaging the likes of Space Invaders have given five old-school games a new coat of paint. As a child of the 90′s, I don’t remember these games existing in any form besides flash-game knockoffs, but they’re mostly still good fun.

Interceptor is basically Space Invaders, but you’re automatically firing, and there is usually a bigger enemy with a greater amount of health floating around. Random invaders will fire at you, with no warning, and their shots travel too quickly for you to react, which quickly gets annoying. On top of that, it uses an on-screen thumbstick that I often found reading my inputs wrong and getting in the way. Terra Conquerer is based on a game I don’t remember ever playing, but is similar to Tron light-cycles. You need to segment off as much of the level as possible while avoiding enemies. I love this kind of game, but again, an unresponsive virtual thumbstick both gets in the way and reads my inputs wrong.

Color Cells is like an upside-down, color-based tetris. Hit blue blocks with blue, match 3 of them and they disappear. It controls well, but the randomness of color placement and colors you get mean it’s hard to plan, and hard to get far. Troops Attack has you defending from a single spot, with a wide angle of fire to defend. Using the virtual thumbstick, it’s difficult to turn fast enough to hit everything, and quickly gets frustrating. The last game, Hexagonum, is so confusing that I couldn’t pass the first level.

None of the games in the collection have any tutorial, and I can’t find a help screen anywhere, so I gave up on trying to figure it out. One or two of the games in here are legitimately fun, and don’t feel limited by the device, but a great majority feel crippled by unresponsive controls. You’re better off finding flash-versions of these five classics and playing on your computer.

Score: 6.3

Price: $2.99

iTunes Link

Snowboard Hero

As someone currently trapped in an apartment with no air conditioning with a heat index at about 107 Fahrenheit, it was nice to play Snowboard Hero and forget the heat. You take control of one of a handful of different snowboarders that differ cosmetically and statistically; some boarders have balanced stats, while others have higher agility, or boost.

Thing is, you unlock them sequentially, and their stats are set in such a way that you’ll never want to use a lower-tier boarder. This wouldn’t be a problem, but there is a sore lack of variety in the levels and the objectives. There’s essentially three game types: hit as many gates as you can, reach the end before another boarder and get as many points as you can, and reach the end before a time limit and get as many points as you can. All the way though ten levels with only seven or so characters and I got sick of it by the third.

There are a good number of stages, but they are introduced in a poor way, where for the first two characters, it was mainly the same three levels with different game types. Then, the next character introduced a single new level. Looking at the level list and the number of characters, it feels like this would continue to the final character.

However, besides the limiting amount of content, Snowboard Hero is decent. You move with tilt, and swipe/tap the screen for different tricks. It all felt very intuitive and simple. I should mention that, if you want, you can spend real cash to buy credits to unlock the later boarders right away, or new challenges on new maps, and even a board that has maxed-out stats. In a way it feels like this may have been what tarnished the game for me, as it feels like Snowboard Hero was designed to annoy you into spending cash. The alternative? Grind for credits and starts to progress. That isn’t very nice.

Score: 7.1

Price: $4.99

iTunes Link

 

Snake Game – Boa Constrictor

As I said earlier with Arcade Essentials, I’m not old enough to have experienced the arcades during their prime. Snake/Centipede though, I did experience on a flash game site years ago, and Snake Game – Boa Constrictor keeps the spirit without sticking too close. In the two modes, you press the screen to direct where the Boa goes.

In the classic mode, it’s like Snake but with more granularity. That is, you’re not constricted (ha!) to a grid and right-angle turns. Similarly, ‘evolved’ mode has the same fine control, but introduces new elements, like rats you can strangle with your body, and hawks that fly by that try to carry you off for dinner. Both modes are fun enough and have you deal with different problems.

My biggest beef comes from – you guessed it – the controls. While the snake feels like it follows you control well enough, it’s easy for your hand to end up blocking an upcoming apple, or the edge of the level. It doesn’t ruin the game, but it’s something to be aware of. Additionally, trying to post high scores leads to an infinite loop of errors, and to get around it I had to restart my iOS device. Besides the control-hand problem and high scores being busted, I simply can’t find anything else to say about Snake Game. It’s simple and it works almost all the time while improving on the classic. Give it a shot.

Score: 8.5

Price: $0.99

iTunes Link

Got an iOS game you want me to take a look at? Comment, or e-mail me at kpabst[AT]beefjack[DOT]com.