Beasts of Balance (iOs/Physical) I kickstarted this game a while back and was really pleased when it firstly met its goal and secondly turned out to be such a lovely object. The object of the game is to stack physical objects onto a base and the bigger your tower the higher your score on an app attached to a phone or ipad. The objects are really nice looking creatures. This menagerie includes a bear, toucan, octopus amongst others and with each comes quirks to how they stack depending on the height, appendages and balance of them. Along with the animals there are other blocks to add to your tower which can increase your score, be it crossing species or adding elemental pieces to match the creatures placed in the tower (water for the shark for example) this all marries up to the app on the phone with a little world populating with beasts, becoming more fantastical as they get crossed in more bizarre ways. I've not paid that much attention to the app as the actual practice of stacking these objects is mesmerising, my first intention was to get my three year old daughter involved but I soon politely moved her to one side so I could optimise how my tower was constructed, I'm sure its a lot of fun as a multiplayer experience but I'm loving it on my own, methodically comparing how things will stack. I've got a very modest high score, back to the app when it all comes tumbling down it tally's up how your world has fared, if you gave enough earth to the boar for example. This is a nice way to make me want to keep returning to the game and i'm really appreciating how the app doesn't take too much attention away from my building. Everything is packaged and designed beautifully, the objects themselves I'd happily have on a shelf to look at, the fact they are part of such a lovely and addictive game is a bonus.
Mario Run (iOs) came out this week also and its a really strange thing. After being used to Mario in his guise of a portly Italian plumber who moves in a very specific way for so long this game is a bit of shock, he looks the same (its almost exactly as I expect the New Super Mario games to look) but it feels very different. Its this contrast that I'm struggling to get to grips with, instead of holding down the run button to get more distance I'm now expected to hold my thumb down for longer in order to get more height on my jump thats the biggest one so far. He's always running, thats another one, but I appreciate that they've made it feel more optimised for an iPhone. He's not always running though, he pauses at specific blocks for a breather and changes direction when making contact with other blocks. The levels are fairly quick to get through and for the most part fun enough, I really disliked the ghost houses though. Something about trying to work out the fairly basic puzzles when the biggest issue is that I'm constantly moving just irritated me. The game goes a long way to redemption though with the addition of the Rally mode, here you compete against other players on courses to get an audience of toads on side. Through collecting coins, beating enemies and doing simple tricks a little crowd of toads cheer you on, the winner is the person who gets the higher number of toads supporting them, and this mode i've found addictive and a lot of fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment