This has to be one of my favourite iPhone games so far. What’s not to love about fuzzy little black balls of cuteness tumbling and flying through dangerous razor blades and spikes? The story revolves around a forest where something has gone wrong, and you play as the inhabitants (which can clone themselves) to explore and find out what’s going on. The game is separated into Day, Dusk and Night. Pretty awesome for two Finnish people, huh?
The background is wonderfully done; you can tell the artist has a great imagination as well as skill. When this game was free last week, I downloaded it without getting my hopes up too high. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I found it so beautiful and entertaining.
I found that the Night levels were a bit too dark at times, as it was hard to see the little creature (a lot of mine died because of that), but simply turning up the brightness on your iPhone should do the trick.
Frogmind did an incredible job of the gameplay.
The simple controls of just tapping your screen to make your creature(s) fly higher or lower can be deceiving, leading you to think the game is simple. It’s not. Some levels were harder than others, but I spent quite a bit of time trying to get through one level.
The levels with teleportation were really cool and reminded me of Portal in a way. No two levels have been the same; the game constantly adds new obstacles in different ways. Certain parts in the levels require you to be so precise that it almost seems like luck when you get it right. Others require you to split up your clones (hint: when you get a power-up for a lot of clones, you know something difficult is coming up) and use both logic and creativity to get past before the screen gets ahead of you. This side-scroller action adventure game is a fantastic way to test both sides of your brain.
Let’s talk a bit about the sounds.
I absolutely love how the audio works. The shredding of the blades, the shing of the spikes coming out of the ground at random intervals, the thud of the little creatures when they’re being pushed through spinning fans–it all adds to the experience.
The power-ups were really what made the game so incredible for me.
Each power-up has a different effect on your character(s). Some speed you up to lightspeed, some slow you down to a snail-pace, while others cause you to bounce around like you’re on a sugar high or enable you to stick to surfaces. Using those power-ups to get through the game makes it truly an enriching experience.
Lastly, I’ll mention the multiplayer.
It’s an amazing experience which will (hopefully) not break up any friendships. After all, you do what you can to survive, which can sometimes mean pushing your buddy into a chainsaw. Treat your friend to a beer if they get really offended that you let them plummet to their doom.
Available exclusively for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch at the App store for $3.99.
