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A Gaming Diary
Ragdoll Blaster (iPhone)
Jul 16th
In the old days, this might have been a free Flash game on a web site. Now it costs £1.19 and runs on your iPhone. Progress? Yes, if it keeps the developer in pizza and Diet Coke and means we’ll get more games of this quality. It’s another simple game when it comes to controls. There is a cannon on the screen. You tap on the screen and the location of your tap sets the angle and power of your shot. That’s it.
You’re not shooting cannon balls, though, but little rag dolls. Hence the name and all that. Your goal is simply to make the big red target and a rag doll touch. That can mean firing a rag doll into the target or, as in the level shown above, leaving a rag doll lying on the floor and then getting the target moving so it hits him.
It’s simple, amusing and devilishly addictive. So much so that I worry that the game will be far too short-lived. I’m running through the game like a race horse on speed who desperately needs the toilet. Or something. Maybe the developers will offer more levels in the future. But if not, I’ll have spent a mere £1.19 on something that entertained me greatly – and I could always go back and try to do previously-completed levels more efficiently.
Of course, I might start it up at lunchtime and find myself completely stuck on a level and delete it from my phone in a fit of game rage. Let’s hope not, eh?
Coast Guard (iPhone)
Jul 16th
Like Flight Control, sort of, only you’re in a boat and you shoot other boats, while trying to stop them from shooting the supply ships.
You’re a small boat, with guns, like I said. You draw a path for your boat to follow and click on the screen to shoot to that spot. The big supply ships come in from the edges of the screen and if they reach an island they drop a power up, such as a spread shot or extra health. The bad boats also come from the centre of the screen and shoot at both you and the supply ships.
The trick is to manage moving around with the very careful aiming needed to hit the correct boats – and only the correct boats. You can damage the supply ships just as easily as the enemy.
But is it any good? Well, yes. It’s a bit fiddly and hitting boats with any accuracy is hard, but it’s fun in short bursts and, best of all, it’s free. I’m finding myself hitting the Home button when I die instead of restarting, but I have been going back.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Jul 16th
Tammi wanted to talk to me about furniture, according to a letter I got from my wife. So I wandered over and found her outside her house. We chatted and she gave me, well, something. I can’t remember exactly what.
And that’s all I remember about yesterday.
Trixel (iPhone)
Jul 15th
Oh, my aching brain. This one of those puzzle games that I find very difficult indeed. Look at the screenshot below.
You have to change the big image to match the little image shown at the top. You can move left, right up and down and when you land on a square it flips colour. I most people could look at that image and work out the best solution in seconds. I am not one of those people. It’s not that I’m not clever enough, as such, just that I tend to leap in without actually thinking, then get annoyed with myself. D’oh.
I’m sure if I looked at that image for a while I could work it out…
Nope, I’ve got nothing. Maybe I’m just not very bright.
Oh, just go and buy the blasted thing, then laugh at me every time you finish a puzzle. Go on.
(For the record, I’ve already made one move in the image above before taking the screenshot and it’s a level I’ve previously completed – but I only got a Silver rating, not Gold.)
EDIT, a few minutes later… D’oh! It’s obvious! I just glanced at the image again and the solution couldn’t have been any more obvious. I really am worried about my brain now.
Zombies & Me (iPhone)
Jul 15th
This really is great fun in bite-sized chunks. There’s not a lot to it, but it works, it’s addictive, it looks great and, well, it’s got zombies in it.
I do hope some updates come that add online score tables and maybe some more maps, but knowing EA they’ll be holding those over for Zombies & Me 2.
Droplitz (iPhone)
Jul 15th
This definitely seems to be growing on me – and I liked it before. I’m not sure I’m getting any better, but it’s starting to become more and more intuitive, with possible paths becoming clearer all the time.
I’m not sure it’ll ever become a real addiction, but I think I’ll be playing it in odd moments for a long time to come.
Rope’n'Fly Lite (iPhone)
Jul 15th
Oh, hello. A Spider-Man game in all but name, this is a simple little app that shouldn’t be as good as it is.
There’s a side-scrolling city, you tap the screen to throw a web line, tap again to release it, fly through the air, then tap where you want your next line to go. The aim is to get as far as possible without hitting the ground. It may not look like much, but it’s surprisingly addictive and I may well buy the full version for 59p. After all, the developer has offered to put some sound effects in soon!
iPhone Round Up Part One (iPhone)
Jul 15th
I got an iPhone at the weekend. It’s the best thing ever. I can Twitter while I sit on the loo. I can keep up with baseball scores. I can set my Sky HD to record programs while I’m out and about. I can turn the phone upside down so ladies lose their clothes. Etc. It also plays games. I’ve tried a lot of them over the last few days, so I’m going to post some brief impressions in this thread, then I’ll post individual entries for games in the future. Ready? Here goes!
Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D – My most played iPhone game. It’s a simple game where you simply have to hit as many baseballs as possible as far as you can. It works due to the speed and the controls. Games are short (at least they are when you’re not very good), but it’s very hard not to hit “Yes” when it asks you if you want to play again. The controls are simple – tilt the iPhone to aim, touch anywhere on the screen to swing – and work perfectly. Very, very highly recommended. It cost me £1.79 and I’m happy with that, but for today only it’s down to 59p. Go get it – now!
Droplitz – Fantastic puzzle game where you have to rotate paths so that drops can get from the top of the screen to the bottom. Highly addictive and my second most played iPhone game. I believe it costs £1.19, which is an absolute steal, even when other games are 59p.
Flight Control – Draw paths so planes and helicopters can reach their destination without crashing. Great fun and makes good use of the iPhone’s location, giving you very local leaderboards. There’s a reason this 59p game has been such a big hit.
Zombies & Me – Notable for being the first product of a new EA studio set up to produce cheap iPhone games. You run around, getting zombies to follow you and then lead them into the path of falling bombs to blow them up. Very simple, but great fun. It really needs online leaderboards, though.
Assassin’s Creed Lite – Pretty rubbish. Looks lovely, but the virtual d-pad and buttons just don’t work well enough.
Mega Man 2 Lite – Another game ruined by having to make use of a virtual d-pad.
Topple – Free, fun enough, but a bit clunky to control. Worth a download.
iso – Falling block matching game. Decent enough, but I’m glad it was free.
Enviro-Bear 2010 – Insane, er, bear driving simulator. Absolutely impossible to control, but that’s the point. Not worthy of its current cult status, but you really do need to pay the 59p just for the WTF-ness.
WildWest Pinball – Good pinball game and well worth a download for the current price of zero pence.
Toki Tori – Excellent little puzzle game, which makes good use of touch screen controls and features some fiendish puzzles. Well worth the asking price – I played the demo and then bought the full version immediately.
Paper Toss – Oddly relaxing game where you have to flick balls of paper into a wastepaper basket. It’s free and worth downloading. I play it more than I feel I should.
Globall – Tilty ball game. It’s decent, but somehow it hasn’t grabbed me.
Galcon – Imagine Risk. In space. In real time. Where a whole game lasts about thirty seconds. You’ve just imagined Galcon. Recommended – and there’s a good demo, too, which convinced me to buy the full game.
Westbang – You remember that old game set in the wild west where there are three doors and when they open you have to shoot the baddies but avoid shooting the good guys? This is that. Works brilliantly and comes highly recommended. Yet another game where the demo convinced me to buy the game. I was surprised how good it was. Check it out.
Pocket God – Mainly notable for being the only game I’ve tried so far to make use of the cross-game Feint achievements system. It’s a fun little diversion for thirty seconds – you’re a god and you can kill your islanders in briefly amusing ways – but even 59p feels like a bit of a stretch to me. It’s hugely popular, though, so I’m probably in the minority here.
The Sims 3 (PC)
Jul 15th
My review is written. It’s not, I don’t think, the best review ever, but I really wanted to get across the point that the game now works the way I’ve always thought it should and is therefore the best Sims game by a long, long way.
