A Gaming Diary
Posts tagged pocket god
Pocket God (iPhone)
Aug 11th
Another new mini game has been added. The last was a tribute to Doodle Jump, this one to Harbour Master.
There are piranas in the sea, you need to draw lines to your pygmies, so the piranas can get some food, then direct them off the screen. If two piranas collide, it’s game over.
So, yes, similar to Harbour Master.
Just nowhere near as good. But – but! – it’s just a small mini game in a much larger package. After being baffled by Pocket God’s success when I first got it, I’ve found these two latest updates have really added some much-needed bulk. I actually ended up playing the Doodle Jump mini game for ages on Saturday.
I think it might even be worth buying now.
Pocket God (iPhone)
Jul 27th
When I wrote about Trixel earlier today I mentioned that it was probably the only game I shouldn’t have bought. I forgot about Pocket God, which kept me confused for about ten minutes and amused for about two. It is hugely popular, I know, but I have no idea why. Not a clue.
However, it had an update over the weekend that added in a proper, real mini game.
You bounce on clouds and tilt left and right to land on other clouds to bounce even higher. It’s not great, but it’s at least half decent and thus improves Pocket God a million percent, approximately. Hooray!
Pocket God (iPhone)
Jul 20th
This is one of the darlings of the iPhone. A hugely popular little app that lots of people love and that gets frequent and meaningful updates. I wish I liked it more.
There’s a couple of islands where some pygmies live. You can kill them in initially-amusing ways, help them out with firewood and stuff, try to kill a lot of them at once to earn Achievements (using the cross-game Feint system) or, er, well, there doesn’t seem to be much more to do and for me it’s not enough.
It certainly looks nice. In that picture I’ve created a hurricane, which is throwing my little pygmy chaps around. It was fun, the first two or three times. But without any real consequences it just all feels a bit flat to me – I just don’t care about the little chaps. I should check for any Achievements I’ve not yet earned, but I don’t feel invested enough to even do that.
There is hope, though. The next update should see the first real, proper mini-game being added to the game. It should be the first of many. I’ll check out once it’s been updated, but I doubt I’ll play it again before then.
iPhone Round Up Part One (iPhone)
Jul 15th
I got an iPhone at the weekend. It’s the best thing ever. I can Twitter while I sit on the loo. I can keep up with baseball scores. I can set my Sky HD to record programs while I’m out and about. I can turn the phone upside down so ladies lose their clothes. Etc. It also plays games. I’ve tried a lot of them over the last few days, so I’m going to post some brief impressions in this thread, then I’ll post individual entries for games in the future. Ready? Here goes!
Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D – My most played iPhone game. It’s a simple game where you simply have to hit as many baseballs as possible as far as you can. It works due to the speed and the controls. Games are short (at least they are when you’re not very good), but it’s very hard not to hit “Yes” when it asks you if you want to play again. The controls are simple – tilt the iPhone to aim, touch anywhere on the screen to swing – and work perfectly. Very, very highly recommended. It cost me £1.79 and I’m happy with that, but for today only it’s down to 59p. Go get it – now!
Droplitz – Fantastic puzzle game where you have to rotate paths so that drops can get from the top of the screen to the bottom. Highly addictive and my second most played iPhone game. I believe it costs £1.19, which is an absolute steal, even when other games are 59p.
Flight Control – Draw paths so planes and helicopters can reach their destination without crashing. Great fun and makes good use of the iPhone’s location, giving you very local leaderboards. There’s a reason this 59p game has been such a big hit.
Zombies & Me – Notable for being the first product of a new EA studio set up to produce cheap iPhone games. You run around, getting zombies to follow you and then lead them into the path of falling bombs to blow them up. Very simple, but great fun. It really needs online leaderboards, though.
Assassin’s Creed Lite – Pretty rubbish. Looks lovely, but the virtual d-pad and buttons just don’t work well enough.
Mega Man 2 Lite – Another game ruined by having to make use of a virtual d-pad.
Topple – Free, fun enough, but a bit clunky to control. Worth a download.
iso – Falling block matching game. Decent enough, but I’m glad it was free.
Enviro-Bear 2010 – Insane, er, bear driving simulator. Absolutely impossible to control, but that’s the point. Not worthy of its current cult status, but you really do need to pay the 59p just for the WTF-ness.
WildWest Pinball – Good pinball game and well worth a download for the current price of zero pence.
Toki Tori – Excellent little puzzle game, which makes good use of touch screen controls and features some fiendish puzzles. Well worth the asking price – I played the demo and then bought the full version immediately.
Paper Toss – Oddly relaxing game where you have to flick balls of paper into a wastepaper basket. It’s free and worth downloading. I play it more than I feel I should.
Globall – Tilty ball game. It’s decent, but somehow it hasn’t grabbed me.
Galcon – Imagine Risk. In space. In real time. Where a whole game lasts about thirty seconds. You’ve just imagined Galcon. Recommended – and there’s a good demo, too, which convinced me to buy the full game.
Westbang – You remember that old game set in the wild west where there are three doors and when they open you have to shoot the baddies but avoid shooting the good guys? This is that. Works brilliantly and comes highly recommended. Yet another game where the demo convinced me to buy the game. I was surprised how good it was. Check it out.
Pocket God – Mainly notable for being the only game I’ve tried so far to make use of the cross-game Feint achievements system. It’s a fun little diversion for thirty seconds – you’re a god and you can kill your islanders in briefly amusing ways – but even 59p feels like a bit of a stretch to me. It’s hugely popular, though, so I’m probably in the minority here.
