A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Pinch (iPhone)
May 17th
Another lovely puzzle game on a platform full of them. You’ve got coloured circles – norbs, the game calls them – and you have to split them and combine them into different sizes and colours to get them to the exit.
The controls are a bit finicking at first, but you soon get used to them. The only real trouble after the first few levels comes when trying to split orbs near one-way and limited-use gates – sometimes a stray finger will push the norb into a no-win situation and you’ll have to start over. Not a major problem when the levels are so short, but annoying.
It may not look like much graphically, but it's always very clear what's going on, which is the important part.
The levels, though small, are all well-designed – the only real problem is that there aren’t enough of them. It doesn’t help that the game’s so incredibly addictive. It’s one of those games where you can’t let go until you’ve finished a level… and then when you get past it and see the next one you have to give it a quick go, just to try it out… which meant that the game flew by. It wasn’t long until I’d polished off all the forty-eight levels and was left wanting more. Luckily, the developers say that more are coming. They bloody well better.
Still, for 59p, it’s difficult to really complain.
(Oh, and in the current version there’s a bug with the OpenFeint achievements, but don’t let that put you off. Those achievements will become meaningless once Apple’s own system is released later this year, anyway.)
Perfect Balance: Harmony (iPhone)
May 17th
Lovely little puzzle game. It’s been long enough since I played the Flash version that it feels new. Was free when I downloaded, which makes it a huge bargain.
This is not a winning solution.
If you’ve not played it, you simply have to put the shapes into the level without them falling off. Easy to understand, good controls, lots of content.
Minigore (iPhone)
May 17th
Just started it up to see the new enemy.
The red guy's new. He explodes.
That done, I stopped playing. It really didn’t grab me at all. Is my love affair with Minigore over? Stayed tuned!
Chevy Baseball (iPhone)
May 17th
I like the batting, even though I'm terrible at it.
Well, it’s free. That’s a good thing. The mechanics for batting and, to a lesser extent, pitching are quite nice. I only have one real complaint, but it’s a big one. It’s the fielding. Way, way too often balls run along the ground past fielders who just stand there and do nothing. It’s probably just that the game has decided that they won’t get to the ball, so doesn’t animate them, but it’s completely infuriating to watch it happen. I won’t be deleting the game from my iPhone yet, but I’m not going to upgrade to the full, unsponsored version, even now it’s on sale for 59p.
Skate It (iPhone)
May 14th
After doing a race down some flood pipes, I decided to play about with the skatepark creator.
The design view.
It’s fairly simple – choose an object, plonk it down, rotate it – but can be a little fiddly. Getting things to line up is a pain and I ended up just shoving stuff down more or less randomly.
Skating round my spot.
Still, it does feel good to be skating round an area you designed yourself, even if it feels like the Fortean forces of the universe gave up on frogs and decided to indulge themselves with a shower of skateable objects.
Dungeon Solitaire (iPhone)
May 14th
Another update, more cards to play with. There’s also a new option to build a random deck with the cards you’ve got.
One more hero card and I've won.
Me, I prefer just to choose all the expansion packs and go for a big game. It is, of course, heavily luck-based – will you get something to deal with those pesky dragons? – but that’s Solitaire for you.
It really seems to be pretty much endlessly enjoyable. I leave it for weeks at a time, but I’m never sure why. When I do play it, I enjoy it tremendously. Definitely needs to be seen as one of the premier iPhone games, I reckon.
100 Rogues (iPhone)
May 13th
So, yes, I did go back – and I had my best game ever. I got down past the Bandit Hole into the dungeon.
A different tileset! New enemies!
You can tell it’s a roguelike, though. Things were going swimmingly until a new type of enemy appeared and destroyed me in a couple of turns. That’s just the way it goes, I guess.
For future reference, then, the pink skeletons are lot more dangerous than the yellow and white ones. Ouch.
The Impossible Game (iPhone)
May 13th
I completed The Impossible Game last night!
Look! Proof!
Yeah, yeah, I only completed it in practice mode, but that was hard enough, thank you very much. Chances of me ever doing it for real? As close to zero as makes no difference, I think. I should probably delete it from my iPhone now, before I start actually trying.
Zombie Defense (iPhone)
May 13th
Generic title ahoy! I mean, really.
Anyway, this seems to be an interesting little game. You’ve got four survivors, with different skills, and you kit them out with weapons, then lay down sand bags to try and delay the zombies that pour in through the entrance. Once you kill them all, you get to spend some time searching for new weapons and laying down new defenses, then its on to the next wave.
Basically, you need to design a maze where you can shoot the zombies, but they can’t get you. You can choose where to spend each night, which adds a nice wrinkle to things. If you stay in a location you’ve already used there are more zombies, but you get to use the defenses you’ve already set up, as well as new ones.
Not got the hang of setting things up properly yet.
It’s a nice little mix of tower defense and that Flash zombie defense game I’ve forgotten the name of. Laying down defenses is a bit too fiddly for my liking, but there’s no time pressure.
The game’s free, but that only gives you three nights. For the full twenty nights you need to pay 59p, which seems like a very reasonable way of going about things. I died on the third night, though, so I didn’t need to spend any money. Worth a look, especially as it’s not going to cost you anything except your time. And we all know that’s worthless. Don’t deny it. You wouldn’t be reading this sorry excuse for a blog if it was.
Skate It (iPhone)
May 13th
Totally rad, dude! I like, totally, nailed some wicked lines yesterday evening! Word to your mother!
See, I can talk like a youth person…
::blinks::
::strokes beard::
::ponders::
…but I never will again.
I’m thirty-six years old. In a survey the other day all the age ranges were about ten years until mine – which was 36-64. Thanks for that, pollsters. Way to make me feel old.
Anyway, that’s by the by. In the world of Skate It, I can still look like a appallingly-dressed twenty-something, albeit one made out of about six polygons.
Looking like a fool...
I can also perform crazy stunts that my obese, failing body would never let me perform in real life. (And I can fall of my skateboard in a manner that would result in feeding tubes and comas.)
Is that the appeal of skateboarding games, though? Not for me, no. The appeal is purely as a video game, rather than a simulation of real world desires. I like to complete goals – whether set for me by the game, or ones I’ve set myself – and the skating is just a vehicle for interesting game mechanics and controls.
I think.
But maybe there’s a part of me that really wishes I could skateboard. Maybe it is feeding on my ever-growing sense of my own mortality. Maybe I’m on the downward slope to my midlife crisis Harley.
Probably not, though. I may be older than I was, but I’m still not, you know, old. And I’d get a Harley today if I could afford it – and thought I could ride it without falling off. (I’m pretty much never happier than on a long road trip in America. The open road of the USA appeals to me, deep down in my core.) Midlife crises are for people who regret growing up. I’ve never really grown up and don’t ever intend to, so I think I’m safe.
