Posts tagged skybound

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?

One nice thing about the lovely Skybound is that, as well as just going for the best score, there are some challenges to try and complete. Think Achievements and, well, you’re exactly right. The game doesn’t need them, being all the game anyone could need already, but they’re a nice addition.

I’d like to say I completed that challenge after lots of hard work and perseverance, but it just popped up randomly one game. Still, hooray!

I mentioned in my iPhone games round up that Skybound reminded me of a Flash game. Well, I’ve remembered which one. I was thinking of the very lovely Winterbells. Now combine that with ancient DS game Yoshi Touch & Go and you’ve got Skybound… sort of.

Stop. Okay, let’s stop comparing Skybound to other games. Let’s start with the basics. There’s a ball on the screen. Your goal is to get the ball as high as possible by drawing clouds for it to bounce off. If the ball hits the clouds, it bounces up. If it doesn’t, it will fall off the bottom of the screen and it’s game over.

In the screen shot above I’ve managed to bounce my ball off the top of the screen and I’ve not yet drawn any clouds. Two things should strike you. One, the graphics are all kinds of hand-drawn loveliness. They’re lovely like a lady waving her hair around in a field in a shampoo commercial. They’re lovely like the smell of freshly-baked bread. You get the idea.

The second thing that should strike you is that there’s other stuff on the screen. Helpful golden clouds and annoying wooden things that turn your ball red and get rid of its bounce. Stuff like that. I won’t go through the entire list of objects, but just know that they’re all well-considered and work as part of the game.

In this picture I’m going to die because my ball’s at the bottom of the screen and I’ve been too busy trying to take a screenshot to draw any clouds. Dear me.

Anyway, here’s another great thing about Skybound. Your high score is always displayed at the bottom left, your current score at the top right. If you beat your top score as you’re playing, another number appears below your current score showing how much better than your previous high score you are. As a high score kind of guy, I really like that. You can also sync your own high scores online. It’s been a bit flakey for me, but it worked after a few tries.

I’ve not mentioned Boss mode, yet. I’ve only tried it out once, but the idea here is to hit enemies and get points for killing them, rather than just going up and up and up. It seems like a nice diversion, but the main game is where it’s at, I think.

Anyway, a fairly long post. I could just have told you to go buy the game – because you should. I said I’d buy it the moment it dropped to 59p and last night it did. I was as good as my word and I don’t regret the purchase for a single second. I played on the sofa. I played in bed. I wish I could play it now. Go buy, you won’t regret it.