Power Toppler review

By Torbjorn Kamblad, Sweden
for www.touchgen.com

Published: April 25, 2009

I am in love with this game and at the same time I totally hate it. Well, now I have to explain myself, right?

This is a remake of a classic game of Nebulus, that has been around on platforms such as the C64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, and Gameboy. I have played it in the past, but never really liked it even though the green character Pogo was kind of cute. The game is all about getting to the top of a tower while avoiding various hazards and enemies. You move around the tower that rotates with your movements, revealing enemies, stairs and platforms.

Power Toppler is based on the above but without the green Pogo, instead the hero is a silver grey robot dude that feels a little uninspired and lacking in character and foremost, colour. There is no story to Power Toppler at all, we don’t even get to know the name of the hero.

So what is there to love about this game then? For one, the controls are tight and you can play this using one hand. You move the hero by touching the side of the screen you want to go to. Drag upwards to jump/enter doors/go up lifts. Double tap to shoot, albeit most enemies are immune to your shots.

I don’t know if I dare say it, as it is the most abused word in game descriptions in the app store but, to me this game is addictive. When I plummet to my death I immediately start over because I know I will get to the top this time, I really know it. The feeling of accomplishment when beating a tower is really awesome because this game is hard, truly hard… and that brings me to my biggest concern about this game, it is too difficult. It took me 2 hours to complete the second tower and there are 16 towers in total which gives you a whole lot of game time out of the 2 bucks.

powertoppler1

Yep that is what I hate about this game, it is hard, but not in a way that I feel that I am a bad gamer. The game throws the following at you starting from level 1:

- Immortal enemies.

- An orb moving randomly across the level.

- Time limit to each level.

- Precise timed jumping.

These obstacles don’t sound hard but when you combine them you are in for a difficult time. When an enemy or orb touches your character you fall from your current platform and often there is nothing below, which means you fall to your death. Running out of time because you have fallen down too often is a real pain. Yet, I want to play it again right away because it is the game that is too hard and not me who is bad at it, a psychological phenomenon of sorts.

Presentation and graphics

Not outstanding at all, functional for the type of game it is. Would like it to be brighter and the hero is really in need of a more memorable design/look.

Sound

Just sound effects available in the reviewed version(1.0). It fades away the Ipod music too but you can go to the home screen and start up the music again but then you get no sound effects.

Game play

Great responsive controls. If you can take the challenge presented in this game you will be greatly rewarded. Old school platforming action as good as it gets.

Game life

Completing the game will take some time because of the high level of difficulty. The individual levels have unique names and designs based on the names that make them memorable and replayable. No achievements or high score to chase.

Final rating

3pt5-stars

As I stated earlier this is an addictive game with a high level of difficulty, but the great controls gives you tools to beat it. Hopefully future updates will bring music, story and more colour. And please remove those randomly flying orbs…maybe with one more try I might beat them.

Power Toppler $1.99

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

5 Comments on "Power Toppler review"

Rock $ Rolla on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 2:18 am

It sounds and looks bad but it must be good-is that wehat youre trying to say

Rock $ Rolla on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 2:19 am

It sounds and looks bad but it must be good-is that what youre trying to say

snow_mani on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 7:16 am

I was sent a link to your review via Twitter. I wasted hours of my childhood playing Nebulus on the C64. I agree with you that the robot in this version lacks the character that the original had. The sun orbs were in the original version but as rotating “clusters”. The dev posted a tip on a forum that you can hear the sun orb and the direction it is coming from if you wear headphones when playing. I tried this and it does make it easier.

Kamblad on Tue, 28th Apr 2009 4:36 am

@ Rock $ Rolla. It is quite addictive to retry one more time in that sense that most old Nes games felt. But yeah it is not the most handsome package and considering it is a remake of a retro title I can understand that.

Torbjorn Kamblad on Mon, 4th May 2009 8:00 pm

Update 1.1 out allowing you to play your own music in the background. Nice!

Power Toppler review

Final rating

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