Missile Command

Missile Command is an 80s arcade game from Atari. Search for it in the Android Market and you'll come up empty. Fortunately there are several clones of this great, retro arcade game for the Android and here we'll take a look at not one, not two, not three, but FOUR of them.

Ok, what would you think it would take to make a good Missile Command clone? Obviously the spirit of the game has to be faithfully recreated. Perhaps a graphics enhancement. Similar or improved sound effects. Maybe even some new challenges that add to the original in a preferably good way...

The four games I'm going to look at are Armageddonoid, Ballistic Defense, Missile Intercept, and Missile Shield and they are all freebies.

Leading off is Armageddonoid which upon loading starts off with some seemingly out of place dance music. The graphics are retro and similar to the original game, and the sound is basic. Actually the sound in all four of these games is basic to non-existent. The most distinguishing feature of Armageddonoid is its control scheme... all of the other games rely of touching the screen to launch a missile whereas this game has a targeting sight that you have to move by sliding on the touch screen, using the DPad, or using a trackball so if your device has a trackball this may actually be the most faithful to the original. One thing I found mildly distracting is how launched missiles don't travel in a line... they travel on a diagonal and complete their journey by travelling on a straight, vertical line, but that's a minor detail that perhaps just I find annoying.

Next, is Ballistic Defense. Ballistic Defense includes both updated artwork and classic artwork that faithfully resembles the original's graphics. It's also the only game that graphically fires missiles like the original game with a line (of smoke?) extending from your missile silo to the target that disappears on impact. Sound is absent in this game, but given the lack of anything terribly impressive in any of these games I'm not sure I miss it. Still it would be a nice enhancement should an update be made for this game. Firing is done by simply touching the screen. At first I thought that would make for an incredibly easy Missile Command clone, but it doesn't... especially when you still have to lead the enemy's missiles and time your shots correctly. Ballistic Defense is certainly among the better of these four games... all of which have their own redeeming features.

Missile Intercept is perhaps the worst of the lot. First, it deviates from the original by giving you only three cities to defend. Next, touching the screen IMMEDIATELY detonates a bomb taking the whole timing element of the original game away. Then they decided that destroying an enemy missile should sound a lot like someone firing a shotgun. I know it's free so there's not much to knock... but with the other three choices available I think you can safely skip this one and not miss much.

Rounding out the lot is Missile Shield. Missile Shield has similar, odd sound effects as Missile Intercept... a minor irritation, but gives you the original six cities to defense and the need to time your shots. It also adds a nice, starry backdrop to the play area. It's a solid effort.

If I had to pick one for my Droid it would be Ballistic Defense. I really like how touching to launch missiles works as it's much better than I imagined and enough missiles raining down on me creates some pretty hectic action. For purists I can see Armageddonoid getting the nod especially if you have a trackball on your Android phone. None of these games does anything to enhance the game that I can see, but then again there's no real need to tamper with a classic.

BasketBall

I've reviewed a few games like this including Mini Shot Basketball, but this game is different in that it's actually good. Other games seem to rely too much on muscle memory where after playing for a while (a very short while) you can get into the groove and rack up really high scores which in turn makes the game no longer fun. A major case in point is Skee Ball on the iPhone... I can not comprehend how it's still (never mind about how it ever became) a top fifty (top ten?) game. It's basic, boring, and winning a virtual teddy bear doesn't do it for me. Anyhow, back to this game...

The plainly named BasketBall offers three timed modes and two shot modes where you're simply try to make baskets. The ball is placed somewhere on a side view of a basketball court and you have to drag to create the appropriate shot arc that will sink the basket. And you have to do it quickly and/or accurately. The physics work well... the variety in shots make the game not subject to muscle memory burnout... and all in all it's an enjoyable diversion.

The game isn't without flaws and there are two that really bug me. The first is that while I'm positioning my show my finger blocks a good portion of the screen making is hard to see what I'm doing. I had hoped that finger placement would solve that issue (i.e. where I first place my finger is an imaginary ball and we work from there), but the game doesn't work that way... your finger relative to the ball is what makes the shot arc. Second, the game has a Type 1, 2, and 3 trajectory precision on the option screen, but I can't see an explanation of what that means anywhere. But then the game comes through with some surprising detail such as how the net moves as the ball flows through it.

I don't know why making this type of game has proven so challenging. SimbSoft did a great Pocket PC version of basketball ages ago where quick dragson the touch screen were used to take shots. I know that doesn't make much sense without seeing it (and simbsoft.com is a dead site right now with a database error message appearing in its place), but it and several of their other sports games worked well. How I'd love to see Android ports of their games. In the meantime Basketball is a good, solid game in this genre and I'm glad it's available. 4/5 stars. You can see the (left side of the) game in action in the video below:

LogicPic

LogicPic is a logic puzzle in the same vein as Sudoku. It always amazes me how many people view Sudoku as having something to do with math when the numbers are easily replaced by letters, colors, or other symbols without changing the game. And the same kind of thinking applies to LogicPic. With LogicPic you have a grid with numbers on each row/column indicating groupings of dots. For example, you might have a 2 3 1 meaning 2 dots are adjacent followed by 3 dots being adjacent and then a lone dot. None of these groupings can be adjacent, but the amount of space between them is unknown. Another example might be a row of ten cells with a 7 as the 'clue'. You don't know if it's the first 7 or last 7 or somewhere in between that are filled, but you do know that the middle 4 are. If you understand that and think understanding that was fun then you'll like this game.

LogicPic is nothing new... the paper version has been out for ages and PicCross is available on the Nintendo DS. This Android version features over two hundred puzzles categorized in four levels of difficulty which basically translates to larger grids/larger puzzles. Graphics and sound aren't at issue with a title like this and won't wow you, but the user interface works and the game is an enjoyable diversion. I also appreciate that the developers do update the app... in the couple of weeks after having purchased it I've seen an update and there have been a couple of others.

Don't expect to be impressed by the images revealed when you solve a puzzle... they are very basic and blocky, but there's not much you can do with a 10 x 10 grid. If you like these kinds of puzzles then this one is a pleaser and at only $.99 it is also most certainly a good deal. 4/5 stars.

Alien Defender

Holy toledo, Bat Man... it's another Space Invaders clone. That could always be a good thing if it was something special, but this one isn't. It's the some old song and dance... aliens appear, you move back and forth while your gun autofires, shoot some aliens.... score some points... been there, done that... blah, blah...

Ok, in all fairness this game has powerups... never heard of those before. Brilliant! And audio... pop, pop, pop... The only redemption I can find is that the game isn't that expensive at .89 UK pounds or about US $1.50. If you don't have a space shoot 'em up and you feel that it's a gaping hole in your Android game library then maybe you've found a match, but I'm just not seeing it. 3/5 stars... an average score for an average game.

ScratchDown

ScratchDown is a simple, but interesting little game. Essentially there's a hidden photograph and you can scratch off a predetermined amount to reveal a small portion of it. Then you have to guess, from four multiple choice answers, what the picture is. The less you reveal the more points you get. It's that simple and it's a freebie courtesy of the ad revenue model of pricing.

There's really not much more to say and given that it won't cost you a cent to try I'm not sure there needs to be. This is a game that anyone can play. I'm sure it's the type of game that isn't going to appeal to everyone... but it did appeal to me and seems to be a good social game so that's why I recommend taking a look at it. 4/5 stars because it works well and is free.