Review: Super Monkey Ball (iPhone)

Super Monkey Ball was one of the many cool games that Apple chose to show off many months ago when they announced the new iPhone firmware. The developers talked about how they were able to upgrade the graphics even more from what they were showing, which was already impressive for a cell phone game. The problem is that they should have spent that time working on the controls. There are a bunch of other games on the App store that use the motions sensors in a similar fashion and they feel tight and responsive. Unfortunetly SMB’s one major flaw is that the oversensitive controls ruin most of the fun you can have with this game.  I have played plenty of SMB in my day and they get everything else right, but the controls just aren’t good enough to handle some of the more difficult levels. Heck even easy levels can be frustrating!

I gave this game plenty of opportunity to grow on me and I tried over and over to get used to the controls, but it just didn’t work. If you want to play a similar game with simple and responsive controls then download Labyrinth, which has a free trial version so your not stuck with buying a game you will never play.

If this games controls were retooled then Super Monkey Ball would be one of the best games on the App store. As it stands now it’s a pretty game that can show people what the iPhone is capable of, but just don’t let them play it.

The Good

+Great Graphics
+Cute Music
+Well Polished

The Bad

- Oversensitive Controls
- It Costs $10!

Review: Tetris for the iPhone

If anyone is going to review Tetris it should be me. Ever since I laid my first block back many years ago I have been hooked on the game. The only game that I bought for my DS is Tetris, and when I got my new iPhone it was the first game that I downloaded. So as you can see my Tetris cred is high. That being said I still had worries when downloading a touch version of the game that I love. Anyone who is quite good at Tetris knows that at the high levels you barely have time to think and without the feedback of a controller things could get hairy. Surprisingly though the touch and drag controls for this game does a damn good job and is sensitive enough to get you through some high levels, They allow you to rotate the pieces different directions based in what side of the screen you tap, and you can drag anywhere on the screen to move the piece. When you are ready to do a hard drop just swipe downwards with a quick flip and the piece slams into position. It does take one or two games to get used to the controls, but once you do you will find them to work quite well, but once you get up to level 12 or 13 things move so fast that the touch interface cannot hold up. Luckily most people can’t get past those levels even with a controller.

The game comes with two game styles, Marathon and Magic, both of which should be familiar to any Tetris fan. I was a bit disappointed that some other game types were not included, especially since this game will set you back $10. For that kind of money I would expect more then two gametypes. Luckily they can upgrade the game in the future via the app store, which I hope that they do. I would spend a whole paragraph about graphics, but this is Tetris and that’s not what the game is about. That being said the game does have very nice visuals and looks ten times better then any other mobile phone version of Tetris.

The Good

+Solid Controls
+Simple Clean Graphics
+It’s Tetris

The Bad

- Costs $10 (Would have happier with $5)
- Occasionally Crashes
- Music is a bit limited

Overall Tetris for the iPhone is a well executed game that uses the iPhone’s touchscreen quite well. If they can bring the price down to around $5 it would be a must buy for any fan of the game, but since the price is a bit high only the hardcore Tetris fans will most likely get this one.