The worlds of mobile and proper games overlap this week, with the release of Dizzy: Prince of the Yolk Folk on iOS and Android, and Chrono Trigger on iOS. £6.99 for the latter. £6.99! It’s easy to forget that that’s probably cheaper than you can get the game on any other format.
While all this big-name development company stuff was happening, Apple named iPhone Game of the Year the rather excellent Tiny Wings, made by a man called Andreas Illiger. Good stuff.
Anyway, enough of that, and onto this week’s arbitrary selection of stuff you can shove your fingers at.
There’s a very fine line between beautiful and disturbing, and it’s a line that Catball Eats It All jumps up and down on with glee. The art-style is certainly distinctive, mixing the cute-yet-wonky Catball with some properly odd-looking levels, which as the title suggests, it’s your job to eat, accompanied by lovely piano music.
Before that you’ve got to hoover up all the small collectables around the level, by rolling, jumping and flying around. If you’re not quick enough, then the genuinely threatening Dogwall rises up to engulf you. It really is a bit mental. But in a good way. I think.
The controls are pleasingly simple, all done through combinations of touching either side of the screen, though it’s perhaps a little too floaty, which makes matters a little harder than they need to be. But the game itself is almost secondary to enjoying the crazed aesthetic.
EA have relaunched the iOS version of Tetris, which is all the excuse I need to go back to the game. It’s been a while since I’ve been confused by Tetris, but launching the new One-Touch mode did indeed throw me initially. No manual rotating here: the game gives you a selection of placement options for the next piece, and you just touch the one you want to go with – or touch elsewhere to cycle through more options. To my surprise, I rather liked this way of playing – it’s faster and more accurate than the standard mode (also present and well-implemented), it’s a nice slightly easier alternative.
There’s also a Galaxy mode, which is effectively a series of puzzles to solve as efficiently as you can. They’re fine, but really, if you’ve got Tetris, you want to play Tetris, don’t you?
It’s all looks and sounds very slick. In short: Tetris has not been broken.
Christmas is coming – if you’d not noticed – so it’s about time we started covering the odd festive game. Plus it saves Adam plugging another of Neon Play’s wares.
So. Christmas music? Check. Santa? Check. Reliable gliding-based gameplay? Check. Free(mium)? Check!