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A Gaming Diary
4×4 Jam (iPhone)
Sep 21st
This is great in small bursts.
A race here, a race there, just start it up, have three minutes of fun, then put it down for a while.
Played like that it’s actually pretty brilliant and I still love the extreme bounciness of it.
I am so glad I bought this game. It was good before the update, now it’s just great.
Townrs Defender Lite (iPhone)
Sep 21st
I wish I had liked this more than I did.
To start with, it doesn’t quite fit into any established genres, which is refreshing. It’s a bit like a tower defense game, a bit like an action game, not quite either.
Creeps come in from entrances and try to get to your castle gate. There are towers in their way. However, you don’t sit back and place towers, you control a single hero, rushing about the level, killing enemies before they can destroy your towers and, eventually, your castle. You get experience points and can level up your skills and it seems like the sort of thing I would like.
So why didn’t I? Well, I found it slightly awkward to trigger attacks and the cool down on of them means a mis-timed or mis-placed attack can cause you real problems. I felt like the difficulty came from the control system and not the game itself, which is never a good thing.
There’s probably an injustice here. Even a few weeks ago, I might have played more, really trying to get to grips with it properly and maybe even doing so. Right now, though, after twenty minutes or so of struggle I just gave up and deleted the game. I’ve got so many things to play that if a game still feels awkward after a few minutes I’m not going to go back. It’s harsh, but that’s the way things are on the App Store right now.
Still, it’s an interesting little game and you can try it for free, so it might be worth a download to see if you get on with it better than I did.
Str8ts (iPhone)
Sep 21st
My save file is long dead, but I’d nearly finished the first set of Jack (i.e. Easy) puzzles, so decided to step up to Queen difficulty.
I’ve not been overwhelmed, but it is taking me rather a long time to complete each puzzle. The last one I finished took me almost half an hour. Whether that’s simply due to the difficulty level of the puzzle or because I’m out of practice, I’m not sure.
I do know that it’s good to be playing again, though. Str8ts is excellent.
Pixelogic Lite (iPhone)
Sep 21st
I was wondering how Picross could work on an iPhone screen, with it not being big enough to hit small squares. Pixelogic has come up with an excellent auto-zoom solution, which means that errant taps hardly ever happen. But they do, and that’s a problem.
You see, Pixelogic is one of those Picross games that let you know you made a mistake as soon as it happens, which I hate. There’s nothing worse than a badly-placed tap resulting in a red cross on the board when you’ve been trying to solve the puzzle without help.
It’s annoying enough to stop me buying the full game – or even finishing the first 15×15 puzzle I tried. If there’s a way to turn it off and play the puzzle “neat”, I couldn’t see it.
Words With Friends (iPhone)
Sep 21st
Did okay over the weekend, really.
There’s some person called MagicalDrop who appears to be in a different class to everyone else I play, though. I think it’s just that he never seems to leave me open open doubles and triples.
iBlast Moki (iPhone)
Sep 18th
Here’s a surprise. Didn’t know anything about this, but Touch Arcade exploded overnight when it was released, so I thought I’d take a look.
(People who set iPhone game prices take note – a launch sale does wonders to turn “new release interest” into “must buy before price goes up.”)
It’s basically a physics puzzle game, where you place bombs and adjust their timing to blow little round chaps into the exit vortex.
It’s gorgeous, for starters. No, look.
Gorgeous. Not that that screen shot shows it off at its best.
It’s very well designed, with helpful hints that don’t turn into a dull tutorial. It starts easy, then gets harder. I’ve only down the first world and part of the second, so it’s all been pretty easy so far, but there’s been a noticeable, though shallow, upwards curve. Also, you can instantly reset the level when you fail with all your bombs in place, so you can instantly tweak, not recreate.
It’s brilliant.
i Love Katamari (iPhone)
Sep 18th
Was in a Katamari mode this lunchtime, so had a quick go.
Managed to the second level, which I failed last night. Playing at my desk works far better than trying to play on the sofa. I think it’s the game’s natural habitat. It may not be the best in the series, but to be in a Katamari mood and just be able to have a quick go of a perfectly decent version is great.
Unify (iPhone)
Sep 18th
Here’s a neat little game. It’s only 59p. You should probably give it a go, I reckon. It’s good.
It’s a puzzle game where you rotate blocks made up of two coloured squares to make groups of four or more of the same colour, which then disappear. You start with only two colours, then more are added as you move through the levels.
Fairly standard, right?
Well, yes, but the blocks come from the sides, not the top. And two come at once, one from the left, one from the right. You have to use your left thumb to deal with one while your right thumb deals with the other.
It’s not quite as hard as it sounds, while still offering an interesting twist on a standard game type. It also looks really nice, if that matters to you.
But – beware! – there’s a little bit of idiocy that can stop you getting into the game. When you start a game, the loading screen is shown in landscape mode, as the rest of the game is. So you rotate your phone. However, then an OpenFeint splash screen comes up… and doesn’t go away. That’s because the “Continue” button only shows if you’ve kept the iPhone in portrait mode. You don’t want to know how long it took me to figure that one out. Gah. Anyway, once you know, it’s not a problem, but it’s best to be aware of it before you try and play.
That OpenFeint, eh? Seems to be the cause of all my iPhone problems at the moment.
4×4 Jam (iPhone)
Sep 18th
One of the great things about the App Store and iPhone gaming is that so many games get updated for free. There’s even an expectation now that many games will continue evolving after they’ve been released and certain games – Pocket God and Minigore, for example – are sold on the basis that they’ll be updated frequently with lots of new features.
Every day I seem to find iTunes tells me that games I own have new features and bug fixes. Sometimes these updates are small, but sometimes they’re huge.
Which brings us to 4×4 Jam, which last night got a major update. The original version was already great and featured two environments and two vehicles.
Well, now it features six environments and six vehicles, including the wonderfully-named Willy Top.
Some of the new environments aren’t even brown!
Oh, I’ve just checked and there’s a new game mode that I didn’t even notice when I played it this morning in bed. And there’s some new songs. And… well, you get the idea.
It’s a huge update, giving you a lot more ways to hare about and enjoy the gloriously bouncy physics, all for free.
I heartily approve.
