apzOrb is a new game for Android. Despite having significant differences I can’t help but think of the classic Snake game genre. You’re in control of a creature that is composed of groups of swirling cubes. Its only aim in life is to consume more and more blocks and survive as long as possible. Sounds fun, but read on to see whether it has long term appeal!
Delving into our gaming heritage, it is perhaps unfair to compare apzOrb to snakes as they are fundamentally different. The Snakes genre had you navigating (in up/down or left/right directions) a continually moving line (the snake) around a game grid, picking up tokens for points. Each time you picked up a token the snake would get longer. If the snake collided with its tail, it would be game over.
apzOrb's main menu
Similarly with apzOrb, you are guiding a continually moving linear sprite around the game, picking up tokens (cubes) for points. The difference is that the the ‘snake’ doesn’t get longer when it apzOrbs anything. The penalty system in this game (and thus what you have to avoid) is based on color. There’s a wide spectrum of colours that fill the game arena, and you have to collect colors that match your snake’s color. Fortunately, it seems to be ‘okay’ within the rules to eat similar colors, the snake will take on the colour of whatever it last ate. For example if your snake is red, you’re allowed to eat red, orange, pink, and purple blocks. Eat a blue, cyan, green, or yellow block though, and you will lose a life and big letters will spell out across the screen that you got the “WRONG COLOR!”.
apzOrb gameplay
apzOrb is more forgiving than the original Snakes game too. You have a number of lives, and you can switch to any color as long as you go in a rainbow-like progression. The more ‘correct’ colours you pick up the more you build up a bar on the right of the screen which appears to be a bonus accumulator for scoring higher on further correct colors.
The other difference with apzOrb is that there is complete freedom of movement. Dragging anywhere in the screen will make the snake move in that direction. However, there’s an interesting physics model at work here. It very much looks and feels like the snake is swimming in a fluid. Therefore, best speed is achieved by moving your finger back and forth to make the snake move in a kind of rippling motion. As the snake turns, the blocks that make up its body all follow in a nice curved trajectory.
Here’s an example of the game in action,
The artwork in apzOrb is interesting too. While you are clearly playing in a two dimensional plane, there is an animated background with distant, out of focus, snakes swimming around eating up blocks, just like you are. It really does give you a feel of being a tiny creature swimming in a pool, rather like the early levels of Will Writght’s Spore. The downside of this is that you’re sometimes not sure if a block is in your plane or not.
There are two game modes, a simple survival mode game, where you keep going until you make too many mistakes, and the time trial mode. In the time mode you have 90 seconds to do as well as you can. Not only are you scored on the blocks you collect, but also on the efficiency of your collecting, a percentage of collecting the correct color versus the wrong color.
Overall, I liked apzOrb. It’s engaging but it’s not frantic, which means it’s an ideal chill out game. You can pick up an ad-supported version for free, or get rid of the ads by buying the full version for $2.29 / £1.39.
Click or scan to install apzOrb Free
Click or scan to install apzOrb HD
0 komentar:
Post a Comment