Quick Look: Super Collider For iPhone
If you read the description in the App Store and look at the pictures you might think to yourself “isn’t that just another one of those ‘dodge-everything’ type of games?” Well, it is, but much like Gobble it adds its own unique spin to the genre. In Super Collider you control a particle of anti-matter, and your job is to collect quarks while trying to avoid highly charged particles of matter that have “gone rouge”. In the end you’ll either stabilize the particle chamber or all will be lost (though since the game boasts infinite levels I doubt you’ll encounter the stabilization outcome).
Time To Slow Things Down
Game play is simple. You use your finger to control the anti-matter particle, and you drag it around the screen, avoiding the matter particles. You’ll have a certain number of quarks to collect each level, and then you’ll move on to the next. You’ll also move on if the time runs out, but obviously you don’t score as many points that way. Every fifth level is a bonus level that will end as soon as you contact a matter particle, collect the specified number of quarks, or your time runs out. If you get hit on the bonus levels you don’t lose a life, the level just ends. Along the way you can collect shields to temporarily block matter particles and space / time reactors to slow the matters’ movement, though the latter power-up almost doesn’t last long enough to be worthwhile. On occasion you’ll even run into a particle that give you an extra life. Finally there are score multipliers that will increase you score between 2 to 5 times when you get them.
There were a couple of neat elements to the game. First of all, the matter particles weren’t always deadly. Sometimes as they’d collide with each other or the walls they’d turn green, and while they were green they wouldn’t hurt you. Second, and this just makes so much sense for a game who’s only control is touch, when you lift your finger from the screen the game pauses. This is a mechanic that a lot more games should adopt. Finally, I just really liked the setting. It’s certainly different than the majority of this style of game, which usually revolve around random objects avoiding other random objects for no reason.
There were also a couple of issues I had with the game. The first is that your finger / hand often gets in the way of the action. I know that’s one of the drawbacks of a touch screen as a whole, but it seemed to be a lot more of a hindrance in Super Collider for some reason. Second, it would have been nice to have some sort of mode with a real goal, instead of just an infinite play mode. Infinite play is a definite must in a game like this, but it’s also nice to have a purpose for playing the first time through. Finally, and this is my biggest issue, the integration with online rankings is annoyingly integrated. They use AGON, and basically I can’t truly end the game without signing on and submitting my score. This is a problem, since I don’t have an AGON account, nor do I want one. As a result, I have to quit the program and go back in to start a new game. I consider this a design flaw.
I like the look of the game. The backgrounds have a B-movie “we’re scoping around inside a human body” look to them, and even though you’re supposed to be in a particle collider, it still looks cool. The particles and power-ups are also well rendered, and everything just fits together nicely visually. The sound effects are also pretty good and fit with the overall theme, though I recommend not leaving the game on too long after you lose, because the sound effects go on overload at that point and do get annoying. The music is very nice. I know nothing about Voodoo Music Highway, but they did an excellent job on the soundtrack.
Overall, Super Collider is a nice take on the “dodge the objects” game. Sharp visuals, a solid soundtrack, and an actual reason for what you’re doing all make for nice changes from the normal variants of this genre. Unfortunately, the messy integration with AGON is enough to keep me from flat out recommending this game.
Final Verdict: On The Fence
App Store Link
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Tags: Action Game, Eric Pankoke, iPhone, Pixel Mine, Quick Look, review, Super Collider, technobrains
