A lot of reviews describe games as good for a 10-minute diversion. This is generally assumed to mean “at a time.”
This 99-cent physics puzzle/action app involves flicking your “buddies” into a target surrounded by obstacles, competing with up to three human/computer opponents for the highest score before time runs out. The multiplayer aspect is heavily hyped and I acknowledge my brief conquest was a solitary one, but if I had any friends I doubt they’d stay grouped around my iPod long for this.
Rounds last one minute each, with the player(s) using a drag-and-swipe motion to aim and flick creatures into the field of play. Launching subsequent creatures requires waiting a few seconds until a recharge bar is filled. Points are scored for hitting the target, which may or may not be moving, although direct strikes are a rarity. Instead the creature will bounce off bumpers and other creatures, feel the gravitational pull of black holes, and in some cases descend like a pinball through obstacles. Knocking your opponents away and your other buddies still in the field into the target are fair game, and there’s definitely a free-for-all madness when a foursome each has multiple creatures in play.
Bane Games gets some of the fundamentals right, beginning with cartoonishly grotesque creatures on the “teams” and various odd objects depicting the “flick” objects and the obstacles in their way. The touch controls in the corners of the screen take a few minutes to get used to, but are the only realistic way of making a small device like an iPod remotely playable by four people at once. It’s easy selecting which players (two on some levels, four on others) will be human or AI controlled and most levels offer enough differences to be novel.
But, starting with single-player problems, the computerized opponents could launch their creatures at random and they’d likely fight to a draw against whatever AI (if any) the app is using. I was racking up pretty lopsided scores even during the first couple of levels when I was mostly flicking my own creatures out at random as I learned the basics. I lost only one match before completing all 12 levels, meaning I got exactly 13 minutes of playtime from this. It’s not the least time I’ve ever gone start-to-finish – theoretically it’s possible to complete Myst in less than five minutes – but it’s among the contenders for a medal.
Bring multiple human players into this and at least there’s the hope of an even matchup. But it’s still a limited number of playfields and, while a certain amount of chaos is fun, the element of skill is considerably lessened by the various obstacles. I’d much rather play a simple, well-simulated game of air hockey, much as that might seem a contradiction to the previous gripe about limited levels. Also, I’m guessing four humans would be quite a squeeze around an iPhone or iPod, although those blessed with an iPad should fare considerably better.
There’s no options beyond selecting levels (four are unlocked at the start), meaning you can’t engage in multiplayer online matches, which would massively enhance the experience for single players as well as making things less crowded for a group. Sound/music controls are a virtually universal option, but the omission here is a non-factor since, aside from the zany title screen music, there isn’t much sound in the game.
The one potential saving grace is the developer is promising updates with more teams/levels, but I’ve seen such claims before with mixed results on following through. The odds seem higher if enough gamers buy this initial version, but releasing it when major developers are unleashing an avalanche of epic titles for the same price (is there anyone who now doesn’t own Battlefield: Bad Company 2?) means Flick Buddies will likely be viewing the arse end of the bestseller contenders.
Mark Sabbatini
Flick Buddies by Bane Games Pty. Ltd.
99 cents
Category: Physics/action
Language: English
Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Rated 9+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence; Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
18.4 MB
#1
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the review. I would like to confirm we are working on our first update now and we plan to add a new game mode that will add some more depth, as well as additional levels and teams. We also plan further updates in the future and we’re looking for feedback from our gamers to find out what we should be adding.
I’d also like to quickly check whether you found the abilities each character has? After launching the little buddy you can press on the semi-circle in the corner to activate one of three abilities. This adds a lot more depth to the simple “flick and forget” gameplay some people are experiencing. Unfortunately it looks like we didn’t explain this part of the game well enough as a number of people have missed it.
One final point is the lack of sound. For performance reasons we had to turn the in-game sound effects off on 3G devices. We plan to rectify this in our first update.
Thanks,
Alistair