Chillingo iOS Roundup – Volume Four

It’s time again for another round up of some of the multitude of Chillingo titles that have been released since we last talked. As you can expect from a publisher that doesn’t like to tie themselves down to a single genre, these games cover the whole range of styles that the iOS devices are used with, from racing games that require the player to concentrate on each and every corner that’s about to come up to trivia games that require a vast amount of concentration of a different kind. Some games are competitive, some games aren’t, having said that however, there’s no better way to learn more about these games than just playing them, so without further ado, let’s get started!

Titles are available on iPhone and iPad unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you hear, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

POLLEN COUNT: Infinite Degree are a development company that are brand spanking new, all sparkly and shiny who, until recently, were waiting for their first game to come out so that the whole world could see what they were capable of. Well, that time is now because their first game, Pollen Count, is out now and available for anyone willing to shell out the cash.

Pollen Count is a line following game in the same vein as Flight Control and Harbour Master, but in this instance, instead of vehicles, you’re in control of some bees. The bees in question come from the edges of the screen, the player draws a line from the bee to one of the flowers which appear along the bottom of the screen, once the bees are full of pollen you are to guide them safely to the beehive. That’s the basic gist of the game, it’s not that complicated at all and, for the most part, that’s one of the better points of the game. A lot of games recently have been concentrating on trying to be as close to an AAA handheld game as they possibly can and while the iOS devices are good enough handheld gaming machines they’re simply not made to play the game that we’ve been playing on our Nintendo DS for the last few years. Infinite Degree understand this, and they’ve gone for a game that utilises the touch functionality of the iDevices as they were initially intended. Not a single on-screen analog stick in sight!

So many bees! It's like a horror movie! Pollen Count, Pollen Count, Pollen Co ... wait.

The visuals of Pollen Count are also one of its biggest selling points, the simple art style sticks close to the light hearted style of the game on the whole and are generally visually appealing to the player. The backgrounds of the game are often one of the biggest let downs as some of them seem to be simple photographs. They’re not bad photographs, and most of them look appealing in their own right, it’s just that it feels a little bit lazy to go from the very appealing looks of the bees and all the other assets that make up the main game mechanics, to just a photo of a particular scene as the background.

Pollen Count is, at the end of the day, a great line drawing game, it’s held back a lot by the lack of originality as a lot of people will draw a lot of similarities between this and a lot of the other games in the genre. On the plus side Pollen Count is one of the better line drawing games that you’ll play, with all the levels being short enough to keep people interested while also being challenging enough to keep the more hardcore players entertained until the end. When you consider that this is the first game from Infinite Games, then you can’t help but sit back and be a little bit impressed. Keep your eyes on these guys, they know what they’re doing with the iOS market. 

MAD WHEELS: Mad Wheels is a game developed by NewFX Games and just like any other racing game, consists entirely of trying to get to the finish line faster than the rest of the people currently in the race. To do this players are given a couple of standard weapons as well as their own skill and commitment to the cause. The weapons seem severely lacking for the most part and are all very standard for this style of racing game including such mundane things as the rocket and machine gun, and while they’re all relatively fun to use (as they are in just about every other game) it would have been nice to see a little bit of originality.

The graphics of Mad Wheels looks quite good for a game that can really only be played on the iPhone. All the models in the game were clearly created with a lot of care and attention and seem to react well to the physics involved in throwing them around the numerous corners. Most of the models are let down by the textures, all of which are very pixellated and bring down the look of the game on the whole. The camera angle that the player is expected to play the game in doesn’t do the game any favours either, it’s an isometric viewing angle that’s very reminiscent of some arcade game of our youth. That camera angle, coupled with the low resolution and pixelated graphics means that you’ll often feel like you’re playing a game that’s a little bit more dated than it actually is.

Unfriendly roads, argumentative drivers, is this Mad Wheels or M25: The Game?

The controls in Mad Wheels are the almost universally hated on screen analog stick and buttons which might turn a lot of people off instantly, however, they’re done quite well here. With that said though, the control scheme adopted by NewFX for Mad Wheels means that it’s almost impossible to play on the iPad as it’s meant to be played with one hand on the analog stick and the other hand on the button. Due to the weight and overall size of the iPad it’s almost impossible to play Mad Wheels in this way. It’s very much an iPhone game and it doesn’t really apologise for that. Most people will be able to play the game without looking down at their hands all the time; unfortunately the inherent problems with this control method are still alive and well in Mad Wheels.

If you’re looking for a competitive racing game that you can play for short periods at a time then you can do a lot worse than Mad Wheels, unfortunately, with the on screen controls the way they are, most people will only be able to play it for short periods before they start getting frustrated. That can’t be blamed on the developer though. It is, and always will be, a problem with playing this style of game on the iPhone in general, and until somebody comes out with a way of playing without having to resort to on screen analog sticks it’s something that we’re going to have to learn to live with. 

RANGER ROCKET: Ranger Rocket is a style of game that isn’t seen very often at all. So much so that I don’t even know what to call it. Basically you’re a park ranger that’s been given the heroic task of thwarting an alien invasion, and to perform this you have to draw lines from the edge of the screen to another edge in order to cut pieces of the game world away. The player must continue to cut away areas of the game world, trapping the enemies within the areas that you’re sectioning off. Once all the enemies are dealt with the level ends and you move onto the next one. It’s the type of game that’s difficult to get a hang of at first, especially when you realise that you’ve got to take into account the fact that the enemies can fly into the line you’re creating as well as flying into your ship in an attempt to destroy you, but once you’ve got the game mechanic down to an art, you’ll be able to create sections quickly and efficiently, further adding to your overall enjoyment of Ranger Rocket.

The art style of Ranger Rocket is a very pleasing cartoon art style which adds to the casual feel of the game. There are small cut-scenes that occur between a couple of the levels that maintain the art style and while they’re not animated, they do keep the feel of the game on the whole going, and they work well to break up the game into smaller chunks. This style of breaking up the game into a lot of smaller, more managable sections often helps to keep people interested in the game in general, instead of sticking to the same thing over and over again for an extended period of time; Ranger Rocket is no exception to that rule.

Rockets, bad guys, geometric shapes. What's not to like?

The controls of Ranger Rocket are entirely touch based. The player touches the screen and drags in the direction that they want the rocket to move in and the rocket, for the most part, does as it’s told. There are times that the rocket didn’t move fast enough for my liking, and there are areas of the game that requires the player to move very quickly in order to not die but the game doesn’t really like a series of short quick inputs and it therefore tends to conveniently forget that you’ve touched the screen at all. This doesn’t happen often enough for most players to consider putting the game down due to frustration, but it is something that should be noted.

Ranger Rocket is not a great game by any means but it has just enough originality, humour and outright charm that it deserves that people at least experience it. A little bit more polish on the controls and the art and Rocket Racer could have been something really special as it stands, however, it’s just a good game that could have been amazing. 

QUIZ CLIMBER: Quiz Climber is a difficult game to talk about. There’s no story, no real control scheme associated with it and no replay value in the traditional sense of the phrase because there’s no way to finish playing it. That being said, it’s a game that its almost impossible to put down for any length of time, and it’s the type of game that hooks just about everybody, whether you’re the type of gamer who plays the odd quiz every now and then to keep your general knowledge in check or if you’re at the other end of the spectrum and you want to totally obliterate your friends, making them unable to doubt your general knowldge prowess, Quiz Climber can cater to it.

Quiz Climber is a trivia game that’s very deeply integrated with your Facebook profile. As you answer questions you climb higher up a tree with each question being represented by a branch. You keep answering questions until you get one wrong which will end your current game and store your score for all your friends to see. The cheeky way that Relentless Software have gotten most players to NEED to keep playing the game is with the Facebook integration. If your friends are also playing the game they’ll be a part of your very own leaderboard, after every round you’ll be able to see how you faired against your friends and most of the time players will feel the urge to instantly replay the game in order to beat that one person that always seems to be above you, although with GodisaGeek’s very own Adam Cook being the only person on my leaderboard, this wasn’t really a problem for me 😛

Well it's clearly Dustin Hoffman, or was that Rain Man? Ah well, they're practically the same film.

The visuals in Quiz Climber are also something that will get people coming back time and time again. Relentless Software have decided to go for a very child friendly cartoon art style which is visually appealing for just about anybody that would pick up the game. The art style is maintained throughout the entirety of the title and the characters that each player embodies while they’re playing are well designed and well animated, staying with the cutesy style of the rest of the game. If somebody decides to create merchandise out of the characters in Quiz Climber, as they did with Angry Birds and Om Nom from Cut The Rope, I wouldn’t be surprised at all and, more than that, I’d probably buy my fair share of them as soon as they went on sale.

Quiz Climber is the perfect game to play regularly, trying to beat all the people on your Facebook friends list. The healthy competition will keep people coming back for more and will also give people something to talk about when meeting in real life. The addition of push notifications to tell you when a friend overtakes you on the tree ensures that even the most competitive of players will feel the need to keep coming back in order to maintain their position at the top. 

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