A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Hi, How Are You (iPhone)
Sep 28th
Here’s an oddity.
It’s a platform game based on the artwork and music of indie icon Daniel Johnston. I’ve heard of him before, but have no familiarity with his work.
Anyway, it’s a gorgeous game. It looks great, it sounds great – I may have to track down his greatest hits album and have a listen – and it’s fairly basic but well-implemented and fun.
A successful oddity, then, and well worth a look.
Puzzle Quest (iPhone)
Sep 28th
I’m not playing this for long sessions, but I am playing it for a lot of short sessions. I’ll start up, do a fight or two, then put it down. Ten minutes later, I’ll be back.
Here’s a screen shot showing how the text looks on the small screen.
(Don’t forget to click it to see the full size version.)
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 28th
It’s the game that keeps on giving.
I must have sunk hours into this by now, even though each turn only takes a couple of minutes.
Great value for 59p.
Picosaic (iPhone)
Sep 24th
I’m a sucker for a press release. No, really, if someone emails me a press release and I don’t go and buy the game I feel terribly guilty. (I really should open a US iTunes account so I can use promo codes.) Generally I just live with it, but the press release for Picosaic landed in my inbox this morning and it looked nice and was only 59p, so I downloaded it.
I’m glad I did. It’s a fairly slight little game, but it’s also quite lovely. It’s easier to play than explain, but there’s a YouTube video that makes it all clear. So, for the first time ever, I’m going to try and embed a video into my blog. It should be below.
I wonder if that’ll work?
Anyway, I’ve played several levels now – I’ve got to the stages where the picture is split up into four tiles, each of which has to be “solved” separately. There are fifty puzzles in the game, so I doubt it’ll last very long… except for the fact that you can make your own puzzles using pictures on your iPhone. Here’s me solving a puzzle that’s made from a photo of me in my Halloween costume last year.
Sexy, huh?
It’s a toy as much as it is a game, really, but don’t let that put you off. If nothing else, it’s a fun way to show off photos.
Sliding Heroes Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
This one’s just odd.
You have little RPG-like characters that you tilt around the level, bashing into monsters to kill them and open the level exit. Clerics are tanks, mages weak but with powerful ranged attacks, etc.
It’s a real strange concept and it doesn’t really work. For example, you can choose how many characters to deploy and having more than one character on a level at once is a recipe for disaster. You can’t have calibrate the neutral state for the tilt, so you have to hunch over a horizontal iPhone to play.
I suspect it’s pretty rubbish, really… but it’s got an indefinable something that makes me want to play it again, despite myself.
Horror Racing Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Top-down racer with weapons. Has a “horror” theme, but it’s more Monsters Inc. than Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (Thinking about it, I’d love a cart racer starring Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, etc.)
Instead of moving left and right you turn the wheel to point where you want to go. Sounds reasonable, but doesn’t work for me. I keep on going the wrong way and end up driving round the track on my own, bashing into everything on the way. A lot of people online seem to be quite happy with the controls, though, so don’t take my word for it.
Lumines Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Tried the demo another couple of times.
The controls simply don’t work properly.
I’ve tried hints and tips from people who say they do, such as only swiping down the right hand side of the screen or whatever, but that doesn’t help.
It’s just broken. So glad I didn’t spend any money on it.
Squareball (iPhone)
Sep 24th
It’s amazing how many games you can fit into a lunchtime when they’re all bite-sized treats like Squareball and the millions of others I got through after eating my sandwich. Not that all of them were treats, but I’m coming to that.
Anyway, I finished level three of Squareball on my last life.
And then finished level four without losing a single life. I rock.
Level five, though, is proving somewhat tricky.
No, I appreciate that doesn’t look hard, but it’s about the only place I felt safe enough to take a screenshot.
By the way, I solved my sound problem. It seems the game uses your ringer volume if the music is turned off, so I just turned the music on and turned the game sound down. Simple…
Puzzle Quest (iPhone)
Sep 24th
Had a quick go of Puzzle Quest at lunchtime.
Just to show you how small everything is, here’s a shot of the map.
Probably should have shown a screen with more text on it, really, but never mind.
To reiterate, it’s a long way from unplayable, but it’s not quite comfortable, either.
Lumines Lite (iPhone)
Sep 24th
It’s Lumines.
On the iPhone.
I normally play with the sound off, but that would be doing Lumines a disservice, so I hooked it up to my car stereo to play this morning. Sounded nice, looks okay, if a little “dirty” compared to the PSP version, controls like a car with two flat tyres.
Well, no, that’s slightly unfair, it controls like a car with one slightly flat tyre. It mostly works, but doesn’t quite respond as it should. Which, for Lumines, is a major, major failing. More than most other falling blocks games it relies on precision and timing – and they’re not possible in this version.
It did start feeling more comfortable as I played more, but it never felt quite right. I’ll have to play it some more, see if the controls click at any point, but it’s not looking good.
Also, the “full” version of the game only costs £1.79, but it seems to be very light on content and set up for masses of in-app purchases in the future, so beware. There’s already one extra paid-for skin for download, apparently.
