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My son is 5 years old, and one of his favorite games to play is matching. Personally, I don’t care for it. It’s not that I can’t handle it, because I think I do a pretty good job with it. In fact, it’s fun because it’s one of the few games that he both “gets” rules-wise and is good at. It’s just that I find the game boring, especially if there are a lot of cards to match on the playing field. This mild disdain for the genre pretty much carries over to the electronic world, especially since most developers that implement this type of game don’t do much to make it any different from the physical version. Usually Herocraft is able to take such things and at least make them interesting, even if I still don’t necessarily care for the end results. I’m not so sure they even managed to accomplish that with Twice.

If you didn’t gather by the paragraph above, Twice is the iPhone version of matching. There have certainly been other implementations of matching on the iPhone, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that Herocraft might do something with it to at least intrigue me, if not actually blow me away. Instead, what I ended up with was a variant of matching that while mildly entertaining, doesn’t break new ground in such a way as to capture my attention. Twice has three game modes: sly, agile and smart. In Sly mode you must make matches in as few moves as possible. Each move reduces a turn indicator by one, and when that turn indicator is empty you lose a life. In Agile mode you must make all your matches in a certain amount of time. When the time is up, you lose a life. Finally, smart mode requires you to score the highest amount of points possible. Time doesn’t play a factor in this mode, but your points are determined by how many moves you make, so it’s kind of like an advanced version of Sly.

Playing the game is a simple matter of tapping on two tiles in a row. When tiles match they’ll stay turned over. If you’re feeling ambitious you can really tap on as many tiles in a row as you can get in before they start turning back over, but you need to keep track mentally of the sequence in which you tapped on tiles. I wouldn’t recommend tapping more than two ahead of schedule. Besides having three different modes, the developers were kind enough to not use the standard NxN board layout. In fact, so far every board of each level has been different. A lot of times the layouts actually seem to look like specific objects, which is also pretty cool. There’s even this neat thing where every once in a while a butterfly escapes when you turn a tile over, and while the butterfly is flittering around none of the bad effects take place. So if you’re playing timed mode, for example, you won’t lose any time while the butterfly is out. The sad part is that seems to be about the extent of features that stray from the norm. It keeps the game interesting for a while, but in the end it still feels like “just another matching game”.

While not the best visuals Herocraft has to offer, I do like the look of the game. The jungle theme works well, and there are nice little touches like the butterfly flitting around or the fireworks that shoot off at the end of each level. The sound effects are actually pretty week. The music is decent, but doesn’t seem to fit the theme of the game all that well.

Twice certainly isn’t a bad game, and in fact I’d say it’s probably one of the better matching games I’ve played on my iPod. Unfortunately, as someone who is not a fan of the genre in the first place, I was really hoping the game would do something to ignite that spark of interest in me, and Twice really didn’t do that. If you’re into matching games, I would suggest giving this one a try. You’ll probably like it a lot. If you’ve not tried matching games before, this might be a good place to start. If you’re like me and don’t really care for the genre, this isn’t going to push you over the edge.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
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Like most of HeroCraft’s iPhone games I first experienced Robo on my Pocket PC, and on that platform it was one of my favorites from this developer.  I would argue that holds true of the iPhone as well.  Be warned that unlike most of their other offerings, however, Robo is not a causal “pick up and play” game.  It won’t take long before you start getting into levels that require thinking, planning and probably a few restarts before you solve them.  Simple it’s not, but worthwhile it most definitely is.

Robo is a fresh take on the old “mirrors and lasers” game.  The plot is that your girlfriend has been kidnapped – ah, robo-love – and you must rescue her.  Unfortunately, her captor has littered the way to his lair with a series of traps comprised of lasers reflecting off of mirrors which are blocking your way to the exit to each level.  You must clear a path to the exit by moving either the lasers, the mirrors or both.  Along the way you might also get boulders and / or bombs to help or hinder your progress.  You must use all your wits to figure out where everything needs to go in order to clear your path.  Keep in mind that laser beams and explosions from bombs are bad for robots, so you’ll always want to stay clear of those things or you’ll be starting the level over.

One nice feature in the iPhone version that didn’t exist in the Pocket PC version (or at least in the version I played) is the ability to undo moves.  Of course, this doesn’t apply to a move that causes you to blow up or disintegrate, but it will reverse a mirror pushed too far or a rock pushed in the wrong direction.  On the other hand, the feature I’m least happy about is the movement.  I’m not quite sure how I would have implemented it any better, but it’s hard getting used to controls that pop up only when you press the screen, especially given that the arrows don’t react unless you’re on top of them.  I know that’s the way it should be, but that means if you want to go up and you didn’t click the screen in quite the right spot for the up arrow you need to slide your finger over.  It just seems a little awkward to me.

The highlight of this game is the visuals.  Individual objects are a tad on the small side, but everything is incredibly detailed and wonderfully animated.  Just one example of “above and beyond” are two little birds playing on a twig on top of the bushes on the grassy levels.  They even went so far as to show your character’s reflection in the mirrors when you’re pushing them.  The main character is also quite entertaining to watch.  His head is a computer monitor, and when he sits idle for a while the face will be replaced with all sorts of amusing images, such as a test pattern or an aquarium complete with fish swimming around.  There’s even a little skull displayed should your character happen to get fried.  The sound effects are decent, but the music rocks.  This is one of those games where you can easily listen to the music while you’re going about doing other things.

If you’re a casual gamer, Robo definitely isn’t for you.  However, if you love a good challenge this is a great choice, especially for a small price.  There are 76 levels in the game, and some of them are bound to keep you busy for a while.  Won’t you help Robo get his girlfriend back?

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

I had the pleasure of reviewing Hexagon Labs for the Pocket PC (see here), and with the exception of a couple of niggling points about length and multi-player capabilities, I really liked the game.  Now the game has come to the iPhone, and the good news is that it is just as fun to play.  In fact, I’m rather enjoying making my way through all the levels again.  The bad news, though, is that they didn’t address my multi-player concerns (there are more levels, thankfully).

Hexagon Labs is an Othello clone at heart, but offers some features that make it more interesting than it’s predecessor.  The basics of the game are that you must take over as much of the playing board as possible, and you do that by moving your pieces around the board.  When you select a piece you will be shown the possible moves you can make.  If you move the piece to an adjoining space you will get a new piece.  If you move the piece two spaces away the piece will “jump” to that space.  The bonus is that if the space you land in is bordered on an side by your opponents, all of your opponent’s pieces that are touching that space will become your color.  Of course, the same applies for the opponent.

The first feature that Hexagon Labs employs to enhance gameplay is the use of hexagons (hence the name) for spaces instead of the traditional squares.  This allows for the potential of six points of attack instead of just four.  Next, the boards come in all shapes and sizes, including some that have gaps that force you to jump to get across them.  Some of the maps actually have 3 players instead of just two, and some even split your initial allotment of pieces up into multiple groups.  All of these factors put a different spin on the strategy required to solve a particular board.

The game offers multi-player, but it’s only hot-seat (all on the same device) and the boards are the same as the ones for single player.  I haven’t seen a way that you can specify that one of the players be computer controlled, either, so if you want to play one of the three player boards you need three physical players or someone is going to be doing double duty.  While I’ve never been much for online play, I’ve come to appreciate it more with iPhone games like Draw Race and Baseball Slugger 3D, and I think Hexagon Labs would be well suited for online play in addition to the hot-seat mode.  It would also be nice if there were some boards specific to multi-player mode.

Hexagon Labs looks sharp, but like most puzzle games there aren’t tons of fancy special effects.  However, the effects when pieces morph colors is pretty nifty.  The sound effects when the pieces are morphing are also neat.  And, as with most HeroCraft games, the music is quite enjoyable.

I haven’t really looked into what sort of Othello type games are available for the iPhone, but I would say that the production values on Hexagon Labs lends itself towards being one of the better ones.  For those who haven’t played a game like Othello before, this is a great place to start.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

In 2007 I had the opportunity to review the Pocket PC version of Ball Rush Aqua, which you can check out here: Ball Rush Aqua Review.  While the game didn’t totally sell me on the brick breaking genre of games, it did a pretty good job of entertaining me.  After having aged a couple of years and migrated to a new platform, Ball Rush Aqua still holds up pretty well.  Unfortunately, with new offerings like Ball Slam Fantasy (see here) uping the game, as it were, Ball Rush Aqua isn’t quite as fun as it used to be.  Since the game hasn’t changed much from its Pocket PC days, I encourage you to check out that review for all the details.  Here I’m just going to cover a couple of the highlights in regards to where Ball Rush Aqua is different (and not) from its bretheren.

The coolest part of Ball Rush Aqua was the fact that each board was comprised of multiple screens.  As far as I know that’s still a unique feature of brick breaking games on the mobile platform, and it’s probably the key factor that makes Ball Rush Aqua stick out from other games like this on the iPhone.  Basically, the only screen that you can die on is the first screen of any given level, and the only screen that you have to clear all of the bricks on is the last screen of any given level.  There are also a couple of bonuses that are either rarely used or have not appeared in other brick breaking games.  The most notable of these are the auto pilot, which takes control of your paddle for a few seconds and guarantees that you don’t miss a shot, and the remote control, which lets you temporarily manipulate the motion of your ball to some extent.

On the down side, since you still have to break all the bricks on the last level, it’s not uncommon to get stuck with the problem that most brick breakers face: that one brick that you just can’t seem to hit.  Also, while the multi-screen level concept is still cool, it makes the levels drag at times compared to the quick pace of a game like Ball Smash Fantasy.  They even tried to take advantage of the accelerometer feature, but thankfully you can turn that off, because I found it hard to control that way.

The graphics are decent, but they look somewhat dated compared to more modern interpretations of this genre.  I do still like the background with its array of fish and ocassional submarine, however.  The sound effects work, but aren’t anything special.  The music still holds up pretty well.  It kind of reminds me of a 70′s Bee-Gee’s mix.

Overall Ball Rush Aqua is still a solid game, and any die hard brick breaker fan would be remiss not to add it to their collection.  Just like me, however, the game is starting to show its age, and really could have used a bit of a face lift when moving to a new platform.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Store Link – Lite Version
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Some of you might be thinking “that’s an awfully weird name for a game”. The astute folks, however, have probably realized that those are in fact two separate games. However, due to their similar nature (and the fact that I’ve already reviewed them both for the Pocket PC – Happy Lines and Snow Lines), I figured I’d lump them together for this quick look.  That doesn’t mean they don’t stand on their own as well done games, but the truth is that once you’ve played one you’ve basically played them both (though for 99 cents why not?)

For those unfamiliar with the “lines” concept, you basically move objects around the board (in this case cute smiley faces) until you make lines of a certain size, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.  However, the folks at Herocraft throw a wrench in here because on certain levels you have to form squares and rectangles instead of lines!  They’ll make sure you know which at the beginning of each level.  Also, in some levels your goal is to earn a certain number of points, while in others you’re trying to fill a meter up while it’s slowly emptying.  In a way this provides you with four different styles of play throughout the course of the game.  On top of all that, the game board varies in size and shape with each level, providing an extra challenge.  This is the most unique variations in this genre of game that I’ve run across so far.

The one down side is that other than theme, the two games are basically the same.  It’s really just a matter of trying to decide whether you want the original Happy Lines (which boasts somewhat of a fall theme complete with falling leaves) or Snow Lines for that wintery Christmas feeling.  I realize that there’s something to be said for franchising, but it honestly would have been nice if, at least for the iPhone version, the visuals and audio for Snow Lines would have been added as a “skin” for Happy Lines.  Personally, I think I’d rather pay $1.99 for a two-themed game the $1.98 to have two games that are basically the same except for theme.  But, that’s just me.

The visuals live up to the usual Herocraft high standards.  I particularly enjoy the animated smiley faces, as well as the falling elements (leaves in Happy Lines and snow in… yep… Snow Lines).  I think I enjoy the Snow Lines visuals just a bit more, mainly because of the winter apparel – ear muffs, scarves, etc. – that just seems to give the smileys a bit more personality.  The main sound effects of interest revolve around the smileys as well.  You’re greeted with a “humph” when you select a smiley to move, and occasionally a random smiley will giggle for no apparent reason.  Again, it just adds to the personality of the game.  The music in both games is good, so it’s really a matter of whether you’re more into Christmas type tunes or mellow rock type ballads.  Either way you’ll probably enjoy listening to the tunes even if you aren’t busy playing the game.

I wasn’t really familiar with the “lines” genre before playing Happy Lines and Snow Lines, but I’m glad these were the first games of this type I had played.  They are both fun, colorful, and get progressively challenging as you beat each level.  I’m not sure that you’d find much added value in owning both games, aside from the different themes, but at 99 cents a pop, you won’t lose much in finding out.

Final Verdict: Recommended (at least one of the two)
App Store – Happy Lines
App Shopper – Happy Lines
App Store – Snow Lines
App Shopper – Snow Lines
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