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A Gaming Diary
Wild West Pinball (iPhone)
Aug 5th
It’s a pinball game.
It’s free.
It works fine.
Physics seem okay to me.
It feels just a little bit empty, but only a little.
There’s a nice little mini game where you have to shoot a guy. I think his name is Harry.
It’s a pinball game.
Actually, there was a point to playing this last night. The guys that made this have released a new pinball table (The Deep) for 59p. It’s getting some good reviews, so I thought I’d remind myself what this was like to see if it I thought it was worth taking a chance on the new table.
Well, I ended up playing quite a lot and getting a new high score – though not only did I drop down the global online high score table when I posted it (I had been 9,998th when I last checked), but I fell off the bottom entirely. Bother.
And in the end it didn’t help my decision anyway. I like this enough to consider buying The Deep, but not enough to run out and buy it.
Skybound (iPhone)
Aug 5th
Bounce, bounce, bounce. Fail. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Fail. Etc.
No new high scores last night, not that it really matters. It’s the journey, not the destination. (Man.)
Can you tell that I’m running out of things to say about these great-but-simple iPhone games? I mean, in Skybound you use your finger to draw clouds so a ball doesn’t fall off the bottom of the screen. It looks gorgeous, plays well, all that stuff I’ve mentioned a million times. What else is there to say, really?
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 5th
I managed to use all my letters in one word last night.
(I hope nobody notices that two of them were blanks. That makes it much less impressive.)
Bookworm (iPhone)
Aug 5th
How can I game that’s so very, very dull waste so much time?
The trouble with Bookworm is that you get to a stage where it’s throwing hard-to-use letters at you, meaning you’re eking out puny words and can hardly ever make good ones. That’s just not as fun as the early stages. On top of this, it only makes it harder to make good words, not survive, as the red tiles are never a real threat if you’re careful and plan ahead as soon as they arrive.
It all adds up to a deeply flawed, even broken, game… but one that still, somehow, keeps you playing.
I’ll never understand it.
Big Top Ten (iPhone)
Aug 5th
Some games you get right back into after leaving for a week or so. Big Top Ten is not one of them.
It’s not that I was doing terribly badly and I like the game just as much as I always did, never fear, but I didn’t even get up to half my all time high score. My brain has just its lost ability to quickly recognise patterns of numbers that add up to ten and I found myself staring blankly and flailing around like a fish that’s somehow been pulled out of the water and had a finger grafted on to one of its fins.
Harbour Master (iPhone)
Aug 5th
Tried out the Smuggler’s Cove level for the first time last night.
My scores are pretty awful and after a fair few tries I’ve still not unlocked the next level. However, I very much enjoy it and having to sink the pirate ship with the cannon adds an extra element to the game – and one that works.
Terminator Salvation Lite (iPhone)
Aug 4th
I’ve been thinking about buying the full version of Terminator Salvation, so thought I should go back to the Lite to see if my opinion about it has changed since I last played.
If anything, it’s even better. I’m now much more used to using virtual pads and buttons than I was even two weeks ago, which helps enormously.
Now I have more idea of the average standard of graphics on the iPhone, it looks even more impressive than it did before. It’s different enough in pace to feel like a complement to Resident Evil 4, rather than a competitor. Really, the only thing holding me back is knowing that it’s £2.99 for a game that, from what I’ve read on forums, lasts no time at all.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Aug 4th
I wish I knew how the game decided who wins a game when it ends with the scores tied. One I won, this one I lost.
These are the scores after the value of the remaining letters had been calculated, by the way. I was losing, but managed to tie the score by getting rid of all my tiles when my opponent had one or more left. Maybe in the event of a draw it awards the game to the person with the higher score before the remaining tiles are factored into it? I don’t know.
Wild Wild Train (iPhone)
Aug 4th
After much sweating and tension I finished level eight.
So I then moved on to level nine.
I took one look, felt a cold chill sweep over me and stabbed at the Home button.
I’m beginning to think Wild Wild Train is less of an arcade puzzle game and more survival horror.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene (iPhone)
Aug 4th
Pew pew! Pew pew!
Had some slowdown today for the first time, but it’s understandable given that the level in question looked like this:
Actually, wait, no it’s not. Still, I can’t say it harmed the experience in any way. If anything, it all adds to old school shooter feel, so no matter.
