iPhone Roundup
Puzzle edition.
Radial 50
- Developer: Roundthird Interactive
- Price: £1.19
History, in a very inane kind of way, comes pleasantly full circle with the appearance of every Breakout clone that washes up on the shores of the App Store, as one of Steve Jobs' first, er, jobs was working on the original game back in the seventies (although somebody, I think it was Steven Levy, suggested that he paid Steve Wozniak to do all the hard stuff in secret and then royally stiffed him. But that certainly doesn't sound like the Steve Jobs I know).
Something comes pleasantly full circle with Radial 50, too, as it's Breakout played on a circular field, with the paddle moving around the circumference, while you whittle away at concentric defences to hit the jewel in the middle.
Actually, it's not always that pleasant. Sometimes, in fact, it's a little annoying. The problem with Roundthird's game is that, while you're in charge of a paddle that moves in a gentle curve, you control it by moving your finger up and down in a straight line and, while you will inevitably get used to this after a few minutes, it struggles to ever become truly instinctive.
There's also the fact that Radial 50's at its most fun when you're merely staring at the ball as it ricochets madly around inside the maze of internal barriers all by itself. There's nothing terribly wrong with this, but a game that's at its peak when you're just watching it had better have David Hayter doing some of the voices, or it's in big trouble at retail.
4/10
Wriggle
- Developer: Conlan Rios
- Price: 59p
Wriggle is a puzzle game about worms. That sounds pretty grim, unless you happen to be a worm yourself, in which case: how did you get hold of an iPhone?
Whatever it sounds like, Wriggle is simple and fairly clever: a maze game in which you have to tug a blue worm out of a network of tunnels in as few moves as possible.
There are special awards for getting it done in particularly efficient manner, and, as the game progresses, other worms are thrown into the mix to negotiate around. It's the worm-tugging equivalent of parallel parking, essentially, only slightly more fun.
And despite its fairly limited scope, it is fun, in a very basic kind of way. Wriggle isn't going to change your life, then - not like, say, Critter Crunch - but it will give you something pleasantly taxing to do while waiting in line at the post office or arguing off-handedly with a loved one; for 59p, that's not a bad deal.
6/10