A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Penalkick 2010 (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Want to beat the keeper? Then this is the game for you. You start your run and then look for clues as to which way the keeper will dive and then kick the ball – hopefully into the goal.
Score!
Its kicking mechanism doesn’t stand up against Flick Kick Football and Deadball Specialist, but I like that the keeper isn’t a mere obstacle and the World Cup structure to the game is great.
The runt of this little litter, maybe, but worth a look.
Deadball Specialist (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Hitting that target won't be easy - and this is one of the simplest levels.
Similar to Flick Kick Football on the surface, Deadball Specialist is more exacting and has a completely different structure. If Flick Kick is the Ridge Racer of free kick games, Deadball Specialist is the Gran Turismo. Tough and rewarding, it makes an excellent companion to Flick Kick Football, but if you’re only going to buy one, this probably isn’t the one to get, good as it is.
Flick Kick Football (iPhone)
Jul 5th
In a recent article Touch Arcade talked about three games about kicking stationary balls into the back of nets.
They were 59p each, so I bought them all. (Not all at once, mind, but over three days.)
irst up, Flick Kick Football, an insanely brilliant game from the makers of Flick Kick Field Goal. (Which used to be excellent, but which has been kicked out of the door and into the street with nothing but the clothes on its back now Flick Kick Football has appeared.)
Ignore my high score in the corner there, it's much better now.
There’s a ball, probably some cardboard-cutout defenders and a goal. You flick your finger to kick the ball, adding curve to get round the obstacles and into the goal. It feels just right and the quest for higher and higher scores left my battery panting and gasping for breath. (I bought it on Friday evening. By Saturday afternoon I’d played for three hours.)
The illusion is broken if you try to kick the ball slowly, so don’t do that, but otherwise I don’t have a single complaint to make. Brilliantly presented, tuned to perfection and 59p – it’s what iPhone gaming’s all about.
King of Tennis (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Rattling through these posts, pausing briefly to mention this funny little freebie. It’s not a tennis game, but a tennis watching game. As the ball goes from left to right you press the screen to follow it. If you look the wrong way, then it’s game over.
I am the king. Of tennis.
It should be easy, but when the ball hits the net it’s incredibly difficult to stop yourself from looking in the direction it would have gone. It really feels like a psychological experiment as much as it does a game. Why do I keep pressing the screen when I shouldn’t? Why? Who’s in control of my thumb?
The only real blemish is that the game seems to play sound effects even if you’ve got the volume down. Naughty, naughty.
World Soccer Champs 2010 (iPhone)
Jul 5th
So, yeah, I got into the second round of the World Cup at the weekend. A feat I’ve not managed before or since. Okay, so I then got knocked out by Australia, of all people, but I was still proud of my performance.
It may not look like much in that screen shot, but it's a fantastically rewarding footie game.
It’s a tough game – though I seem to find it tougher than a lot of other people – but it’s very satisfyng. It always feels like the game rewards understanding and skillful play. It’s not an instant smash hit, but it’s definitely a grower.
It doesn’t seem to be selling very well, which is a crying shame, as it deserves an awful lot of love.
I just wish it didn’t keep locking up my phone and forcing a hard reset when it decides I haven’t got enough free memory. Bit of a bugger, that – especially as I seem to be the only person with the problem.
Carcassonne (iPhone)
Jul 5th
Nearing the end of the game I won.
Just like Words With Friends, I play Carcassonne every day but never seem to blog about it. It’s hard to find anything useful to say. It’s a bloody brilliant game design, it’s perfectly executed on the iPhone and even the teething troubles with Internet play against friends seem to have been ironed out now.
Oh, and I won a game at the weekend. I think it was a fluke, though, because I don’t feel like I’ve really got a handle on the game yet.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Jul 5th
A million and one games to get through after I spent lots of quality time with my iPhone over the weekend, so let’s get started. I’ve been neglecting to mention Words With Friends lately, despite playing it every day. So, to redress the balance, here’s a post about it.
Huh huh huh. Wiener.
Yes, it might have been better to do it on a day when I had fewer games to talk about, but never mind. Let’s face it, I may well still be blogging about the weekend’s games tomorrow.
Anyway, though, Words With Friends. It’s still on my iPhone, I still play it and it hasn’t changed in any major way, though every now and again the dictionary and interface get little tweaks.
Physics Gamebox (iPhone)
Jul 2nd
Just a quick one today. Didn’t play much of anything yesterday, but did play Physics Gamebox. It’s a new iPhone title bundling together two old Flash games.
First you’ve got Ragdoll Cannon, which was “homaged” by the iPhone’s Ragdoll Blaster. Now we get the original to play – and it does exactly the job you’d expect. Haven’t found any annoying levels yet, which is nice. (Though there are 200 to get through.)
Should that be fewer?
The other game is Roly-Poly Cannon, which reminds me a bit of Fragged. You have to send bombs out and blow up bad guys while leaving the good guys alive. Only a hundred levels to this one, but they generally last a little longer.
I think it should be, but I'm second-guessing myself now.
Neither game has set my world on fire, but they’re both decent, time-wasting fun – and getting both for 59p is pretty lovely.
World Soccer Champs (iPhone)
Jul 1st
Lovely penalty there.
Tried out the Tournament (i.e. World Cup) mode last night. Despite winning a game, my England team failed to get past the group stages. Oh well.
Re:Bounce (iPhone)
Jul 1st
Throw the ball around and hope to destroy those towers.
Decent, frantic ball-bouncing, ball-breaking game. Chuck the ball around to break balls and either reach the exit or stop the balls from advancing to the top of the screen.
I downloaded because it was free and being compared to Peggle. Well, it’s nothing like Peggle, but it was free, so fair enough.
