Basically, powerbocking is the act of jumping around on spring loaded stilts.  In Jump-O-Mania you jump around various cities, using the items lying around the street as your obstacle course.  You’ll hurdle things like toll both gates, dryers and stretch limos, and that’s just in Russia!  You’re constantly moving, but you can tilt the device left and right to determine how long of a jump you’ll make.  When the time comes you press the jump button to leap in the air.  If you perform multiple jumps in a row you’ll get bonuses.  You also have the option to perform stunts while you’re flying through the air.  This will grant you even bigger bonuses, and the longer you hold the stunt button the more points you’ll get for that stunt.  Don’t get cocky, however, because timing is key, and falling flat on your face not only looks painful, but it ends the round.

You Go, Girl!

This is one of those games where you have to really work to get access to everything.  When you start the game you have one character, one outfit, and one level.  You even only have access to one mode of game play.  As you conquer levels you start to open things up.  Sadly I’ve only beaten the first level, so I haven’t been able to experience things like the second character or other game play mode.  The initial mode is Time Trial, where you must survive for 180 seconds to beat the level.  Scoring is always nice, but I’m not sure it’s a critical element here.  I think as long as you last the 180 seconds you’ll beat the level.  The thing is, that’s not a whole lot of fun, so you’ll find yourself being pulled into multiple jumps and edge of your seat stunts in no time.  And then you’ll watch yourself crumble over a gate or ice cream freezer because your timing was off by just a hair.

The second mode is Survival, though since I haven’t unlocked it yet I can only speculate.  I would imagine it’s a “get as far as you can” type scenario, given the way the game as a whole works.  You can earn achievements, but it appears to be a home grown system as opposed to something like OpenFeint.  My one achievement so far is “50 Falls”, so you have some idea of how skilled I am at this game.  There is also an online leader board you can submit your scores to if you have an internet connection.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never be in the running for top contender there.

Let's Hear It For The Boys...

While the game play is 2D the graphics are nicely rendered in 3D.  The levels have lots of cool details if you can spare a few seconds to look around.  Signs are almost legible, vending machines look full, and all kinds of details abound.  I love seeing the Statue Of Liberty on the New York level, though my favorite background element so far is the bear passed out on the ground in the Russia level.  The character looks really good as well, and the animation is lifelike and fluid.  The only thing that’s a bit creepy is when she wipes out, because then the game sort of goes into “ragdoll” mode and some of the positions look extremely painful.

The sound effects are actually really good in this game.  I love the sound the springs make when you impact with the ground, and I also really appreciate the fact that the stilts make different noises when they impact with different things.  It would have been so easy to cheat in a game like this and have one sound for everything, assuming people wouldn’t pay that much attention to such trivialities.  The moan the character makes when she hits the ground makes it even harder to watch her body crumple up.  The music gets a bit repetitive after a while, but it’s not bad either.  It has sort of a jazzy exercise beat to it.

The first time I played Jump-O-Mania I really wasn’t sure what to make of it, but now I realize it’s a quick to play, easy to get hooked on jump ‘n trick game that will challenge you.  There’s no magic or mysticism to the controls, but there’s definitely something required to master the game.  If you’re looking for a “not-so-endless keep running” game that’s a bit different from the norm, Jump-O-Mania might just be your thing.  I’m glad I got the chance to try it.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Soccer Stealers

When the developers behind Watermelon tackle soccer, you can bet you’re not going to get your average soccer game, and Soccer Stealers is anything but.  In fact, it’s really a “dodge ‘em all” style game that uses soccer as a backdrop.  You play as one of three characters – the third must be unlocked – and your goal is to keep the soccer game disrupted by hanging on to the ball as long as you can.

Your main tactic is simply to keep away from the players, but you do have a couple of tricks up your sleeve.  The shoe power up gives you a temporary burst of speed.  The beer makes you a bit tipsy, but your resulting whirlwind pattern knocks over the other players.  The watermelon splits apart when you hit it, and the players can slide on the rinds if they run over them.  Keep in mind that you are not impervious to sliding, however, so this power up is a double edged sword.  The best part, though, is that you can actually score goals, which net you extra points (sorry for the pun).

Fly Boys!

Controlling the game is a simple matter of dragging where you want the character to go.  For the most part it works well, though it’s actually fairly easy to block the action as you’re moving your hand around the screen.  I would love to see an option to use a virtual d-pad, as I think this is a game where that kind of control would work really well.  The other thing I’d like to see are more power ups.  The ones that are available are cool, but a wider variety would be nice.  Oh, and I’d love to be able to play as the alien in the title screen – I’m not sure where it comes into the game yet, or even if it does.

The graphics are nicely done.  The characters look pretty cool, and I love watching your guy twirl around with the beer power up or the other players slipping on the watermelon rinds.  Your guy will even go to the corner of the playing field and wave the fans on when you score a goal.  The sound effects are decent enough.  I like the grunts and groans when players slip on the watermelon, and the immature nature trapped inside of me chuckles every time your character burps when picking up the beer power up.  The music is okay, but only plays until each game actually starts, which is kind of odd.

This is clearly not a traditional soccer game, which might be why I actually like it.  I’ll admit that I’m still a bigger fan of Watermelon, but it’s clear that the developers have a handle on making simple, wacky games that are fun to play and make you smile.  Even if you’re over World Cup mania, I highly suggest giving this game a try.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link

Pix’N Love Rush

I’m not even really sure how to describe this game.  Some would say it’s inspired by Super Mario Bros, and I don’t doubt that, but to say it’s a clone is very unfair to Love Rush.  You play this character that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and you’re trying to score big so that you can get cake.  You rush through a bunch of levels collecting plus signs to increase your score and avoiding minus signs, which will obviously decrease your score.  Purple bats are bad as well, but you can shoot them by basically doing what appears to be spitting on them.  There are also yellow flying creatures that you must protect.  Believe me when I say I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

The levels come in all varieties, and you’re only on a given level for a few seconds.  A level might be one screen or it might be scrolling horizontally or vertically.  Some levels have crumbling platforms that you have to watch for.  One level might be predominantly plus signs, while the next one will have a healthy dose of all things evil.  The truth is that you never know what you’re going to get.

What I do know, however, is that I don’t like the controls.  Jump and shoot actually work okay, though half the time you can’t see them because they blend into the level graphics.  The left and right buttons are actually even pretty responsive. I’m not sure what the problem is – maybe the left and right buttons are too close together.  It just seems like there are too many times where I’m going in the opposite direction of what I thought I hit.  I really think Love Rush would be a great candidate for tilt control where movement is concerned.

It's-A Gameboy Mario!

The highlight of Pix’N Love Rush is definitely the graphics.  Not only is there a lot of 8 bit lovin’ going on in these visuals, but one of the benefits of building up your score is that when you get to certain thresholds the visual style actually changes.  It starts out with a “modern” look, but by the time you get to the last change you feel like you’re playing a black and white Gameboy game.  This is where you’ll notice the Super Mario Bros. influence.  I also find it amusing watching the main character spit for some reason.  Call me weird I guess.

The sound effects are okay.  When the main character spits the sound adds to the overall amusement of the process.  I also think the sound it makes when it gets hit works well.  Everything else is just kind of ordinary.  The music, however, is just as brilliant as the graphics.  Each level has its own theme, and the music is just as retro as the visuals.

There have been some pretty good platform games showing up on the iPhone platform recently, but none has quite the quirky charm of Pix’N Love Rush.  It’s clear the developer has a love of old console games, and I could just as easily seen this game show up on a NES emulator as the iPhone.  It’s amazing how old school feel can still have such modern appeal.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link

That wraps up another edition of Random Selections.  Don’t hold me to this, but I think the next installment will cover the latest releases from Kuyi Mobile.  Until next time…

App Store Link

Sure you could pick 180 as one of them if you don’t already own it, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen someone use the allure of other people’s apps to make people aware of their own. Personally I hope they get some good return out of it eventually, because Ron overt at Headcase Games has put a lot of work into maintaining this contest. Go support them by RTing their messages and buying their game.

Full Contest Rules
My Review Of 180

Back then it might have been more original, but nowadays it’s your clichéd story where you are the chosen one, the only person that can save the princess from the clutches of the evil tyrant.  The story gets fleshed out in bits and pieces by the underground dwellers, but not to any great extent.  The story isn’t overly compelling, but just like in the original Legend Of Zelda, it’s not really that important.  The main thing is that you get to traverse an over world conquering monsters in real time combat.  Then you get to enter underground areas where you can conquer more monsters in side scrolling or vertical scrolling fashion.  There are also people you can visit below the surface that will give you potions and other things to help you on your journey.

Blue Snakes?

Once I finally defeated the boss in the first area I was treated to a second section that was much bigger in scope.  It was at this point I realized a map would be nice.  I’m not sure if you ever find one in the game, but one can hope.  As you wander around you’ll discover that almost all the entrances to the various under world areas are initially hidden, and you have to kill at least one or two monsters in a room to open them.  The whole monster thing is interesting, because you only get two monsters at a time, but as soon as one is killed or leaves the screen, another one spawns in its place.  You also get gold from each kill (as far as I can tell), but you don’t actually have to pick it up.  This feature is actually kind of nice, and I wish more games would employ such a tactic.

It all sounds well and good, and actually sounds a lot like the original Legend Of Zelda, but the game falls apart when you must actually move your character around to do all these things.  On the left is a virtual d-pad, which quite frankly is sluggish and easy to “slip off” of.  This isn’t very helpful anywhere, but it’s especially bad when you have a sequence where the level is constantly moving whether or not you’re actually stuck.  The attack button is a little round button on the right side, and while mostly not bad, it’s easy to lose sight of when you’re in the heat of battle.  If this were a turn based game the controls might be okay, but since its real time action they really make the game play suffer, especially when it comes to fighting bosses.

More Snakes... But Bigger

I can’t decide if the highlight of the game is the graphics or the music.  The graphics aren’t great, but then they were created 20+ years ago, and I’m sure they shined in their time.  I still like them though, especially the tiles used for the backgrounds and the portraits of the NPCs you encounter.  The creatures themselves leave a bit to be desired, and while a bit more detailed than what you’d find in the first Zelda, they lack character.  On the other hand, I’m quite impressed with the quality of the music.  I could actually see this soundtrack being used for a modern game, and it’s certainly better than a large percentage of the ones I’ve heard on the many iPhone games I’ve played.

This game has a lot going for it, and once I beat my head against the wall enough and got past the first section, I began to realize why they had the nerve to compare it to Zelda.  However, in order for this port to be considered decent in my opinion, they really need to revamp the controls.  The thing is, as I pondered this dilemma more and more, I realized that with revamped controls this is definitely a game I could sink my teeth into.  As a result, I’ve decided to change my original verdict of Not Recommended to…

Final Verdict: On The Fence
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Pac-Match Party – I never thought I’d say this, but a match 3 game involving Pac-Man is actually pretty fun!  While the basic mechanics revolve around match 3, the kicker is that your matches fuel the movements of a little Pac-Man in the game’s border.  If the ghosts that are chasing him catch up to him you lose a life.  When all lives are gone it’s game over.  Power ups are nice because you can stockpile them and use them when you want.  The graphics aren’t breathtaking, but then Pac-Man was never about visuals.  The one thing I am disappointed in is that the music isn’t more of a modern rendition of the classic Pac-theme then the music the game actually has.

App Store Link

Terminator Salvation The Game – I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I really didn’t know anything about the game before actually buying it.  I can’t hardly resist when a premium game goes on 99 cent sale, however, so while I have no concept of how good the movie is, I know what the game is like.  Turns out it’s actually pretty cool.  It’s not quite an on-rails shooter, but it’s not really a full fledged third person shooter either.  What’s important is that you get to blow lots of cool looking Terminators to smithereens.  The controls are workable enough once you get used to them, and I like the ability to duck behind barriers and around the corners of walls.  Having other resistance members come to your aid from time to time is also neat, because it reminds you that this really isn’t just about you (until they all get picked off, of course).  The visuals really bring out a war torn environment, and the sound’s not too shabby either.  I guess you can add this to the short list of games that prove licensed tie-ins can be done right.

App Store Link

La Linea – I don’t remember where I’ve seen the protagonist of this game before, but I know I used to watch his cartoon when I was a kid.  Basically your character is a line that has taken the shape of a man.  He’s fallen in love with a female line, and you have to help him by playing the part of the drawer.  Connect the dots to draw a bridge for line to cross.  Draw a line in the air to create a trampoline to bounce on.  Knock things out of his way by tapping on them, or tap behind him to cause him to jump.  Line is always running, but you can tilt the device to slow him down or speed him up.  What’s really awesome about this game, however, are the visuals.  The main part of the world is a continuous line that both Mr. Line and the obstacles he must overcome are drawn out of.  This effect kind of gets ruined when he’s flying a plane, but I’ll forgive them for trying to throw in diverse gaming elements.  Overall this is a quirky platform game that is both fun and at times humorous.

App Store Link

And there you have it – a blast from my past updated to modern gaming standards on my gaming device of choice, the iPhone.  None of these games are necessarily the best at what they do, but they are all quite fun and make nice use of their licensed characters.  Stay tuned for next time when I once again randomly select three games that are on my device.

Lots Of Choices

As OddBlob your mission in life is simply to get from the area of stars where you start to the area of stars at the other end of each level.  Along the way there are various fruits and other items of food you can eat, but none of those are essential to your survival.  There are also hearts you can snag, and those are good because they give you an extra life.  There are also clocks you can pick up, and I think what those do is give you some extra time before the level starts crumbling behind you.  Finally there are pieces of cake, and if you happen to snag one of those you’ll get to a bonus level.  On the bonus level you get one move to try and reach another piece of cake.  If you do you get a bonus, and either way you then get dumped back to your regularly scheduled game.

Your main obstacles are pits that cause you to fall to your death and walls that block your passage.  You can get around both of these things with well placed jumps, but be sure that you’re jumping over or away from them, and not into them!  The final problem is that the level is slowly crumbling away behind you, which you won’t notice right away but will become painfully obvious after a while, especially if you’re playing on the highest difficulty level.  Just make sure you keep moving forward at a brisk pace, and you shouldn’t fall away like the fabled Atlantis.

To help – or potentially hinder – your progress, several of the tiles have springs on them in the form of arrows and circles.  Arrows launch you in the direction the arrow is pointing, and you’ll travel either one or two tiles depending on if the arrow is single or double.  Once an arrow is used it goes away and the tile becomes ordinary.  Circles keep you moving in the same direction as you were traveling when you landed on them, and once again either boost you one or two tiles depending on if there are one or two circles.  Unlike arrows, circles do not go away.  The fun part of “spring” tiles is when you land on one that catapults you into another… then another… The down side, however, is when the last catapult sends you into a pit.  That’s never a good thing.

The game has two modes of play (though I haven’t really figured out the difference between them yet), and there are score boards for both modes.  In addition there are several OpenFeint achievements, and there’s an in-game menu to see them (called Awards) so that you don’t actually have to go into OpenFeint.  One thing I like about the awards in this game is that for the ones where you have to collect so many of something, they actually tell you how many you’ve collected.  Progress meters are nice.

Visually this feels like the spiritual successor to Platypus.  The objects are all rendered from clay, and even though it doesn’t necessarily produce the crispest, most detailed sprites, there’s something about the look of clay that can’t be beat.  The blob is well animated, though the rest of the game is lacking in that department.  Still, I love the look and it’s a nice change of pace from cartoony or doodle-like.  The sound is okay, but the best part of it, which is the noises the blob makes, is highly underused.  The music is actually pretty good, and it reminds me of a cross between two things, but I just can’t quite place what those two things are.

I’m not going to tell you there’s a whole lot going on here either revolutionary or even evolutionary, because there’s not.  What I will say, however, is that this is a solid game with simple mechanics that becomes quite challenging when you try to determine the course that will give you the most points as the level goes crumbling away behind you.  And yes, I took about 3 breaths during that last sentence!  Anyway, OddBlob is a great time waster with a cute character and plenty of clay food to munch on.  It’s also a universal application, and as of this writing it’s only 99 cents, so you win all around.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Crime Alley

Police Range has two modes – Target Practice and Crime Alley.  Target Practice is first and foremost about hitting a certain number of targets, but secondly it’s about accuracy.  You get points for at least hitting the cardboard target at all, but you score more points if you hit the outline of the figure and even more if you hit a “kill zone”.  It takes a while for this mode to get up and going, but once the required number of targets gets between 40 and 50 the targets start popping up fast and furious like, and you will start missing some.  Thankfully once you’ve passed certain levels you can start at those levels, because while the beginning levels are good for easy points, they aren’t all that exciting.

Crime Alley is the typical scenario where you have a building with people popping in the windows, and you have to shoot the bad guys and not shoot the civilians.  Hitting one of the innocent doesn’t automatically mean you lose, but try not to do that too often.  Overall I find this to be the more interesting scenario of the two, but the visuals can be a bit of a detriment sometimes.  The stylized black and white drawings look cool, but the civilians can look deceptively like the bad guys if you aren’t paying close enough attention.  Add to that the fact that the weapons often blend in with the bad guys and you might do more than your fair share of accidentally shooting the good guys.  Guess I just need some more practice – thankfully they have a range for that!

The game has score boards for both modes, and it also supports OpenFeint.  Thankfully as part of what appears to be a growing trend, Police Range has it’s own screen to show our achievements as well so you don’t have to enter the OpenFeint interface if you don’t want to.  Most of the achievements are of the “I reached level X in one game” or “I’ve beaten X number of levels altogether” variety, but there are a couple of interesting ones.  My favorite is the award for hitting each type of civilian at least once in the same game.  Not sure if that means I’m terrible at the game or I know what I’m aiming for!

The graphics won’t “wow” you, but they aren’t bad either.  The background in Target Practice mode is a bit sparse, but Crime Alley is pretty decent, and the targets themselves look good.  Of course the targets in Crime Alley are much more detailed, so overall I’d say Crime Alley has the better look, which is fine since that’s the more interesting scenario anyway.  I do like some of the special effects like when the cards chip or just get blown to smithereens as they are shot.  Sound is basically a matter of shots being fired and your gun reloading, as I suppose it would be out of place for cardboard targets to scream.  On the other hand, some background music, even if it was subtle, would definitely take care of the intermittent silence.  You can listen to your own tunes, but the Muppets and Hannah Montana don’t really seem like good background music for a shooting gallery game.

I suppose some of the lack of dynamism in Police Range might be due to a desire to make the game feel somewhat authentic, but the end result is that it’s nothing more than a solid but average game.  Granted the Target Practice mode does get more interesting when things go chaotic and the visuals in Crime Alley are neat, but there’s nothing to really differentiate Police Range from dozens of other shooting games I’ve played.  If you’ve gotta have ‘em all then there’s nothing wrong with adding this one to your collection, but there are more interesting choices out there.

Final Verdict: On The Fence
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Here Comes The Lightning

The object of the game is to make matches of three or more balls of the same color.  Sound familiar?  That’s about where the similarities between Steamballs and regular match 3 games end.  Instead of some sort of playing field filled with objects, the game board is comprised of a series of tubes at the top of the screen that contain the balls, and a series of scales at the bottom of the screen.  Your job is to swipe the balls from the tubes one at a time to rest in the scales below.

Furthermore, you have to balance out the scales such that three or more balls of the same color line up in a row in order to make a match.  Each regular ball has a weight, and as you drop the balls on the scales the total weights for each arm are displayed under the scales.  The cool thing is that as long as three balls of the same color match at a given point it counts, so as the scales are adjusting to balance the weight at any given time you could make a match.  This is the only way to get points for your matches.  If there are balls touching the matching row that are of the same color, they will disappear as well.  There are no diagonal matches in the game, and vertical matches must consist of at least 5 balls of the same color, which will disappear but not award you with any points.

In addition to the normal balls there is a variety of power up balls.  Some balls will get rid of other balls when they are dropped.  One ball changes the color of all balls on an arm to the color of the ball underneath the power up.  Another ball gives you bonus points when you make a match with balls that are touching the power up.  There are a number of different power ups at your disposal, each having great merit when used wisely.  Overall this game is much more strategy based than most match 3 games, and has a slower pace as a result.  I find it to be quite refreshing.

The controls are real simple in premise – drag the active ball back and forth to move between tubes and swipe downwards to launch the ball towards a scale.  Seems simple enough, but I often find that due to the relatively narrow tubes my ball is not in the right spot when I launch, which I don’t realize until it’s too late.  Ideally an undo would be nice, but if nothing else maybe an alternate way to drop the ball so that you can move your hand out of the way and be sure you’re in the right position.  On the other hand, I do like the fact that you can tap on a ball to get the details about what it does.  This feature seems a bit sensitive, though, as it tends to pop up a lot more frequently than I ask for it.

A Steam Bomb!

While not as slick as certain other offerings like Gold Keeper or Jump-O-Mania, the visuals in Steamballs definitely have a charm about them.  The whole steampunk atmosphere is cool, and the effects correlating to some of the power ups are pretty sweet.  One thing I will give them credit for is that so far I have not had any issues mistaking one color for another, which seems to be a common problem with matching games that rely on the same objects with different colors.

The sound effects actually suit the game quite well.  The power ups that emit steam or electricity sound pretty good, and there’s a useful if not potentially annoying alarm when you’ve got at least one column too close to the top.  The noise made when rows or columns are match is rather interesting as well.  The music for both the menu and in-game are nice, but I think I like the menu music a bit better.  The in-game music sounds a bit like the background to a detective mystery, while the menu music is just cool.  I don’t even know how to describe it, but I could listen to it for a long stretch without getting bored.

There’s no question that Steamballs ups the ante as far as what’s possible for a match 3 game without resorting to mixing with other genres.  The game still feels like a match 3 game, yet there’s enough strategy involved that it’s also something completely different.  If you’re a match 3 fan that’s not afraid to try something different, or someone that isn’t necessarily into match 3 games already, you definitely need to give this game a try.  For everyone else, try it anyway.  You might just like it.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Mice Heist

Mice Heist is a game about protecting your pile of cheese from some mischievous mice… well, it’s more like a horde of rodents.  You start out each level with 20 slices of cheese and a timer.  You have to keep the mice away from the cheese until the counter gets down to zero.  If a mouse happens to get a piece of cheese, into one of the holes, you loose that piece of cheese for the current round.  All you have to do to stop a mouse is tap on it, and if it’s carrying a piece of cheese it will drop that piece.  Unfortunately, you don’t get as many points for slices that have been separated from the pile, and once a piece of cheese is on its own you can’t return it to the pile until the next round.  This also makes the round more challenging, because now you have multiple cheese stores to watch.

What makes this game fun – and sometimes frustrating – are the different types of mice you have to contend with.  Cheerleader mice don’t take cheese, but they encourage all the other mice to run more quickly.  Napoleon mice constantly call out soldier mice until you get rid of the commander.  Speedy Gonzalez mice dash about the room, making it hard for you to hit them.  Robot mice must be hit several times before they are destroyed.  The worst, however, are the ninja mice.  These guys will dodge your attack, and if you don’t hit them right after they dodge they will continue to dodge every time you strike.

Samurai Chop!

They’ve actually added a bit of strategy to this game, because as the room gets more crowded and the critters get quicker you often have to decide which mice are more important to take out first.  There’s also no question that your finger will get quite a workout as you progress through the levels.  And, if all else fails you can fall back on the cat’s paw once you’ve tapped enough mice.  This will unleash a dancing LOL cat to clear the screen.

The graphics suit the light hearted nature of the game.  The mice are cute and well animated, and there are several different backgrounds that get rotated throughout the game.  The sound effects are actually decent, as the mice pretty much all have their own sounds.  The music is also nice and upbeat (though a couple of different song choices would be nice).  The way the music is laid out you can even almost make your own rhythm game, since each mouse makes a sound when you tap it.

There’s nothing revolutionary – or even evolutionary, really – about Mice Heist.  It’s just a simple “tap all the bad guys” game with cute graphics and snappy music.  That’s what makes it endearing, though.  It doesn’t require much thought or time on your part to play a few rounds, and you’ll never forget what you’re doing.  Seems like the ultimate casual gamers’ choice to me.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link

CataGugl

This was a really pleasant little surprise.  Judging by the screen shots and description I really wasn’t interested in this game, and wasn’t quite sure what it even was.  A marketing friend of mine sent me a code and said “want to give this a try?”  I figured I might as well, since I can’t turn down a free game.  As luck would have it, this game is a blast once you finally figure it out.  The basic gist is that you need to catapult the Gugl as far as you can (hence the name CataGugl – get it?)  You do this by pressing on the Gugl to “grab” it, and then dragging the poor thing back and forth across the screen for three seconds as the timer counts down.  This allows you to build up speed, and when you hear the word “go” you give one final swipe to toss the guy in the air.

As the Gugl soars through the air it might fly through a cloud, at which point it will fill up with air.  Pressing the Gugl will release the air, causing it to get a temporary speed boost.  Additionally, there a giant red bouncing balls that the Gugl can hit to get a sudden jolt of yardage.  On the down side – quite literally – if the Gugl accidentally hits the bottom of a red ball it can actually impede progress.  Ultimately your score will be measured by where the Gugl finally lands.  There are leader boards, which surprisingly are custom instead of one of the main few social networks, but at least you can still have high score competitions.

It's A Boomerang?

The main problem with this game is that the control is kind of awkward.  It’s quite easy to get a bit overambitious as you’re powering up your Gugl, only to find that your finger has slipped and you drop it.  Another problem is getting the timing just right so that you throw the Gugl right when the countdown says “go”.  You can throw it at other times, but your score won’t be nearly as good.  Finally, if your final swipe before letting go isn’t in the right direction, you might be recreating one of those worst case scenarios for new bowlers – can anyone say “look out behind me?”  Despite all this seeming negativity, though, it’s quite satisfying when you get the control right and earn a decent score.

Graphically the game is cute and pleasing.  The Gugl looks like Gumby’s mailbox with eyes, and it is fun to watch it twist and contort as it handles air from the clouds or bounces off a red ball.  The background is like a 3D no textured version of an earlier Super Mario Brothers game, which is all good for me.  The sound effects are amusing, especially on the final score screen when the Gugl is bouncing up and down making noises.  The music is okay, but it’s almost superfluous because by the time it starts playing you’re too wrapped up in watching the Gugl fly to care.

I’m a fan.  Your finger might get worn out as you continually try and top your best score, but you’ll definitely have the urge to keep trying.  Long live the Gugl!

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link

There you have it – another random sampling of what’s graced my device over time.  I hope you give at least one of these games a try, because they can both be great fun when played in moderation.  Until next time…