Whale Trail

Take a look at this music video:

If, after watching, you're thinking "Wow, I wish I could ride an electric scooter through the sky just like he does." then Whale Trail is probably the game for you. That's really the first thing that hit me with this game... it's the first Android game I've loaded that has started with its own intro song that included lyrics. And the song isn't bad. In fact it's kind of catchy despite being a little (okay, a lot) juvenile. If juvenile was the target audience then bullseye. As for the game...

Whale Trail puts you in the role of Willow the Whale. Baron von Barry, an evil octopus (I think), is after you so you flee to the sky, but in order to survive the not so friendly skies you need to gobble up the bubbles and keep your health meter from becoming empty. Ultimately the game is very much like an SFCave clone as you touch the screen to rise and release to fall and if you want straight then you have to learn morse code (for those that don't get that then I'll translate... you have to tap and release very quickly). Additions made to SFCave would be the loop to loop and it's a very tight loop you're able to do which I say because at first I envisioned that I might be able to go backwards and catch the bubbles that I missed... nope! Furthermore there are mean clouds that will drain your energy unless you go Pac Man on them which is achieved by collecting a set of power pills starbursts. Finally, it's got a nice little graphic effect that as you rise in the sky you can see more of the level (i.e. it zooms out) plus the song interrupts with an "I can see my house from here!" lyrical quote despite no houses actually being part of the game.

Whale Trail's graphics are certainly cute and the music certainly enhances that cuteness and it controls well. It also works just fine on both my tablet and phone although the music was a bit choppy on my single core phone and it crashed such that I had to pull the battery during my first play, but I didn't experience further problems after that. The game is also pretty challenging... moreso than I would have expected. Ultimately, however, I find the game dull and repetitive which means I have little desire to play it more. One reason I got the game is that I'm certain my kids will like it, but they're 5 and 2. How about you? If you're over 8 then I just don't see this being a big hit in your home. All in all I'll give it a 3/5 because I just don't think it's anything special although you can dance to it.