The Inferno

The Inferno from Xpressed Mobile Games is a game dripping with theme. The setting is hell and you're goal is to recue your girl from its grasp. It is currently available solely for the Droid so other Android users are out of luck with this one.

So what does it play like? Well, after working my way through 3 or so levels (and I ended up playing about 20 of the 121) it all started feeling familiar... I was playing 'Advanced Frogger in Hell'. Instead of cars and trucks there are ghosts... instead of lilly pads there are flaming balls of fire... I say that half-heartedly. This game is much more sophisticated than Frogger, and given that Frogger IS available for the Android and is almost twice the price this may be taken as a compliment. The Inferno is MUCH better than simple Frogger. But it all comes down to the same style of gameplay... avoid the obstacles with left/right/up/down movement to reach predefined locations to clear the level. Perhaps Sokoban would be a better game to compare it with as that introduces a puzzle element. Even better, a hybrid of the two as The Inferno requires good timing with button presses (no time to think in some situations) along with a puzzle element.

My personal disappointment with the game came from its attempt to advertise itself as an adventure with riddles. Granted I didn't play to the end... I played for about 45 minutes and through about 20 levels and it's possible those last levels are riddle packed. I see the puzzle... but not the adventure nor the riddles. The game does have some on screen dialog to read between levels and one of the more amusing things it did (note: this is a spoiler for those wanting to start playing so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know) is one of the screens says to touch a ghost and see what happens. I die. Like an idiot I try it again. I die. Ha ha. I did think that was cute.

Graphically the game is well done and the accompanying music is also quality. I didn't care for the on screen touch controls, but was grateful that the game allowed for the use of the DPad instead. The game feels very much like a premium title and $2.99 is a very fair price for it.

In summary, I personally didn't care for the game. If there was nothing else like it I would probably have been on board, but as it is it's a puzzle game with an arcade element. I can see that this game will have its crowd... it's not a bad game and for what it is it's well implemented and earns 4/5 stars. It just doesn't do anything new, cool, or interesting. It's Arcade Sokoban or Advanced Frogger. Take a look at the video below if you'd like to see the game in action...