Amoebattle is Intrinsic Games’ answer to the question ‘How much cute can you stuff into a 320×480 screen?’. Said adorableness resulted in initial skepticism from me, since anything this full to bursting with squishy cuteness generally has motivations other than robust and engaging gameplay. It ended up being surprisingly fun, and was quite a bit more complex gameplay-wise then your average mobile app. In this casual-RTSventure, you’re a microbiologist with your face shoved into your iphone-o-scope in order to study microorganisms for science collect microorganisms and form them into a legion of death. You’re guided by Navi an AI ‘assistant’ with a personality quirk that could be an homage to GlaDOS’s dominating love for science. At each map you’re given a little starter platoon consisting of various styles and flavors of amoeba, with which you explore and conquer your way through information-gathering quests that unlock more different amoebas. On the way, if you make any units in your hoard happy, (via food, encouragement, or whatever gets that particular breed off) you can coax it through fission with the press of a button (was it good for you?) expanding your legion and subsequently, your ability to conquer. It takes the exploration and domination aspects of an RTS, cuts off a bunch of micro-management, (suck it resource gathering) resulting in a simple create-your-own-amoeba-hoard kit that’s the first ‘non-puzzle’ game for my iPhone that I’ve really enjoyed.
System Played On: iPhone
