Automania

Automania was released to the Android Marketplace yesterday billing itself as the first path drawing game similar to Flight Control on the iPhone platform. Given that there are at least 3 other line/path drawing games including the recently reviewed Flying Aces that made me skeptical. But I'd really love to have a good one so I figured I'd give it a try and to my delight this game fills that need very well.

In Automania flying cars are arriving at your hub and you have to guide them to the right garage based on color. Hold down on the car and draw a line over to the appropriate garage bay and then let the vehicle land on its own to score you points. As the game progresses congestion increases and that's when it gets interesting as you try and coordinate flight paths for groups of cars all at once. Making matters harder, the colors of the garages bays occasionally change although you do get a fair amount of warning.

The controls for Automania are tight. I had zero problems with it detecting that I've chosen a car and drawing a line over to the bay. The cars are a bit on the tiny side on my Droid, but nothing terrible for a mobile platform where everything is already small. The music is good and the sounds, with cars beeping as they appear on the screen, fit the game. The game included three maps in an attempt to offer some game play variety.

This is a very well done line drawing game and I'm thrilled to finally have a good one on my Android as I quest to replace the games I loved on my touch with Android equivalents. Flight Control, this game's mentor, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies on the iPhone (if not a million by now) and there's a reason. Once you start playing the game just teases your brain as you attempt to sequence the landing planes. It's almost like a 2D Root Beet Tapper. I'm sad to say that a demo version wasn't released alongside the full version as I think that could help drive some sales which, according to the marketplace, are still <50. This game deserves far more sales than that and all fans of this genre should get it. And if you're not a fan, get it anyways as another tribute to what your Android can do and to support developers that create truly great software.