Review: Stair Dismount - Just Released This Morning

Update #2

Stair Dismount is now a universal app which means everything listed below is now available in one app. You can get an iPad native version by buying this $1 app. It's an extra great deal if you own an iPad as well as an iPhone, but still just a great iPad app if that's all you own. The app is now at ten different courses for iPhone and iPad for only $1.

Update

Stair Dismount's first update, 1.2.0, was just released, and with it there are quite a few improvements. First off there are three new environments to toss your ragdoll down. All three change up the whole stair idea, and are really brand new things including a slope, a construction site, and a mountain of blocks. Another new feature is the inclusion of OpenFeint online leader boards for each of the now nine environments. No achievements just high scores, but this adds to making it more of a game. Also a bunch of small streamlined features are included with a quick start button, the game remembers the last face used, and there is a nice panoramic image at level start. Also the controls are smoother for pinching to zoom in and out as well as tighter placement of the push. Overall the update moves Stair Dismount from being worth it to a should buy. The simple addition of online high scores, and three more environments that are more than just stairs makes this truly a game. It's the best ragdoll based app in the App Store, and it's on sale for $0.99.

Overview

Stair Disomunt is a new ragdoll physics game/social toy that we gave you a sneak peek of. This is the newest game from Secret Exit, developers of Zen Bound, and the game was just released after they accelerated the release schedule. It's a ragdoll physics simulator that has some game features and social features. Maximize your score by causing the most damage to the ragdoll. Add your facebook friends' pictures to the ragdoll, and post them to facebook.

Features

Six sets of stairs are included to push the ragdoll down. You can push it down classic stairs, or maybe you like a twist with the downward spiral, or perhaps more majestic using the moonlight stairflight. The game saves local high scores for each flight of stairs, and the score is based on the amount of damage caused to the ragdoll, and there are multipliers for multiple bones cracked, or summersaults down the stairs. The main features though are social features. You can add a picture in your camera roll to the ragdoll, and then save pictures mid-dismount, and e-mail it or post it to facebook. Speaking of facebook you can also use any of your friends profile pictures on the ragdoll, and then post your pictures to a dismount folder in your profile that are tagged with your friends name. The controls are super easy, you just tap on the ragdoll to position your push, and can adjust it slightly by dragging. You can change the view by flicking or the pinch to zoom method. Once you're ready to push you just tap the dismount button, depedinging on where you want to stop the power meter. A camera button is in the bottom right for in-game pictures.

The Good

The ragdoll physics is the best of it's kind on the iPhone or anywhere. The motion of the body, as well as the interaction with the stairs seems as realistic without actually pushing your friends down stairs (not advised). The game aspect of the app is fun, and easily addicting. You can get lost playing quite a few times, as you'll want to amp up the pain. It's just so easy to reset, and slightly adjust the position or power of your push, and watch it go down the stairs again. Also you may want to do the dismount again to get the right picture. After you finish a dismount you can view the ragdoll showing what body parts provided were damaged the most, and provided the most points. Also after the dismount you can watch the replay video of the entire flight down the stairs, (too bad you can't save that). Connecting to facebook, and posting to facebook is extremely easy and fast as tested over 3G. Just post the pic, and it takes a couple seconds, so it's really easy to do. You soon will have pictures of all your friends being dismounted. The game aspects add to the app to make it more than just an entertainment toy. The score, and bonus multipliers are great to see rack up. It adds quick replayability to do just slightly better. When you tap reset, the position of your last push is maintained which is great. The sound track is light hearted, but kind of reminiscent of Zen Bound. It adds to the overall atmosphere, but does have a slightly goofy quality to it. The bone breaking sounds are absolutely jarring, and actually made my bones hurt. They seem spot on, and aren't exaggerated goofiness like in Max Injury.

The Bad

It would be great to see online high scores with this app so it can live as both a social toy and game. Currently it leans more to social toy, but how many times can you take pictures of dismounts, and post them to facebook or e-mail them. The ragdoll physics is obviously great, but Stair Dismount lacks some game aspects of Max Injury. First off Max Injury has 13 different layouts, so hopefully we can see more stairs coming to Stair Dismount. Also there is a lot of variability in the environments of Max Injury, but just varying stairs in Stair Dismount. Finally props are included in Max Injury to interact with, and obviously high scores too.

The Verdict

Stair Dismount is the best ragdoll physics based app in the App Store, but that's not saying too much. The game gets repetitive relatively quickly, and the social features can only last so long. Overall Stair Dismount is similar to Zen Bound in that it takes you away from the everyday, and instead of providing a zen experience it's a rag vodo doll experience. More stairs or environments as well as online high scores would add a lot to the game side of this app. For $2.99 Stair Dismount is worth it, but needs more to garner a higher recommendation.

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