Breaking the Bottle : Want more

Name : Breaking the Bottle
Publisher : Jessica Lee
Price : $0.00 on 08 August 2012
Extras : In app to remove Ads
Size : 9.8 MB
Compatibility : iPad+iPhone

Fun to Price ratio : 3.0/0
The game really has a nice concept. However, you will get bored after few retries. What we needed is a few more power-ups,bombs or something like that.

Ready.. Set..  Go..

Game Play

Game is about breaking the bottles by throwing a shuriken. Rack slowly moves downwards. Clearing a row of bottles rewards you a point of 5000 and some bottle weigh more score than others. Total score obtained at the end of one minute is counted.

Score structure.

The concept is straight forward and the name directly implies the game. This concept has big room for improvement and to become a wannabe game. You can see the examples of Fruite Ninja. Simple concept but rich polish made it super hit.

It will be nice, if each bottle contain some kind of liquid (Beer!?).  How it will look on breaking of the bottles? Say some the bottles contain acid! Liquid splatter on the camera. Infinite possibilities; of course, all this imagination from users point of view. As a developer I know its difficulty.

In the end

Results

 

Agent Dash - Yet another running game and more

Name : Agent Dash
Publisher : Full Fat
Price : $0.00 on 11 August 2012
Extras : In app purchase of gems.
Size : 29.2 MB
Compatibility : iPad+iPhone

Fun to Price ratio : 4/0
The game claims blockbuster running game of the year. Yes indeed, another running game, yet it contain many other stuffs that you may like to look into.

Ready.. Set..  Go..

Basic gameplay is self explanatory (Refer Temple Run).  Instead of the explorer you have Agent Dash, instead of coins you have gems and so on. There is no replacement for holy demonic monkeys!. On the other side, no match for the game environment offered with this game. I also noticed missing of accelerometer based controls. User has to drive the agent on right track. You can notice the three tracks on above screenshot.

This waterfall is a hi-light of the base level.

live water

Water fall.

Environment effects worth the praise. For a example waterfall, I feel, very real. I guess rendering all this is a big burden on my 4g ipod touch. I got frequent crashes on this device.

Real fun.
Its seems real fun of the game start after basic level (Guns etc). I felt basic running itself harder. Especially I have to complete this for every retry. May be, a few gems or few $  of in app purchase makes this easier.
[Update: Yes. One time booster 'Backup' for 4000 gems - But, No thanks]

Things made me smile.

Tips for the gamers.

• Running paths are not randomly generated as in temple run; So try to run in a familiar path.
• Booster such as magnet / jet pack always have risk while collecting them, be careful.
• If you are willing to spend few bucks; you can have fun with this game.

PS: What's with the name Agent 'Dash'? Nope. It's not related to Dinner Dash  or any other Dash other than a SEO factor.

Back to review

It's almost over a month since I last posted on this blog. 

I was busy working on my own game (I will post here soon) and got no time to look on other games. Well, things have not changed much here.  

Its an era of running games. Apple might need to create a new category in games:Running games (similar to action, board). One can claim the top running game of year/month.

Seriously!

Guess what, I too want to develop a running game.

Step 1: How to develop a running game.

PS:Sorry for all rant. Its started after seeing the top free app list on Appstore.

List of running games that I have observed:

1. Temple run : The base for all running game.
2. End App : End of earth, running on deserted roads.
3. Agent Dash : Running with guns to rescue the queen. 
4. Chasing Yello : Chasing some fish.