Quick Look: Spider Hornet Smash for iPhone
Back in September I reviewed a unique spin on the Qix formula called Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor. You can read that review here. Suffice it to say that I was quite impressed with the game. They never released a lite version of the game, or at least not up until now. Hornet Smash isn’t even really a lite version. Instead, it’s actually a new game play mode in a standalone format to give you a feel for what the full game is like.
I don’t normally review lite versions of products, but the full Spider game is probably in my top 20 favorites due to its unique game play, and I relish any opportunity to get to talk about it some more. I also found Hornet Smash interesting because it has a different focus than the main game. In Bryce Manor the game is all about eating bugs. In Hornet Smash you still need to capture and eat bugs to stay alive, but your points come from taking down the hordes of hornets that flood the room the game takes place in. It adds more of an action tilt to the game, and it’s a nice change of pace from the full blown version of Spider. After you’ve played through one game you do get the opportunity to take one level of the full game for a test drive.
Hornets In The Attic
The controls are still as easy as ever. To jump you simply swipe in the direction you want to soar. Jumping into hornets is the only way to take them down. You do have to be careful, though, because there are red hornets that will attack you, and you have to make sure they are not in attack mode before you try and get them. To capture bugs you will once again have to spin webs. Click on the spider and then click on the location where you want the current strand of your web to end. Once you have enclosed an area by strands it will become a web and you’ll be able to catch bugs. To eat bugs you just crawl over them once they are snared in the web. The big difference here is that unlike Bryce Manor, webs will fade away after some time in Hornet Smash.
I’m pretty sure the graphics come directly from Bryce Manor, but that’s just fine, as there was nothing wrong with them to begin with. You actually get three different scenes to choose from, including the pantry, garden and attic. The sound effects are good, especially when you hear a hornet squishing as you crush it. I also really enjoy the music, and it suits the game quite well.
This was a wonderful reminder of why I liked Bryce Manor so much. It’s nice to see developers come up with creative ways to present lite versions of their games, rather than just tossing the first couple of levels at you and saying “buy the rest”. Because it’s a new game play mode, it’s fun even for those who have already been through the full version. As such, I suggest you try it even if you already own Bryce Manor.
Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link
Copyright © 2010 Technobrains. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.technobrains.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana
