Quickie Game Appstravaganza

There are a ton of quick, simple and essentially limited games that I find difficult to use more than a paragraph to describe since they are essentially throwaways. That’s not to say that these guys aren’t worth the money, time or enjoyment. It’s just they are shallow and difficult to go into strenuous detail. I’m repeating myself, so I’d better get stuck in with the August Appstravaganza dedicated to good old fashioned fun.

Canabalt
Version: 1.6
Compatible: iPhone, iPod, iPad - iOS 3.1.3
Price: $3

All the Hipsters out there reading this will claim that they played, beat and got over this game before it ever touched the App Store since it is a popular Flash game online. Highly stylized, beautiful sound and simplistic controls bring it together to be a satisfying game to play around with but you won’t stay for very long. You play the role of a tiny man running from a crumbling world, your only means of control is timing his jumps perfectly to protect him from an untimely demise. There’s no real goal to strive for except a high score and when it gets old there’s not much to keep you here. However wait when it goes on sale otherwise the price isn’t ever justifiable unless you’re a diehard.


The Hero / The Hero HD
Version: 1.1 (iPhone/iPod/iPad) - 1.2 (iPad)
Compatible: iPhone/iPod/iPad - iOS 3.0 iPad - iOS 3.2
Price: $1

I played the iPad version though I believe the small screen cousin will most likely not be any different than my experience. Once again one of my first games for the iPad and I was excited first to play but it dropped off my radar after about two days. You play a superhero saving a city by flying to danger and defeating it with your superpowers. The good? The in-game art is good to look at. Half of it I mean, the characters when talking look absolutely atrocious but then again maybe it’s just not my thing. Anymore good things? I don’t have fond memories of this game I’ll just say because the controls are clunky, the screen is way too busy, the myriad of abilities or superpowers aren’t fun because it feels like you’re not doing anything (despite enemies flashing red) and a time limit of death wiped away whatever attention span I tried to muster before getting bored.




*Yawn* NEXT!






Kosmo Spin
Version: 1.4
Compatible: iPhone, iPod, iPad - iOS 3.1.3
Price: $1

I’ll finish this on a good note. Kosmo Spin is beautiful to look at, simple to play, cheap, unique, expansive and has me yelling at you with two thumbs up. I suppose you want elaboration? You play a little alien who spins on a planet gathering sweets for points while a UFO flies above your head ominously dropping balls or using his tractor beam. There are two ways to get play essentially. Either you gather the sweets in succession and initiate the bonus stage where the faster you flick, the more sweets (points) you get. The alternative is to head the balls the UFO drops, if you head them in a row, you double the points obtained from doing so. However some balls have different gravity pull and characteristics. Standard mode is never ending until you get sucked up by the UFO tractor beam but there is a scenario mode which goes a long way offering numerous objectives. Gather points in a certain amount of time, head the ball in a row 10 times that sort of thing. Its a complete package all for the minimal price. It doesn’t even take that much hard disk space.










So ends another Appstravaganza. More disappointment than I thought I had set up but whatcha gonna do? But the review of Kosmo Spin was well worth it all to make it up. Maybe it was the gem you didn’t know existed and you had to sit and watch up til the end of the movie to see the wicked-ass ending with exposions and what not.