I play lots of mobile games. Mostly when I run test automation, but sometimes when I’m just bored on the turlet. We all do it. They’re the shampoo bottles of the 21st century. In support of apps being written for Windows phones, I figure I can probably throw together a quick review of my favorite games of the week/month/whatever once a week/month/whatever.
Timberman
by Digial Melody
Available on: Windows Mobile, iOS, Android
This is one of my new favourite on-the-toilet games. I’m a sucker for throwback pixel art skill-based games that require no more than a minute or two of your time. The gameplay is simple: you’re some form of chopping-enthusiast who’s found a magical tree that you can chop rounds out of at the base without knocking the tree down. Of course, your pride as a lumberjack is rightfully threatened when you realize that this never-falling-down business, though convenient, is obviously a challenge by a smartass tree that’s way too tall for it’s own good. So, like any good citizen of humanity, you set forth to chop out as many rounds as you possibly can while avoiding the tree’s cunning defense of crushing you with its mighty limbs. …Let me try that again, less whimsically: there is a tree, and you can stand on either side of it. You tap on a side to chop once on that side. If a branch is one round above you when you chop, you die. There’s a “countdown” that gets pushed back slightly when you chop, and you die when it reaches zero. For your lumber-person, this is a lose-lose scenario, but you get a fancy schmancy high score out of it, so that’s totally worth it. There are some unlockables that you get mostly from getting a certain high score, or from playing the game long enough. The music is awesome, the art is really slick and pretty, and the game has a wonderful polished feel to it. The lack of a high-score board (to compare your mad lumber-skills to the world’s) along with the limited diversity in gameplay led me to an early conclusion that I wouldn’t be playing this game very long. Its a week later and I’m still playing it, and I didn’t hesitate to pay the $1 it cost to download it, so I guess it wasn’t that inhibiting to my enjoyment. Only issue I have: I don’t know if it’s my brain or a slight lag in the audio, but the chopping sound throws off my groove. In order to get into a rhythm, I have to shut off the audio. Which is sad cause the music is tits.
Super Tap Ultra
by Inhuman Entertainment
Available on: Windows Mobile
I THINK this game is made by one dude who cranks out mobile games in his spare time. It would seem. I hope I can say that about myself someday. Except the dude part. Anyway, this game is ridiculous. Its another nicely polished simple game with a straight-forward gameplay that only requires a minute of your time, but can still be played for muuuuch longer if you’re not careful. So. What’s the game? You push buttons. That’s it. On the playing field, little buttons (just big enough to be easy to hit with your thumb) appear in random locations. They have a number on them (1-3) which denotes how many times you have to tap them before they go away. They give an incredibly satisfying little clicky sound, and are an amazing study in how much the sound of something can make all the difference (think bubble wrap). If you touch the playing field, you lose your combo and drop the timer. The higher the combo, the more buttons. Something triggers some sort of crazy inferno mode, but I haven’t really looked into it. I just know it happens when I start kicking ass. So, yeah. That’s it. Just tap as many buttons as you can before the time runs out. It doesn’t sound like much, and in all honesty it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t addicting and fun. It preys on the skills you developed from all those hours of typing on your smartphone’s onscreen keyboard, and makes you feel like a badass for being able to touch spots on your phone in a rapid manner. I think it was $1, and I’m pleased with my purchase.
Snap Attack
by Wordament
Available on: Windows Mobile, iOS, Android
I’m still not 100% sure on the whole Wordament/Microsoft Studios thing. I believe Wordament is the developer. In any case, I now have two Wordament games on my phone. One is a kind of wordfind/boggle-esque game, and the other has flavors of scrabble. Both of them are played online in worldwide round, where there is a round every 30-ish seconds that lasts a few minutes. Once the round is over, you’re scored against everyone else in the world that played that round, and then the next round starts. Its kind of interesting, and is a new and interesting way for the internet to make me feel either really smart, or really stupid. Generally, really stupid. Regardless, I keep playing the damn things. Its also one of the games on my phones that I can get XBox achievements for; a fact that would be a lot cooler if I was smart enough to get my grubby paws on them. Anyway. The game board is set up much like a tiny scrabble board. One word is played through the middle. You have a few letter pieces, and like scrabble, you lay them out to make words. You can continue stacking words on to your words, branching out as much as you can with the pieces you have. You can pick up and re-lay tiles as many times as you want, and you get points for every single configuration you can find (E.G: If you Play ‘Ear’ off of ‘Beets’, you can get points for starting it on each of Beets’ ‘E’s. Its a pretty neat solitare twist on scrabble, and is a good practice for opening up your vocabulary. Perhaps not as good as some of the games available on kindles, but still pretty good. I believe it was free, too. I don’t remember. If it cost anything, it wasn’t very much.
