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    • Zoneout Quick Review

    Written By: Matt Dunn
    January 6, 2009

    Click to launch App Store

    by Matt Dunn

    Wow. Not often does a developer take such a simple game concept, and polish it to a shiney bacon-grease sheen! Enter Zoneout, the best JezzBall-look-a-like on the App Store. Ok, that doesn’t do it justice. Just read the review! (Bacon not included.)

    Click to launch App StoreI don’t know what genre of game Zoneout is. I suppose, it’s the cut-out-sections-of-a-level genre? In Zoneout, you play as a space fighter, and must cut out a certain percentage of each level, with the laser line that follows your ship, to advance to the next one. It’s a very simple idea, that developer Neon Surge has taken to the extreme. The game features great graphics and occasional particle effects, as well as awesome sound and music. There are plenty of different enemy ships to defeat, and some great power-ups to do the job! Aside from tons of levels and an online leaderboard, the game also features some tough achievements to beat. To put the icing on the cake, Zoneout offeres both tilt and touch controls, with full calibration of the accelerometer. This game is the definition of well-rounded.

    Presentation and Graphics:

    4pt5-stars_sm
    As good as gets for sprite graphics. Great particle effects.

    Sound:

    5-stars_sm
    Excellent!

    Gameplay:

    5-stars_sm
    Very easy to control, and a lot of fun to play! You get extra lives regularly, so the game isn’t frustrating. Power ups are a lot of fun, and the many different enemies add great challenge and strategy to the game.

    Gamelife:

    4pt5-stars_sm
    Tons of levels, online leaderboards, and achievements. I would have been satisfied with just the tons of levels. Only thing I can possibly imagine being added would be some sort of multiplayer function, but that would just be crazy!

    Game Rating

    5-stars

    There is nothing wrong with this game that I can think of. This is exactly how remakes of classic games should be. Zoneout takes a simple game concept, and absolutely nails the delivery in every way. $2.99 is a very fair price for a game like this. Keep in mind, that I’m giving this game 5 stars because it’s the best I’ve ever seen for this genre. If you don’t like this genre of game, then feel free to pass. But if you’re down with extremely polished casual arcade gaming that tips a shiny hat to JezzBall, pick this up!

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    • Jay

      u said “I don’t what genre…” i think that’s a typo

    • Nacho

      I think although this game is okay, Dr. Awesome does the same game much much better. The graphics, sound, and extra silliness make for a better overall experience.

    • http://www.pyrosmile.org iPGN-Matt

      oops! thanks for the catch, Jay. never played Dr. Awesome, Nacho, I had no idea it had a game like this. I suppose this could have gotten either a 4.5 or 5, but honestly, the game was just so solid. :)

    • Nacho

      Try Dr. Awesome it’s polish is a level above this game. The tilt controls on it add another level as well.

    • ParrotMan

      Hey all, I have played both game and I have to say I like this one better. Yes Dr.Awesome is a typical ngmoco high end production. Love the idea with the address book names but the game gets repetitive so quick, slide after slide same stuff all over. For some reason Zoneout keeps me interested, levels change enough to keep me playing, has this nostalgic arcade feel and sound and yes online scores (tho I suck on those still). Oh Nacho, Zoneout supports accelerometer too tho I think the devs should promote that better.

    • http://neonsurge.com/zoneout/ Andrew Farley

      Hey guys, one of the developers of this game. :) Yeah, Dr. Awesome’s raw OpenGL graphics are a bit more impressive than ours since ours are more sprite based. Head to head, we’ve seen many people say the same thing though… that there is no reason to keep playing Dr. Awesome, the gameplay doesn’t vary or change or keep you coming back, the Address Book feature is “neat” but doesn’t provide enough to keep users playing it. I bought and played it for about 20 minutes and feel no need to ever play it again. Dr. Awesome lacks achievements, internet high scores, and difficulty levels (things that keep players coming back). Finally, we do mention the accelerometer support in the description and feature list. I don’t know where else we could mention it. It also asks you when you first start the game if you want to use the accelerometer or swipe. Hope you guys enjoy the game. :) Cheers!

    • http://neonsurge.com/zoneout/ Andrew Farley

      Oh also… we just got a free “lite” version of the game accepted into the AppStore. So there is NO reason to not check this game out now! :)

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