Bounce On Review

Before I start this review I just want to apologise ahead of time for the many comparisons I am likely to make between this game and Rolando. That being said, don't assume I'm about to argue how the more publicised and expensive game is superior, because I'm not.

Bounce On is a cute side-scrolling adventure charting the story of a little red ball trying to make its way back to the pocket it fell out of. Along the way it (can I say he?) encounters collectible gems, foes, and all kinds of varied environments that we never knew existed. His quest plays out across 15 levels, starting off easy and steadily become more difficult by the time you reach the end. The levels are displayed on an overview map as can be seen in the image, and the level icons represent the difficulty of the level as well as what medal you've achieved, if you've completed the level. It's a fun way to pick a level, as you even get to roll the ball around to the level you wish to play on. I do think this is cool and do appreciate the effort, however if you're looking for a few minutes of play time, it can be frustrating having to roll your way to one of the later levels every time you start up the game. Plus if you've taken alternative routes you can get stuck on levels you haven't completed yet, and then have to roll all the way round again to go to later levels. Novel way to display the levels though, don't get me way.

The gameplay itself is relatively simple, and is probably exactly as you'd imagine. You roll and bounce along, trying to reach the end of the level, collecting gems along the way and avoiding the enemies. There are checkpoints on some levels, and you are fired out of a cannon once you reach the end of each level. It's very similar to Rolando, although there generally isn't really much of an objective other than to reach the end of each level. Despite lacking an actual challenge or problem to solve, Bounce On poses enough of a challenge in making it to the end, especially in some of the later levels. The height of your bounces is based on how long you hold down for with your finger, so when you're jumping between narrow ledges as you do in later levels, it does take some precise skill/practice/luck. You are awarded medals for making it through the levels; bronze for making it, silver for making it with all gems collected, and then gold for collecting all gems in a certain time. I like how these medals are progressively more challenging, unlike in Rolando where you can concentrate on one medal at a time, with no greater reward for achieving all of the objectives at once. These progressively challenging medal requirements add some replayability, however I can definitely see it becoming frustrating after a while if you are going for gold on some of the later levels.

While the game takes a little getting used to (the controls are great, but maybe not as precise as Rolando's), it is very addictive once you get going. Even if you die repeatedly on a level, you keep trying over and over again, which I never find myself doing with Rolando. Somehow, being able to see the entire level and the challenges ahead put me off after dying a few times, whereas with Bounce On, you just want to give it another go to see if you can get a little further along than you did the last time. However, there are a few things that could be improved to make this a little more enjoyable. You have a certain number of 'lives' as you play each level, and while I see their use for when you've made it to a checkpoint, they seem kind of pointless the rest of the time. If I've died once I'd much rather start the level over with the clock at 0:00, and 2 full lives again, which can be done by leaving the level and going back in. Also, if you're going for a more difficult medal where you have to beat a certain time, it would be nice to have a restart level button in the menu, because as soon as you die once, restarting at the beginning with the clock still ticking makes it impossible. Instead, you have to go back to the overworld, and then re-enter the level to stand a fair chance. Minor other improvements could include a nice visual effect on the ball (while the powerups give the sense of rolling and motion, the standard red ball has no graphical features to make it appear to 'roll' as opposed to just floating along). Also the overworld level selection could be slightly improved to make it quicker to get to the later levels.

With an average rating of 4.5 stars on the App Store (albeit it from only 10 reviews) players are clearly impressed, and the description states new worlds will be released as free updates in the future. While I feel that currently the game may be better off priced at $1.99 instead of $2.99, with a few improvements or a few more levels it would be a good buy at $2.99. If you loved Rolando and need something similar to play, or even if you found Rolando to be a little too complex and demanding, then Bounce On offers similar yet distinctly different gameplay for a much lower price.

Thanks to Team Phobic for the chance to review their game, check it out on their website.

7 Cities TD Review

7 Cities, developed by Neptune Studios, is the latest in a long line of tower defense games that can be found in Apple's App Store. Having been in development since the beginning of August it hopes to challenge the established TD front-runners (Fieldrunners, Tap Defense etc) by promising deep gameplay and features not commonly found in other TD games.

First impressions of the game were good, however it became apparent quite soon that 7 Cities was more than a simple pick-up and play game. In the grand scheme of games on the Touch and iPhone, there seems to be a division forming between games that encourage substantial sit down and play time (SimCity) and games designed for a quick 5 minute spurt of gaming (Dr. Awesome, Galcon, etc.). Many games promise both, attempting to appeal to both the casual and devoted gamers at the same time, but few ever manage this. I myself decline to have a preference, instead focusing on what works for me. If a game can captivate me for more than 10 minutes, then it deserves more devoted playing from me, and I am happy to provide it. If I can't stand to do more than a couple of levels at once of a certain game, then I'll come back to it in the future for a few minutes at a time. Anyway, that is a discussion for another time, but it is relevant to 7 Cities.

Most tower defense games promise a mixture of pick-up and play gaming, but with enough content to also entertain those that wish to put more time into it. However, most of them fail on this promise. 7 Cities doesn't make this promise, and it's probably for a reason. It's not the most friendly of games for wasting away 10 minutes while waiting for a train, but it doesn't try to be. It has one goal in mind; to be as in depth as possible, and offer the gamer as much choice and variation as possible. And it does a pretty good job at achieving this.

I was initially slightly deterred when starting the campaign mode. I've always considered myself reasonably good at TD games, so I went straight ahead and tried the first map on 'normal' difficulty. Unfortunately my city was overrun by wave 10 out of the 15 or 20 required for that round. After several attempts in which I didn't progress any further, I conceded and played on easy. And it was during these first two campaign cities that I really realised the beauty to the game. It takes the format and strategy of TD games, and turns it upside down. While every TD game has varying towers, upgrade options and enemy types, no other game does it like 7 Cities. For the first time I found myself really thinking about how to tackle each map that I was presented with, often having to attempt it several times before getting close to beating the final wave.

Unlike other TD games, towers upgrade automatically through combat, gaining substantially increased damage as they level up. While this is a great feature by itself, it has a massive affect on your strategy. You are forced to plan ahead and build ahead, to ensure that towers are powerful enough by the time you face the more powerful enemies 10 waves from now. The typical TD tactic of throwing in a few towers towards the end of the path to tackle the occasional enemy that has escaped no longer works, because the damage they inflict will be a fraction of what is needed. While it takes some getting used to, once you have a collection of heavily upgraded towers, it is deeply satisfying to watch them tear apart the enemy with ease. And even more satisfying knowing that you really had to approach the level with some thought to manage this.

In addition to towers leveling up, they also have unlockable skills. These are gained by progressing through the campaign mode, and unlocking the tower skills from the game's menu. Fortunately, if you find that the tower skills you unlocked aren't working for you, you can go back to the menu, unselect them, and pick different ones. It is also on this screen that you unlock the final 3 of 5 different tower types. These tower skills are further evidence of the depth that exists in this game. Each tower has two different skills, which can be used twice during gameplay (with increasing effectiveness). Rather than simply increasing the stats of each tower though, they have differing effects that can be useful in multiple situations.

I'll give an example (as this is pretty hard to explain without doing so). The cannon tower (pretty standard for a TD game) has two different skill upgrades. One turns it into a trebuchet (graphically represented as well) which causes the tower to inflict burn damage for a set duration. The other skill gives the tower a certain percentage chance to go 'berserk' every time the tower gets a kill. When going berserk its rate of fire is increased for a number of seconds. Now these two skill upgrades are very different, and can thus be applied in different situations to gain most benefit for your strategy. For instance, if you have a cannon tower placed strategically on the inside of a loop it will rack up a lot of kills. Because of this it is tactically sound to give it the berserk upgrade as it gets a lot of kills. Alternatively you may have a cannon tower near the beginning of the path (or river in 7 Cities) which rarely gets kills, but inflicts a lot of early damage. The trebuchet would clearly be best used in this situation. There is more to the use of skills than just this, but I'll let you explore that when playing the game.

Visually, the game is pretty impressive. Tower animations are nice, and the map is detailed. You can zoom in to help tower placement and there is an easy button for turning on and off a grid to help. The combat is well animated, with nice fire and lightning effects in particular. There is also a nice variety of interesting enemies and bosses for each of the enemy types. There are 7 different maps, which are unlocked as you progress through the campaign, and you are unable to unlock all the varying tower skills until you have progressed to the end of the campaign. While this makes it frustrating for those that want to jump right into a survival game (due to limited tower skill upgrades), it does encourage a more paced introduction to the game, which is needed.

The game is not without some flaws. The UI should be customised for each map i.e. putting numbers and buttons in empty space rather than always at the top (map 2 for example). Some rebalancing of the enemies is needed; sometimes the boss enemy is easily defeated when compared to groups of regular enemies, and sometimes it is the other way round. Zilla, the regenerative boss is also massively overpowered. Finally, while I am very impressed with the guidance and info available for first time players, it could be improved a bit, especially in relation to tower skills, as it took a little trial and error to fully understand it.

Overall though, 7 Cities is a supremely well-made game; you can tell that significant time and effort went into it to create the game that was originally intended, rather than rush out a less developed or bugged copy as happens all too often. While it doesn't quite match the graphical beauty of some TD games in the App Store, it is certainly among the prettiest. And when you consider that alongside its deep and engaging gameplay, there really is no better overall TD game than 7 Cities. It might not be suited to pick-up and play gaming, but I dare you not to reserve more time in your day for the next time you plan to play.


- Thank you to the people at Neptune Studios for giving me the chance to review their game.

ROLANDO!

The most hyped game in App Store history has hit shelves, if you will, and is available to download right now. Initial reaction has been very good, and it is looking like the game to own for the holiday season. Expect a review sometime next week, but stop reading and go play!

SimCity in the App Store!

SimCity was released to the App Store this morning as expected, following the news at the weekend that it would be out this week. Offering all but a few of the features of SimCity 3000 this looks to be one of the most significant, if not the most significant game release since the App Store opened. Initial impressions have been good, although some have not been as content as others about controls, framerate, and draw distance. It seems though that EA have pulled off quite a feat in porting the game to this mobile platform, and assuming it sells well who knows what else we will be seeing from them (aside from NFS eventually).

Expect a review next week once I get the game for xmas :-)

Pathways: A cute story-based puzzler

Pathways, developed and released by Conniption Entertainment, is a cute yet challenging puzzler available for the Touch and iPhone. The player follows the story of two boys who have discovered a series of 'pathways' while exploring in some woods. While one of the boys is strangely abducted, you take on the role of his friend trying to track him down. Animated cut scenes of the multiple characters interject 75 progressively challenging levels as you try to solve the mystery of your friend's disappearance and the strange pathways you are solving.

Having managed to grab this game on its brief promotional period after Thanksgiving, I have to say I have been quite satisfied. The animations and gameplay are highly satisfying for what could otherwise have been a duller, unanimated puzzler. Instead, the developers have created a back story that makes you want to get to the next level as quickly as possible, to find out what happens next. But making it through a level is not that simple. You must cross the varying pathways, stepping on the tiles either once, or the set number of times indicated (after which they disappear). Upon reaching the exit, you can only proceed if all tiles have been removed. As the levels progress this requires some degree of planning ahead, and being able to realise the implications of any particular move. While this can get frustrating at times, it does make you think, and there is significant satisfaction at completing a level that has kept you pondering for more than a minute or two.

Currently on sale during the Christmas period at only 99 cents, this is definitely worth picking up if you are into puzzlers of any kind, especially given the animations and amusing back story. While being slightly harder to justify at its regular price of $4.99, fans of the genre should still not be put off.