Consolation Prize

It has been quite a while since I last took the time and effort to investigate the flood of free games that appear with startling regularity on the Apple app store. Perhaps it was the recent OS 3.0. presentation that reawakened my interest in the iPhone slash iTouch as a serious gaming platform that jerked me into action, but I hereby present you with my humble opinion on some free games available for you to download.

In this post I look at Time Crisis Strike Lite, Brick Breaker Revolution Free, and Zombieville USA Lite. You can find the other parts in the guide by following these links:

iPhone Free Games Guide - Part 1

iPhone Free Games Guide - Part 2

Time Crisis Strike Lite

In theory an on-rails-shooter is a good match for the iPhone slash iTouch. There’s no need to worry about the need to map complex controls to the limited functions of the device; the very nature of the genre imposes its own set of constraints and therefore the player only needs to concern themselves with the ability to shoot and reload – that should be easy, right?

Unfortunately Time Crisis Strike has a fundamental flaw with one aspect of the controls that has a profoundly negative impact on the game. The culprit is the “reload” action, which unsurprisingly is a critical part of playing Time Crisis. To reload, or in fact in order to take cover as they are one and the same action, you must tilt the device. Although this may seem like a positive use of the accelerometers, the net result is that for a few critical moments the screen is obscured. The situation is worse if you actually want to remain in cover and you’re forced to hunch over the screen to view what’s happening. It beats me why Namco Bandai didn’t just decide to use a virtual button for this purpose, after all there’s an icon at the bottom of the screen to indicate this anyway.

This “Lite” version offers one full level whilst the premium version offers just three, but given that this first stage could be completed in a couple of minutes, and the aforementioned critique, I really can’t see myself being tempted to splash the cash for another five or ten minutes of action.

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Brick Breaker Revolution Free

Brick Breaker Revolution joins the ranks of fellow Breakout clones and has some colourful three dimensional graphics on an isometric view to entice the player, but I fail to see where the “revolution” the title alludes to comes into play - maybe that’s saved for the premium version.

It’s easy enough to control the paddle using virtual buttons on either side of the screen or by directly touching and moving the paddle if that’s your preference, however the controls aren’t perfect. The paddle speed under the control of the virtual buttons seems to accelerate too quickly, and the unfortunate side effect of directly controlling the paddle with thumb or finger is that it obscures the actual paddle and actually lags behind by a split second.

Brick Breaker Revolution Free offers eight stages of the “classic” mode to play through with four different kinds of simple but effective power-ups to help clear blocks. Overall it’s a decent enough game with some average production values.

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Zombieville USA Lite

Zombieville USA initially looks very promising. The graphical art design reminds me of something The Behemoth would knock up and features some wonderfully drawn cartoon graphics that leave little room for negative critique.

However, if you’re looking for more than just a shallow side scrolling shooter then you will be disappointed. In this “Lite” version the depth of gameplay consists of no more than continually walking towards the right and shooting emerging zombies using a variety of weapons. On occasion you’re able to enter a building, but instead of the exciting proposition of fending off hordes of zombies in the claustrophobic confines of the kitchen, or fighting a retreating battle throughout the house, the opportunity is wasted as the only purpose served by entering a dwelling is to act as a weapon drop, all behind closed doors.

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