4 Player Reactor

As developers start to look outside of the box of traditional joystick/mouse/keyboard game development innovative titles that take better advantage of a Smart Phone's unique attributes are released. 4 Player Reactor takes advantage of the 'play anywhere' nature of such devices. The game itself is simple. Many minigames which rely on either quick thinking and/or speedy reactions which ultimately lead you to press a button on the touch screen when a given condition is true. Some examples include clicking when a color's name is displayed in said color, identifiying when a sad face appears on a screen packed with smileys, simple math like comparing the number of triangles to the number of rectangles in quantities of less then ten, or challenges as basic as clicking when the screen turns white.

The graphics of this game won't amaze nor will the audio delight, but that's not the objective. This is the type of game you'd slap down on the table in a noisy restaurant before a meal for some good, quick fun. The game does feature a one player mode for practicing, but really... would that be any fun? I'd tend to avoid practice as if you're tuned up on the game and kicking everyone else's derriere then you probably won't be much fun to play against. So, the bigger question with this game is how often do you think you'll have people to play against and situations in which to play.

I'm very happy to see innovative titles such as this one on the Android that provide a more social gaming experience. My only issue with the game actually has nothing to do with the game itself, but rather the medium. This game will be much better on an Android tablet as those make it to retailer's shelves. Four people hovering around a 4 inch screen is a tad crowded. Put this game on a 10 inch screen and that would be a marked improvement. Granted when that happens I'll want more sophisticated challenges that involved more than just a single button press. 4/5 stars for an innovative game that does its job well. Also note that the '2 Player Reactor' version is a Market freebie. Sample video of the game follows: