Mobile Game Review: Colour Switch

Game: Colour Switch
Console: Mobile
Developer: Fortafy Games
Release Date: 12th June 2015

It's been a while since I reviewed a mobile game; partly because I want this blog to focus on console gaming, and also because my old mobile phone had hardly any storage free to try any games out on. Having acquired a new phone, I feel it's only right to check out the best of the app store every now and then, because there are some games worth trying. Colour Switch is a game with a simple concept; guide a ball through obstacles to the finish line. There are currently 35 game modes which feature varied rules on the concept of getting your ball to the finish line.

The sheer amount of variety in game modes is part of what makes this game notable, amongst the large amount of similar app store titles. Sure, there's some that aren't quite as good as others, but on the whole each new mode is an interesting challenge and a fresh take on what can be done with a ball and some coloured obstacles. Most games are based around some form of colour changing, which is done via passing through a colour change symbol, and these remain a constant, alongside avoiding spiked enemies and passing through obstacles which are the same colour as you, throughout most game modes.

Colour Switch is also particularly notable for its consistent and tight control; while players can only really tap and swipe to control in each mode, gameplay is intuitive and any failures tend to be the fault of the player rather than the game. The only real downside to the huge amount of game modes (besides the time you'll waste playing all of them) is that there are a couple of modes which are nearly clones of the original "challenge" game mode, which is shown above. Gamers who like to complete every level of games they own might also wish to avoid Colour Switch, considering its 1000+ level count.

Daily challenges and bonuses are a welcome addition to the game, and players collect stars throughout the modes with which they can buy new designs for the ball which they guide through the levels. That's all the stars can be spent on though. While it may feel good to unlock everything in a game, a little more reward than simply changing the thing I'm guiding through each level might help me to stay invested in continuing to complete such a massive array of levels.

Graphically the game is very clean and intuitive, with simple shapes and colours forming the majority of visuals. Every now and then I found myself wanting a little more space in which to tap on the screen, without covering anything I wanted to see, but overall it wasn't too big of a problem. The music which accompanies gameplay is pretty harmless and doesn't add or detract much eitherway.

Overall Colour Switch is a well put together and fun way to pass some time, with many different variations on its gameplay to keep players engaged. Perhaps it would do well to mix things up a bit and present different modes through a linear progression, keeping players on their toes, but too much content is preferable to too little. It's refreshing to see a mobile game with very little gated content (the only payable content is unlocking levels instead of working your way through them, and getting more stars), even if there are fairly constant adverts, though we've come to expect those.

Rating: 85/100
Grade: B

Mobile Game Review: Neko Atsume

Game: Neko Atsume
Console: Mobile
Developer: Hit-Point
Release Date: 20th October 2014

Sometimes you need a break from games with a lot of action, or from playing 48 NES games in the past 2 weeks. Sure, there's Animal Crossing or Tomodachi life that you can dip into, but where are all the cats? The answer is on Neko Atsume, the kitty collecting game which is gripping the nation (well, sort of). I understand that some gamers would hesitate to call this a game, but I think we can safely say that despite very little "action", an enjoyable and entertaining piece of software which players interact with is a game.

Neko Astume is played in the player's yard where there's a food bowl and spaces to set down toys which will attract cats. There's a large selection of toys and food that can be placed down, and different combinations of the two will attract different cats. The currency of the game is fish; grey and gold, which makes it seem as if the game will be microtransaction based, but it's actually very easy to acquire fish of both types with very little effort.

Once cats arrive and begin to interact with the toys in the yard, players can take photos of each cat, or the scene as a whole, but unfortunately can't do much to truly interact with them. Once a cat has visited several times, there's a small chance that it'll give players a memento to signify their friendship. If players check the app a few times a day, getting most of the non-rare cats mementos is pretty easy.

A yard expansion is sold in the shop, allowing more cats to visit, and a second food bowl to be placed. There's also the option to decorate the whole play area in a few different styles, though this doesn't make a huge difference to which cats visit. There's a large variety of cats featured in the game, with a current total of 49.

Graphically the game is drawn in a cute cartoon style and each cat has a very similar body type (save for one food thief who shall not be named!). While the markings vary from cat to cat, perhaps a few size differences would also lend some interest to collecting the entire set. The music of the game is very much reminiscent of games like Animal Crossing, and gives the same relaxed and playful feel.

Overall Neko Atsume isn't a game for everyone; if you're after thrills or challenging gameplay then this isn't for you. It's also something that wouldn't work at all on a home console, or even a portable one, for that matter; it's such a perfect fit for mobile gaming, due to the nature of checking back every now and then for cats. It's cute, and a fun distraction from whatever it is you're doing and a different type of game to nearly everything we're used to.

Rating: 76/100
Grade: B

Mobile Gaming Month: Crossy Road

Game: Crossy Road
Platform: Android
Developer: Hipster Whale
Release Date: 20th November 2014

Whilst deciding what mobile games to download for this month of reviews, I thought it'd be a good idea to see what the most downloaded mobile game was. Crossy Road initially sounded like a parody of Flappy Bird, and it's not without its similarities, but instead of guiding a bird through a difficult course of pipes players must guide various characters across roads, rivers and railroads Frogger-style.

The aim of the game is to get as high of a score as possible while collecting coins that are scattered about the map. These coins exist for the sole purpose of purchasing a turn on a Gacha style machine (gumball/toy dispenser) which distributes and unlocks characters for 100 coins a turn. If the character that comes of the machine is already unlocked then the 100 coins are wasted and players must go back to earning coins.

Other ways to earn coins include waiting for a timed gift which is given out every 6 hours (it begins at 1 minute and works its way up once players start redeeming the gifts), and watching various advertisements. As coins are pretty scarce overall, the best bet is usually to wait for the daily gift as it often contains in excess of 100 coins. I barely collected any coins whilst playing, although it'd be possible to get a spin every 10 or so turns with some skill and dedication..

The general gameplay of Crossy Road is good, if a little simple. The screen is tapped to move forwards, and swiped to move from side to side or backwards. Standing still for 10 seconds or more will result in an eagle swooping to end the player's game, as will moving back 3 rows. There's some fun to be had in timing your runs and making it through to reach a high score, but at its core this game is about unlocking all of the characters and sharing/comparing high scores with friends.

Graphically the game looks great with an impressive pixel art style, and a wide range of characters to unlock. Each character has specific death animations and moving traits, which adds excitement to unlocking new ones. The sound effects featured in the game lend it an air of realism without taking away the fun of the simple style.

Overall while there's not a whole lot to do in Crossy Road as such, it can be fun to try and reach higher and higher heights. If the developers had perhaps taken upgrade ideas from other games, there'd be more replayability with various upgrades to prolong turns and help with coin collecting. As it is though, this is a game that should be played in short bursts regularly.

Rating: 59/100
Grade: D

Mobile Gaming Month: Fruit Ninja

Game; Fruit Ninja
Platform: Android
Developer: Halfbrick Studios
Release Date: 17th September 2010

Designed specifically for touchscreen devices, Fruit Ninja challenges players to score as many points as possible by slicing fruits which appear onscreen whilst simultaneously avoiding bombs. There are three gameplay modes; Classic, Arcade and Zen. In Classic mode players must slash every fruit that appears onscreen, as missing a fruit will use up one of three lives. Hitting a bomb will instantly end a game in Classic mode. In Arcade mode, players have 60 seconds to reach a high score; missing fruits has no impact on score, but bombs subtract 10 points and clear all fruit onscreen. Finally Zen mode has no bombs and so allows players to focus on getting combos and slicing fruit. Missing fruits in Zen mode has no impact on overall score either.

The touchscreen controls are responsive and work well with the game's mechanics; there's enough challenge to keep players engaged, but its easy enough for anyone to pick up. There's a level up system in place which is driven by XP earned from each turn and completing various challenges, 3 of which are set at the beginning of each turn and remain until cleared. There's also a virtual currency in the form of starfruit, which is earned each turn and used to buy upgrades, as well as new dojos and swords.

Before each turn, players can choose to use starfruit in order to make things easier for themselves. Upgrades include 3 chances at hitting bombs before game over in Classic Mode, extra time for hitting peaches in Arcade and Zen Modes, and extra points for hitting strawberries. These upgrades are neither crucial to gameplay, nor too expensive to use frequently, thus allowing players to use them as they wish within games. There is the option to spend real money on starfruit or special event dojos/swords, but none of this is necessary for progression.

As for the range of unlockable dojos and swords, most if not all are easily affordable with the starfruit earned from simply playing the game, and can help towards getting high scores. A favourite dojo of mine in game was the 'Great Wave' Dojo which features a random chance of a 10 fruit mega-wave appearing every now and then, thus contributing to the overall score, especially if sliced in a combo.

Graphically the game looks good and is easy to understand and play; bombs can be quickly identified and avoided and each fruit has its own distinct features. The variety of dojos and effects in arcade mode is nice, but could have been expanded further in the time since the game's release. Musically the game isn't too bad, featuring an attempt at 'japanese sounding music' behind menus and more simplistic drumming behind the actual game.

Overall Fruit Ninja is a fun and addictive experience which really shows off the best of touchscreen gaming as a whole. With little point in investing actual money into the game, thanks to its generous use of in game currency, it can be enjoyed without too much grinding or replaying of the same sections. My only real complaint is that after a while the XP challenges set repeat, and end up focussing on Arcade and Zen modes rather than classic. If you're looking for something to waste a few minutes, or even hours this is a good choice.

Rating: 84/100
Grade: B

Mobile Gaming Month: Dumb Ways To Die

Game: Dumb Ways To Die
Platform: Android
Developer: Metro Trains
Release Date: 17th September 2013

Originally a train safety video, Dumb Ways to Die implied that while rewiring your own house, poking a bear and eating super glue are dumb ways to die, being impatient at level crossings, walking across train tracks and standing beyond the yellow line on a train platform are in fact the dumbest ways to die. It's not often that a game, let alone a good game comes from an advertising campaign, but just under a year after the original video, Dumb Ways to Die was released as a minigame collection style game.

With a choice of 13 games in total, the game isn't as expansive as other minigame collections, but there's a good amount of variety nonetheless. The activities featured in the minigames include many of the "ways to die" from the video campaign, and the object of each is to prevent the character(s) from dying by tapping, tilting, drawing on the screen and blowing into the phone's microphone (though this minigame can be disabled in the options thankfully).

The minigames themselves are fairly fun and responsive; the only one I had a real issue with was the one which requires players to blow on their phone's microphone, as it didn't seem to detect any sound. At times the difficulty of some games seems far higher than others, but this is a pretty constant feature of minigame collections and may be percieved differently from person to person.

Gameplay continues with increasing speed and difficulty until players have failed 3 minigames in total, leading to the game over screen. 100 points are awarded for each game successfully completed, as well as a random bonus which can be good or bad, but is usually given a humourous title. As players pass certain amounts of points in each turn, they unlock characters on the game's starting screen, though this has no effect on the gameplay as a whole. This is perhaps the weakest part of the game as whole; there's very little replay value once players feel as if they're competent at all of the games. Luckily there's a sequel which I plan to check out at some point soon.

Graphically the game is more stylistically impressive than technically impressive, but this is usually the case with mobile gaming. The simple characters and cutesy representations of some pretty gruesome deaths are one of the reasons that the video and campaign as a whole became so popular. There's a musical theme based on the song from the ad campaign behind gameplay, and the package as a whole is well polished and fun to interact with.

Overall Dumb Ways to Die was an excellent informational campaign which spawned a fun mobile game, which while limited in its replayability and number of minigames offered players an extension of the original video and a fairly original gameplay experience (which is more than can be said for many mobile titles).

Rating: 75/100
Grade: B

Mobile Gaming Month: Temple Run

Game: Temple Run
Platform: Android
Developer: Imangi Studios
Release Date: 27th March 2012

As I mentioned with Sonic Dash, endless runner style games on mobile devices have the potential to be rebranded for use with whatever characters and franchises are popular, and so that particular element of these games won't have too much impact on their score. Temple Run has a simple premise; players steal an idol at the beginning of them game, causing them to be chased by a pack of wild, somewhat deformed monkeys. By negotiating jumps, changes in terrain and low hanging trees the goal is to make it as far as possible, whilst collecting coins which can be put towards various upgrades and unlocks.

The gameplay action itself is engaging and fast paced, with a gradual increase in speed as time elapses. Players can swipe upwards to jump, downwards to slide under obstacles, or from side to side to turn a corner. Tilting the phone will change the character's position in the lane slightly, as coins are positioned on the left, right and in the centre. Where its possible to use powerups, they can be tapped from just under the score, and coin counter. Overall the controls work well and are simple to understand though occasionally left/right swipes don't seem to get recognised, resulting in a shortened run.

The powerup and upgrade system is generally good, allowing players to extend their runs as they collect more gems by way of improving the powerups found during each run. It's possible to optimally upgrade each powerup without having to spend any real-world cash, and it'll come naturally as long as you're playing the game anyway. As there's no real end goal, the only progress markers seem to be upgrading each powerup, and achievements which increase the score multiplier.

Graphically Temple Run has a simplistic feel overall, with some textures almost completely obviously pasted onto trees or rocks. It's not too much of an issue for a mobile game though, and the visuals are ample to tell what's going on. I'd have appreciated a little musical accompaniment to gameplay, but all that's given to players is some beating drums and the screaming of the chasing monkeys if your characters slows down too much.

Overall Temple Run is an interesting little endless runner for mobile that has a wide general appeal and easy to pick up gameplay. While it doesn't have the boss battles or brand appeal of Sonic Dash, there's still a fair amount to do, and a nice difficulty curve as runs continue. As there's a sequel, I might have to return to the series in a little while; it'll certainly be interesting to see what improvements have been made.

Rating: 65/100
Grade: C

Mobile Gaming Month: Sonic Dash

Having recently picked up a smartphone after many years of resisting change, I've had an opportunity to delve into the mobile gaming market and experience everything that games based on swiping, tapping and tilting phones have to offer. While I refuse to play game that are based solely on a pay-to-win model, anything with legitimate gameplay is up for review and I'll be judging on each game's fun factor, features and replayability.

Game: Sonic Dash
Platform: Android
Developer: Hardlight Studio
Release Date: 26th November 2013

Featuring similar gameplay elements to some other mobile games, it'd be easy to say that Sonic Dash is at the very least derivative but in a market where there's limited control options and gameplay types (at least to a degree), it's necessary to judge games on their individual merits and only take points away from games which are complete clones.

The objective of Sonic Dash is for players to control a character from the Sonic franchise, running as far as they can whilst collecting rings, avoiding obstacles and beating bosses. Essentially it's like one endless stage from a 3D Sonic game, which sounds like a more interesting prospect than it actually is for much of the gameplay.

Each time players hit jump pads at the end of sections, their rings are banked. Once Sonic hits an obstacle, the turn is over and players receive the number of rings they've banked to be added onto their total. With these rings, upgrades and items to help turns last longer can be purchased as well as new characters to play as, and Sonic wallpapers for the player's mobile phone. Rings can also be purchased for real money, but it's never completely necessary and is only advertised to the player if they're seeking more rings.

In order to increase player's scores each turn, there are also multipliers which increase as challenges are completed. Currently there are 20 levels of challenges, for a maximum score multiplier of x20. A daily challenge which consists of running far enough to collect 4 puzzle pieces also helps players to collect score-increase items, alongside a daily spin minigame.

Moves available to players in game include swiping to change lanes, jumping by swiping upwards, rolling by swiping downwards, and tapping to perform a homing attack when it's available. As players collect rings, their Dash meter increases until it's full at which point players can perform a dash for a limited distance, which can be increased through upgrades.

Boss battles are a nice change up in gameplay; players must first dodge projectiles from behind, then avoid obstacles placed in front of them, before taking to the air and defeating the boss by performing homing attacks. Two bosses are featured in the game; Zazz from Sonic Lost World and Dr. Robotnik from many of the Sonic games.

Graphically the game looks very impressive, with detailed stylistic graphics which fit well with previous iterations of the Sonic series. There's sometimes issues with the game freezing after Sonic hits an obstacle, but they're infrequent and don't generally affect gameplay sessions. Musically, the pieces featured are bearable, with Zazz's boss battle theme being a particular highlight.

Overall Sonic Dash is good fun for playing every now and then, with a good difficulty curve as the distance travelled increases. The upgrades and items aren't integral to the game and so the paid element doesn't encroach too far, though if you're looking to unlock everything the game has to offer, it might take quite a while of playing, if you're not intending to spend any money. For the casual player and Sonic fan, it's a worthy distraction though.

Rating: 70/100
Grade: C