Review: DynamoKid Touch (iPhone)
DynamoKid Touch is a new game for the iPod Touch and iPhone from developer OrangePixel which blends old-school platforming with the out-of-control feel of games like Canabalt. As in Canabalt, the main character automatically runs to the right, and the worlds you traverse are randomly generated. As you might expect, all of the controls are touch-driven: tap the main character to make him jump, tap enemies and falling objects to destroy them, and swipe across outlines of missing platforms to magically fill them in and allow your character to walk across them. You collect small stars to increase your score, and you will also encounter outlines of larger stars. Tap the outline to make the large star appear, then collect three of them to earn an extra life. Normally, running into an obstacle or falling off the bottom of the screen will lead to a “Game Over” screen, but if you’ve collected three large stars, you will instead be transported to a new world and allowed to continue.
The game has a lot of creative ideas, some of which work really well. The background art starts off with a rough black and white pencil sketch aesthetic, and as you progress through the level and earn points, the world fills with color. On top of that, the graphics are simple and clean, and the main character’s animation has a good amount of detail even though the sprite is small. The randomly generated environments keep the game from getting stale, and in addition to the main goal of beating your high score, there are also leaderboards and unlockable achievements to earn, all of which provide motivation to keep playing.
Unfortunately, the game does have a few significant flaws. First of all, while the controls are generally responsive, there were several instances where I could have sworn that I was tapping the main character only to watch him run right off of a ledge. In addition, while the game seems intent on limiting the player’s level of control in order to increase the feeling of tension, it occasionally goes a little too far. Perhaps the biggest issue is that you have no control of the duration of each jump. It would be nice if the player could choose between a small jump and a large jump. Finally, the game has enemies that ride in hot air balloons near the top of the screen, dropping bombs towards the player. You can tap the balloons, but that just causes them to move to the left, meaning that they will inevitably pass over the player. Normally it’s not too much of an issue since you can tap a falling bomb to safely destroy it, but sometimes you will be on a platform near the top of the screen when a balloon appears, giving you almost no time to react when the bomb is dropped. Losing a life in that situation can be a bit frustrating.
Apple’s App Store is bursting at the seams with a number of enjoyable $0.99 and $1.99 games, so it takes a very special game to stand out from the crowd. Sadly, DynamoKid Touch doesn’t really offer enough at this point in time to justify a glowing recommendation. It does show promise, however, and the developer’s blog indicates that they are planning to release updates to improve the game. While I can’t suggest buying it right now, I would keep an eye on the game as updates are released, as I feel the game could be a contender with only a few simple tweaks.
DynamoKid Touch is available from iTunes for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will play on the iPad in iPhone mode, and was originally available on Android phones.
