A Gaming Diary
iPhone
Radial 50 Lite (iPhone)
Jul 23rd
Downloaded the Lite version of this after someone recommended it to me. It’s a Breakout game, but you rotate the paddle around a circle, with the block arranges inside that circle. A picture should help you visualise it.
It actually works in a similar way to Vortex, which comes pre-installed on some iPod Nanos. Radial 50 looks better, is faster and is generally the better the game… except when it comes to controls. The Nano’s click wheel is perfect to control a game like this, as you can just move you thumb around in a circle along with the bat. In contrast, Radial 50 uses an up/down slider on the right of the screen. It would probably work fine for most people, but I can’t get my head around it. When I need to react quickly I often can’t work out whether my thumb needs to move up or down and I die.
It’s rather like the problem I have in top-down racers where left and right are relative to the car, not the screen, so when the car’s moving down the screen I get flustered and confused and move the wrong way.
So Radial 50 is probably a decent game for most people, but it’s just not for me.
geoDefense (iPhone)
Jul 23rd
Hooray! I finished all the Easy levels! Finally!
Now, obviously, I’ve moved on to the Medium levels. I did the first one easily, but the second one is giving me some trouble. I’ve not yet worked out the best way to use the new Vortex towers, I don’t think. I may try the level without them, see how much difference they actually make.
Zombies Vs. Sheep (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
I got past the first boss! Here is proof.
Unfortunately I died straight afterwards as I relaxed and got hit by poxy bat with only one heart left. Grr.
Glandarius Wing Strike Lite (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
After Big Top Ten, I thought my lunchtime was at an end. However, just as I was about to get back to work I saw a post on a forum that started “If you like vertical shooters”, at which point I was sold. I bounded over to the App Store and downloaded the Lite version of Glandarius Wing Strike, which is, obviously, a vertical shooter. This one seems to be of the bullet hell variety, as in DoDonPachi and Giga Wing. (Though it’s fair to say that at least in this one-level demo, it’s more bullet heck than bullet hell.)
And it is good. More than good, it’s fantastic. It’s very fast, massive amounts of fun and the control scheme works brilliantly. I think I’m in love. It costs £2.99 so I can’t buy it now, but come pay day it shall be mine. Until then, I have to stop myself from playing it so much that I get sick of the first level. I may even delete it, just in case.
Big Top Ten (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
There were two reasons I played this game this lunchtime. The first being that I actually wanted to play it, what with it being a thoroughly enjoyable game and all. The second is that I wanted to get a screenshot of it saying “Jolly Good” to me. Which I did.
But! That’s not all! I also got a new rating for a string.
Yay! I’m smashing!
(The word reduce underneath that refers to a power up I used in the string that reduces the value of all the numbers on the board. Obviously, the lower the numbers, the easier it is to get a long string that adds up to ten.)
Globall (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
Hmm. I’m in Staplehurst now, where I thought the person who was beating my high score was, but now it says I’m six miles away from the nearest high score.
So either I beat his score by doing one more level, or my rival doesn’t live where I thought. Anyway, here’s an image of the actual gameplay for you.
The precision that would be needed to maximise the score on that level is insane. It puts the fear in me just to think about it.
Zombies Vs. Sheep (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
This is, I think, the best looking game I’ve played on the iPhone. No, it’s not whizzy, newfangled 3D. It’s not throwing particle effects around with gay abandon. It just looks lovely.
You click on the zombies that fall from strings to kill them, you tilt to move your sheep left and right to pick up coins and avoid falling objects of death. Pretty simple, really. It’s great fun, has a nice upgrade system and even sounds great. It uses the Feint system for achievements and high scores. It will even post your new high scores to Twitter, if you want to annoy all your followers and be accused of spamming.
Great.
Except… except I can’t give it a full on recommendation yet. You see, there are bosses. I know this because I’ve read about them online – and because I’ve met one. A flaming sun, I think, who sends fireballs hurtling towards your poor little sheep. He killed me in seconds. And now, to face him again, I’ve got to start over and go through the slow opening sections. Oh, the beginning of the game is fun, don’t get me wrong, but when I know what lies ahead, I just want to get there as soon as I can to see if I can do better.
I’ve got an idea for the developers, in the unlikely event that they read this. How about a practice system where you can do any wave you’ve previously got to? No score, just a practice mode. You could even allow the player to choose their upgrade level so they can practice a wave tooled up, before going back and trying again with less firepower. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, I’m not sure it’s workable, but it might be worth considering.
So, yes, if you go and buy the game I really don’t think you’ll be wasting your money. It might be an idea to hold off for a bit, though, see what I have to say about the game in day or two.
Parachute Panic (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
I’m getting really annoyed with these idiots. Why the heck are they jumping out of planes and trying to land on boats when there are thunder storms, alien spacecraft and helicopters in the way? (Not to mention the sharks in the water, ready to eat them the moment they miss a landing.) Why? Can’t they just look down, see the peril below and decide to continue flying onwards, stay in the planes until they land and then maybe have a nice cup of tea? What do they think they’re doing? And why do some of them open their parachutes early and then float into great doom, while others will blithely plummet to a horrible death unless I tell them to open their chutes? Sometimes I just want to let them die in horrible ways, just to show them. I hate them. Every single one of them.
What’s so important on the boats? Are their loved ones being held for ransom by terrorists? Are the boats carrying gold? And who is that singing a taunting song at me when I lose five of them and the game ends? Is it the terrorists, sitting on piles of gold and executing terrorists?
And, most importantly, why do I keep going back, time after after time, trying my best to use my wind powers to blow the little guys to safety when the deserve all they get?
So many unanswered questions.
Actually, I can answer the last one. I keep going back because it’s a darn good game. Rock hard, sometimes completely unfair – there are times when I’m sure it’s impossible to save people who open their chutes early, just above a cloud – yet good. I don’t think it’s a great game, but it’s a good one, and more addictive than it probably should be. If an update makes it possible to save everyone if you’re good enough – or makes it clear that it’s already possible to save everyone, in the unlikely event that there’s something I’m missing – then it might yet be great. Right now, it’s well worth your fifty-nine pence… but then so are a lot of games.
(And ignore the high score in that screenshot above. I took it at the beginning of my second every game. I think my high score now is a mighty, er, 46, or something.)
geoDefense (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
Possibly the game I’m playing most at the moment. It keeps on killing me, but I keep going back.
Here’s a picture of me winning a level. Enjoy it, it doesn’t happen often.
I’ve just noticed, though, that I only ended with nine lives. I think I started with ten, which means I must have let an enemy through. If I’d let a few through, fair enough, but just one? That’s going to annoy me forever. I may have to go back and play that level until I beat it without losing a life. At least I now know that it’s a level that responds better to lots of towers, rather than just a few high level ones.
Zen Bound Lite (iPhone)
Jul 22nd
Bah. Yes, bah.
Zen Bound is one of those iPhone games everybody talks about and which is meant to be amazing. So I downloaded the Lite version, because it’s quite expensive in iPod terms. (Which means really, really, really cheap in real terms. The App Store pricing is insane and, even though it means I’ve got lots of games for nearly no money, I can’t see it being a good thing in the long run.)
The goal is to wrap up and object in a piece of string. I think you tilt your iPhone to move the string around. The controls are so natural in a “they just work” kind of way that I honestly can’t remember the control system.
It’s wonderful in every way, really… as far as I can tell. You see, unless I’m missing something, the Lite version gives you a measly two puzzles to play, neither of which will take very long at all. That’s just not enough, hence the bah. Still, when I’ve got a decent amount of credit in my account, the full game will be hard to resist.
