Last week we showed you a trailer for this upcoming Canabalt-style platformer. This week we’ve had some hands-on playtime for ourselves.
We had a quick blast through some of the cities on offer in the game, including Paris (France), Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan) and Sydney (Australia). I’ve already commented on how I love the art style, but when playing the game it was the music that grabbed my attention this time. The same music plays through each level, but it is given a themed twist each time using instruments and styles of the particular region you are playing in… it’s a pretty nice detail. It’s shame however, that the voice work of the SWAT teams, out to stop your monster, don’t talk in the local tongue, and instead seem to speak in a standard European Accent – which is German I think, though being British myself we are not exactly known for our multi-lingual skills, so I may be wrong.
As I’ve alluded to in previous posts on this game, the object is to simply get from one end of the level to the other, without dying. Like many platformers on the AppStore this follows the Canabalt-style, which is that your creature runs continually, so it’s up to you to guide him safely over obstacles using a jump button, and an attack button. Being a monster, your attack is a deafening roar, and when used at the right time, you can take out enemies and objects alike… with the latter earning you extra points and achievements if you take out a certain quota of a particular type of object. Enemies come in various sizes and threats, from SWAT teams to Helicopters. You can opt to destroy them or simply avoid them with a well-timed jump. Should you come into contact with an enemy you will loose one of three of your health points. Being a lizard-like monster, this is naturally displayed through your tail. Lose all three pieces of your tail and its game over.
We haven’t yet visited every port of call in the game, nor have we checked out all the various achievements on offer in each level. Look out for our full review when the game hits at the end of this month (May ’11) in both regular and HD flavours for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Check out our iPad hands-on video here (recorded over HDMI link):
