Wakattack Extended

Wakattack Extended, the paid version of Wakattack, isn't at all what I expected it to be. It's funny how, from a text description in the Market, we can get a preconceived idea as to what a game is going to be about. And then when we actually play it... quite a different experience occurs.

The premise of Wakattack is simple. It's your job to defend the world from the Wakas. And, before terrorizing us, the Wakas have decided to dance back and forth on a line giving us ample opportunity to destroy them. There are a few different kinds of Wakas... first, the ones with a red dot above them have to be destroyed first allowing the game to dictate the order in which Wakas are killed. Then there are time bomb wakas with a green bar above them. Finally, there are boss wakas with two green bars above them... the first is the amount of time before they blow and the second the amount of life they have (aka hits it'll take to eliminate them). Oh, and let me not forget the nice, golden Wakas. If you kill one of them then game over (even if it's an accident) so each shot needs to be precise. You are armed with a pearl shooter which sounds awfully close to pea shooter. Either way it would be the same thing. You rapidly swipe from the bluish pearl at the bottom of the screen to fire your pearls at them in an arc pattern kind of like firing a sling shot. Essentially the game is supposed to be in 3D and you're in front of the dancing Wakas trying to pick them off of the clothesline before either time expires (from a bomb Waka) or you run out of shots (indicated in the upper left).

Wakattack has a nice accompanying audio score and some doodle style backgrounds. Actually, all of the graphics are doodle style although, other than the legs, the Wakas themselves are not animated. They just slide back and forth. Controls, as stated, rely solely on a simple flick of your finger. I'd classify this game as an arcade style game with a puzzle wannabe element. The variety of the Wakas could have gone much further. As stated, when I first saw this game I had pictured something different... I envisioned a 2D game where I flick pearls from the middle as Wakas rapidly approach kind of like the first phase of Cosmic Ark on the Atari 2600 (and the arcade game it's a copy of).

At first I really didn't care for this game, but I think part of that was my preconceived idea as to what it should be. Upon playing again it wasn't bad. The latter levels really start to get more difficult and the game is friendly enough to allow you to immediately retry a failed level. 50 levels are included that must be successively unlocked. I'm not a big fan of this style of firing... I'd much rather the game be 2D and have linear firing to increased accuracy. The game does offer a leaderboard and my dismal second play earned me spot #35 (initials ADR) as there's not much competition for those lower spots. I'm also disappointed that despite being advertising as supporting the 'Move to SD card' funtion that the game does not actually allow for that. Hopefully an update will fix that. The auther encourages potential customers to try the free version first and, as always, I appreciate when a trial is offered. 3.5/5 stars for a decent game that has potential.

Arkanoid

My first experience with Arkanoid came on the Atari ST. It was the evolution of breakout. Instead of just hitting a ball against a field of blocks the blocks now came in colorful patterns and some dropped power-ups. Then there is the addition of those pesky aliens flying around... and if they get too low that can really present a danger. The power-ups were pretty neat ranging from enlarged paddles to laser cannons (my personal favorite). And the smooth mouse control was perfect for the game.

Now it's over 20 years later and Arkanoid makes the jump to my Android mobile phone. How well does it make the leap? Well, first there's the control issue. This game was made for the paddle or potentiometer type controller found on the original arcade game and a mouse was an acceptable substitute. The touch screen could be a reasonable substitute if they had found a better way to implement the 'fire' button which is used with several power-ups. This is done by swiping up the screen. If you have a real trackball then perhaps this is better although I'm not sure what they do for fire in that case not being in possession of such a device, but this is just 'adequate'. It takes something away from the game without totally ruining the experience. The paddle moves reasonably smoothly when swiping on the screen, but even that has its glitches.

The graphics are arcade perfect. Does that sound good? It's not. It appears they took the arcade game and made a pixel by pixel port as only a small portion of your Android's screen is used for game play (as seen in the screen shot). What were they thinking? Rotate the phone sideways and... same thing. Sound seems pretty much on target.

Android extras? None. This is a straight up attempt at a port... and, aside from the control issues, it's quite accurate. I'm just not sure we necessarily want a copy of something that's 20 years old. Skill levels? Updated or, at least, enlarged graphics would have been nice... make that necessary. Perhaps some better instructions on playing as I initially though that I was forced to read the whole intro text until getting into the game and realizing I could press 'fire' (aka swipe up) to skip it. And a $4.99 price tag seems steep for this... there are other, better, options in the Android market. 3/5 stars for game that is almost a spot on port to its detriment.

Choice of the Dragon

I love adventure! When I was younger I used to enjoy those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' game books. I still do, and in adulthood I've started to use them as stories to read to the kids so that they can enjoy them too. Choice of the Dragon replicates the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' format on an Android device (and via their website and on iPhone). Choice of the Dragon won't wow you with graphics or sound effects. If you're the type of gamer that demands a fire button then this is not for you. Instead, you'll be reading fragments of a story and choosing courses of action from among several choices. Generally my experience with these games on a computer has been poor... either the game is too short or the story too boring. Choice of the Dragon is not. The writing is well done. And the programming is even smart enough to save my adventure after every selection! [In technospeak that means I can kill the process, relaunch the app, and it restores the game from the point at which I left.]

I've included one of the two Market screenshots without scaling it down in size so you can get a basic idea of not only what it looks like, but how it reads. Now, the next thing I liked about this is that the game took me through a sort of character generation first, but instead of letting me choose stats it asked me to answer questions about the kind of dragon I wanted to be. Once you complete that the game is played in chapters and is quite engrossing.

The game is free and is fully ad supported so far. In fact they have three others that are also also free (search for 'choice of') whereas iPhone owners are being asked to pay for the most recent release. That's a first... usually it's "stick it to the Android owners". I wouldn't have any animosity for that if it weren't the norm. I do suspect that these could become pay, however, or, at least, future ones will be paid apps based on reading the author's blog (some interesting stuff over there and my sympathies to Dan and my appreciation for his sharing of information). 5/5 stars for a game that's not for everybody, but does exactly what it tries to VERY well!

Android Games on sale for Labor Day weekend

This weekend offers a lot of sales for Android owners, and we've made it easier to share these deals with your friends with the new 'Share' button below each post. Have fun!

GameHouse

Cake Mania Celebrity Chef  - $1.99
Memory Wiz - $1.99
Catcha Mouse - $.99
Sally's Spa - $1.99
COLLAPSE! - $1.99
Little Shop: World Traveler - $1.99
Text Twist Turbo - $1.99
TextTwist 2 - $1.99
Vancouver Olympics - $.99
PileUp! Candymania - $.99
Twilight: The Movie Game - $1.99
Twilight - New Moon - $1.99
Twilight - Memory Quest - $.99
Droplitz Delight - $.99
Tiki Towers - $1.99
South Park Mega Millionaire - $1.99

Namco

PAC-MAN - $2.99
PAC-MAN Championship Edition - $2.99
HARVEST MOON: FRANTIC FARMING - $2.99
The Wolfman by Namco - $2.99
Learn to Fly by Namco - $2.99
Inspector Gadget - $2.99

Glu Mobile

Diner Dash 2 - $1.99
Build-a-Lot - $1.99
Mini Golf Wacky Worlds 3D - $.99
Super KO Boxing 2 (ad free version) - $2.99
WSOP Hold 'em Legend - $2.99
Stranded: Mysters of Time - $.99
Family Guy Uncensored - $.99
Guitar Hero 5 - $7.99
Glyder 2 - $.99 (so they claim... still says $2.99 for me)

Others

XGalaxy 2 - $1.29 (still on sale from last week)
Backbreaker Football - $1.49 (still on sale until 'Sunday' from last week)
Chip It In 2.0 Golf Game - $.99
Meteor Blitz - $2.99 (Introductory Sale?)
Super Boom Boom [GAMEVIL] - $.99

Fruit Pirate (3D)

WaveCade's Fruit Pirate caught my eye today as being a game with a high Market review score and yet being a game that I figured I'd tire of quickly. You're a pirate... you slice fruit... how long can the fun last? The answer is surprisingly long.

Fruit Pirate builds on WaveCade's successful library of Android games and is a nice addition to my collection. Simply enough... you're a pirate... although aside from the text expressions used (plenty of 'arrrrrs') I'm not sure how I'd know that. You also have a sword and apparently someone throws fruit up in the air and it's your job to slice and dice it. After you slice it you then try and slice it again for even more points. Yes, this is a nice, quick arcade game that will be over in a minute or two. The game features three modes of play: Express, Unlimited, and Relaxed and each has three difficulty levels. In Express mode you get 25 throws to get as many points as possible. In Unlimited mode you play until you have to 'walk the plank' allowing you to play forevfer if you're that good. And in Relaxed mode you play for a minute and there are no skulls to worry about so you can just slice away. Skulls? Why yes... along with fruit skulls and bonus coins fly through the air. Slice a skull and lose 'life points' (the heart in the upper right of the screen shot starts to shrink)... slice a coin and get its bonus such as points or a temporary slowdown of the game to make for easier and more accurate slicing. You'll also lose life if you fail to slice the fruit before it falls back to the floor.

Fruit Pirate's graphics are well done although they are a bit on the dark side. The audio is excellent with a nice, peppy musical score to listen to and good sounds for the slicing of the fruit. What really turns what could have been a miserable failure of a game into a resounding success is the controls. Nice, simple slicing. Slicing so good that they even used it on the menu... although I'd have preferred the more traditional push button (as it took me awhile to figure out that I have to slice fruit to choose menu items). The slicing is very accurate and I've never felt like a hit became a miss because of it... even when doing some of my new, fancy zigzag slicing.

The part of the game that will keep you coming back for awhile is the desire to hit the gold rating on each of the three modes. So far my crowning achievement is 'silver' on 'hard' for the Express mode of play. And the game is not easy with having to avoid the skulls.

At $1.99 this game is well worth your time and money. I see it as the kind of game you'll play incessantly for a couple of days and then now and again after that. It's also casual and cute enough that I'd guess the kids and/or significant other would enjoy it too. 5/5 stars.