Nothing written in this reviews matters, since this app is as critic proof as it gets. But I’m wasting time writing it anyhow since, unlike the Double Down, this effort actually justifies the hype.
All-In-1 Gamebox is a perpetual contender on bestseller lists because it offers a wealth of constantly increasing titles – 30 as of this writing – for a mere 99 cents. The logic for buying it is unassailable: there’s probably lots of vacuity, but some of it has to be decent.
True and it’s all one really needs to know except what’s worth playing, hence the review (a.k.a. “we waste time playing the stupid games so you don’t have to”).
Actually, there’s one more thing worth noting: Right now this app takes up 204 MB. More than once I found myself wishing I could delete individual titles, even though memory isn’t really a deal breaker on my 64 GB iPod Touch.
The overall interface gets the job done, with icons for individual games clustered in groups of nine. Selecting one brings up a title screen with an option to load the game. What’d be nice is a description of the game before the user commits to loading it.
The titles are mostly budget-priced previous releases, and plenty have been praised as worthwhile on their own at the same or higher price than the All-In-1 compilation. Many are remakes of well-known games and, not surprisingly, frequently fall short of the originals by varying degrees.
321 Jump, for example, is a ripoff of the immensely popular Doodle Jump, where you tilt your device to guide a jumping creature up on infinite set of platforms. Gameplay is identical in nearly all aspects, except the player activates power-ups using a touch button rather than having them automatically bestowed on contact. But the graphics and overall feel lack the charm of the original, and I have no problem recommending gamers shell out another 99 cents for the real thing. Similarly, Robo Rush is a clone of the original Mario Bros. with a dark nuts-and-bolts wrapping that’s both hard to see and control.
Better – the showpiece title, in fact, for many – is Ancient War, a cartoonish real-time strategy game that’s simple by Warcraft standards, but more complex and in-depth than the other All-In-1 titles. You try to destroy the totems of eight rival tribes while defending your own using a variety units, evolving technologies and calling upon the gods. It’s cute, there’s a decent number of single- and multi-player missions, and the simplicity compared to other RTS games is frankly welcome on a device where users don’t always have hours to devote to mindless activity not officially in their job description.
Some of the more recent additions are among the best, such as the Lemmings clone Chicks. The “unit” designations are the same as the original and the game starts at the same “any idiot can solve this” difficulty. The level designs are obviously different and the chicks notably larger than I remember the lemmings being, not a good thing since it means more scrolling and less ability to deal with complex problems. Also, the tiny touch icons are definitely not as responsive as click-and-pointing with a mouse on a computer.
Individual taste obviously dictates some of what’s desirable and I found myself playing the Jewel Quest clone Neander Block more than others might. Again, it’s nearly the same game in all ways – swap jewels on a grid and make them vanish by clustering them in threes – with a conquer-the-map storyline, although as with other titles in this collection there’s minor differences (none bothering me all that much). On the flip side is the just-added The Sudoku Times, featuring 29,000 puzzles, which will undoubtably be welcome by addicts, but I’ve never been a convert to the craze.
Among the others worth more than a glance: iUFO Catcher (a computer version of the “crane” game, without the possibility of winning the trinkets collected); Ada’s Hospital (a new addition where a nurse keeps patients happy with move-and-click actions, what I always think of a “Tamagotchi” kennel game); Bowman Defense (you’re an archer defending a castle against advancing enemies); and iSniper 3D (a good-looking shooter with controls that could be better).
Some of the titles in the All-In-1 collection are now available as freebies and, indeed, a gamer can load up their device with hundreds of mediocre offerings from the App Store without investing anything beyond bandwidth. But All-In-1 does a great job of bloating your memory chips without the time investment and, even wandering through the lesser 20 remaining titles not mentioned above, it’s hard to argue gamers aren’t likely to get a dollar’s worth of entertainment.
Score: 9 out of 10
By Mark Sabbatini
All-In-1 Gamebox by Triniti Interactive Ltd.
$0.99
Platform Reviewed: iPhone/iPod/iPad (Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later)
Category: Games
Languages Supported: English
Rating: 12+ (Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence; Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence)
File Size: 204 MB
