One of my favorite review columns was writing about “one-touch” games, designed largely for the handicapped, where all control happened by pressing one key (they could interface with custom on/off devices those with physical impediments could operate).
Many of the concepts and control schemes – some allowing navigate-and-shoot spaceships or full platform game movement – were ingenious. Those ideas were briefly recalled while playing Aerikuma, a horizontal-scrolling navigation game where the only player control is touching the screen – no swipes, tilts or multiple taps.
It’s got a vague Zen-like description (“help purify the world of Aerikuma by spreading spores to the far corners of the forest”) and atmosphere lending to its initial charm.
Then I started playing and the lipstick was off.
For openers, just playing the game can be a challenge because the “press screen to start” prompt isn’t always responsive (the only two reviews at the iTunes store as of this writing report the same problem). Once it does launch, it’s not as unique or fun as the description suggests.
Aerikuma combines the most basic elements of the old games Scramble and Lunar Lander, where a spore that could just as easily be a sideways moon module flies over terrain avoiding obstacles while collecting green dots to fuel your energy supply. Touching the screen acts as a thrust, using energy up rapidly in the process.
Getting adept at collecting most of the energy pellets is a must from the beginning since the gravity is harsh and uncontrollable momentum can build up if your finger is off the trigger for more than a second. The thrust is also pretty aggressive, so the fine control needed to picked up the small pellets and avoid the largish obstacles doesn’t feel completely dependent on skill.
Navigational abilities improve with persistence, but it isn’t worth the bother. First and foremost, you only get one life, so you have to start over after every crash. I could tell this was getting on my nerves excessively because of the aggravation I also felt having to wait several seconds for the start game screen to reappear. The one-second “crickets” sound loop is calming and charming for about as long as it takes for the startup screen to appear, but becomes headache inducing before you complete your first couple of games.
The fantasy forest graphics are modestly pleasant and the requisite ability to post your distances traveled to an online ego board is included. But even at 99 cents this feels like something dumped into the App Store without much thought beyond making it pleasing to look at in the hopes of snagging sales. Maybe a good choice for the “global warming is bunk” crowd, who can crash spore after spore with the sadistic knowledge they’re doing all they can not to help save the forests.
Score: 2 out of 10
Mark Sabbatini
Aerikuma by Sunny Tam
$0.99
Platform Reviewed: iPhone/iPod (Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later)
Category: Arcade
Languages Supported: English
Rating: 4+
File Size: 4.2 MB
