A Gaming Diary
Archive for October, 2009
Canabalt (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
This one’s been stirring up some controversy today.
Not about the quality of the game – pretty much everyone agrees that it’s excellent – but about the price.
It’s £1.79.
Out of context, that doesn’t sound like much. It’s about the price of half a pint of beer for an exceptional game.
However, there are two important bits of context.
Firstly, you can play the game for free on the web HERE.
Secondly, it feels very much like the sort of game that would sit with Mr.AahH!, Run and Skybound at the 59p price point. You can get all three of those excellent games for the price of Canabalt on its own.
A lot of people, therefore, aren’t buying it, either because they think it’s simply not worth the cost, or because they believe the developer will be forced to slash the price before long.
So why did I buy it, then?
Simply because it’s an excellent game. It looks gorgeous, it sounds brilliant and it’s fast, addictive and exciting. I’ve played the web game a lot and now I can carry it around with me and play it wherever I am. And that’s worth £1.79 of my iTunes credit balance.
FIFA 10 (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Wow. I’m drained. I’ve just spent my lunchtime taking Aston Villa through the FA Cup. We beat such amazing teams as Colchester, Aldershot and Preston on the way through to a final against the mighty Grimsby.
One all after normal time, Carew scored in the first half of extra time to put us ahead and we carried that lead through to the end.
Hooray!
We’re winners!
Anyway, it’s a good game, though not perfect. The AI can do some very strange things at times. I’m not sure if that’s because of the difficulty level or just because it’s a bit rubbish. The highlights sometimes show completely the wrong thing. And I have honestly never heard such a repetitive commentary.
But the controls work well, it looks nice, it’s full of content and you get a fun, tense game of footie out of it. I can’t compare it to any other iPhone football games, because I’ve not played them, but I like this one.
Here’s a picture of the first goal I ever scored.
Beautiful, ain’t it?
iDrop Dead (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Right, I want you to do me a favour today if you own an iPod Touch or an iPhone.
I want you to download the Lite version of iDrop Dead.
I’ll even give you a direct link to the game on the iTunes Store.
Got that?
Okay.
Now I want you to play it.
If you enjoy it, the full game is only 59p and is full of lots of levels and modes and characters and blood colours and everything.
Thank you.
I appreciate that this sounds a bit like an advert, but I only downloaded the game on a whim and was very surprised by how good it was. I think a lot of people are just thinking it’s some gory cartoon toy, when in fact it’s an excellent puzzle game. I really just think it deserves a wider exposure than it’s got and I honestly think most people who try it out will be surprised by how good it is.
It’s not perfect, no, but it’s very, very good and any criticisms I might have – some weirdly difficult goals now and again, random placement of saw blades on one of the level means you have to keep playing to get a good layout – don’t amount to much against the good stuff.
4×4 Jam (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Just played this after Squareball sessions when I needed to wind down and relax.
Not that losing a race after bouncing off the road just before the finish line felt particularly relaxing at the time, mind you.
Squareball (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Take that! Ha!
Level eight, The Lava Temple, seemed impossible at first.
No, really – I honestly thought I’d never get through it.
Somehow, though, I did. I’m still not quite sure how.
Level nine, though, maybe this will be the one to finally break me…
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
Oof. I just lost a game. We were level, I had a single U left, I couldn’t see a single place I could go.
I had to pass my turn.
My opponent won.
It turns out, though, that there was a move I could have made to win the game. It seems so very obvious now, but I just couldn’t see it.
Can you?
Orbital (iPhone)
Oct 2nd
A few quick goes.
Didn’t get anywhere near my high scores. Not the old ones, not the ones on this phone.
It was pretty pathetic, really, but that’s how it goes most of the time – it’s a very easy game to do badly at.
Backbreaker Football (iPhone)
Oct 1st
Thought I’d try out the Endurance mode today.
It is aptly named.
I think I got through 37 waves before I finally died, just before losing the will to live.
Not that it’s a bad game – far from it, it’s excellent – but I really think it’s better suited to the shorter play sessions that the Challenge mode provides.
And I didn’t even come top of the scoreboard.
Bah.
Mr.AahH!! (iPhone)
Oct 1st
It’s Mr.AahH!! again!
This one’s something of a success story.
It seems that while I’ve been away, people have actually been buying this game, as the leaderboards seem to have loads more people on them than they used to.
This is a good thing, because Mr.AahH!! is yet another fanastic iPhone game you can buy for 59p. Hooray!
On the minus side, I used to be quite far up the leaderboards. I may even have been in the top ten at some point. Last night, though, I could only manage 2,506th in the daily board and didn’t feature on the all-time board.
iDrop Dead (iPhone)
Oct 1st
And talking of games that don’t get enough love, we have iDrop Dead.
Look, it may look like a cartoonish novelty for people who think cuddly animal-based gore is funny and, well, it is in part.
But ignore the graphical trimmings for a second (especially as the blood and bones look like being replaced with woodland fruits and flowers in the next version, due to Apple skittishness, or something) and focus on the game.
It’s fantastic. It’s got a simple interface, but rewards experimentation and imagination. It’s terrifically well-designed and deserves a spot on your iPhone. Trust me.
It’s not the longest game in the world, no, but it’s only 59p and you get a huge amount of entertainment for the price of a can of Coke. It also seems to last longer than I suspected, because I’ve been back to it after finding myself missing it and seem to have been sucked right back in, though now I’m going for high scores and I’m not simply playing to tick boxes.
