Review: Puppet Wars: FPS - First Puppet Shooter
by Staff Writer
June 25, 2010
Overview
Puppet Wars: FPS as the name suggests is a first person shooter where you kill waves and waves of puppets. You play as a janitor whose goal is to stop the puppets from taking over the world. The game is arena style meaning you stay in the same area which in this case is the TV studio set.
Features
The game is set up with an endless number of levels where each new one gives you a goal number of puppets to kill. There are 15 weapons to unlock along the way including the regulars like a machine gun and shotgun and the more obscure including a nose picker, plunger crossbow, and more. There are multiple types of puppets with jumping small ones, chicken tossing green ones, and time bomb blue ones.The Good
The best aspect of the game is the visuals which are really amazing for an iPhone game. The 3D modeling of the puppets is intricately deluxe, as well as the TV set that is bursting with colors. The animations are great as well with the set degrading, though it restores quickly, and the couple of death animations of the puppets.
The premise itself is definitely enjoyable as you’re killing cute things which is one of the reasons that Battle Bears has been so successful. It is great facing wave and wave of cute puppets, and then mowing them down with all kinds of weapons. Unlocking weapons is always enjoyable especially getting ones that are useful and amusing.
The controls work well to move, aim, and fire so that they never get in the way of playing the game. The background music is definitely enjoyable and it changes a couple times between action and a puppet TV show. The game provides traditional first person shooter gameplay, though it’s not executed very well.
The Bad
It takes more to make a good game than presenting it in a pretty package. Puppet Wars: FPS is a game you want to like with the premise, but the gameplay is truly lacking. It’s frustrating to say the least as you can hit enemies over and over, and they won’t die. The game doesn’t recognize your actions properly so you can’t kill multiple enemies at once. You also can’t kill enemies at a distance despite aim being lined up perfectly. You can’t kill enemies close up either for some unknown reason though a machine gun, sword, or chainsaw in the face should do the job.
Some enemies are stronger to take multiple hits, but most hits aren’t properly recognized by the game. Another problem is that you never know exactly when the puppets are close enough to injure you until the screen is flashing red, and you’re injured.
The problems continue with the game simply being so monotonous you’ll be bored to tears. This is one of the least engaging games I’ve ever played on the iPhone it gives you no incentive to even play the next level since it’s just more puppets to kill in the exact same environment. There is never an overload of action, and it’s extremely simple with the only challenge staying calm as you hit an enemy over and over, but it keeps coming like it has never been touched.
Another negative is that when you kill a puppet it takes a number of seconds until they finally drop pick-ups, and by then you’ll have run across the room. You will have to run back through puppets or wait with a bunch of puppets to collect the money and items. You always play in the same room with never a change in surroundings which is quite disappointing. The game has no kind of online connectivity for even a small incentive to keep going in the game, never the less actually replay it.
