Review: Finger Physics: Thumb Wars
by Staff Writer
July 22, 2010
Overview
Finger Physics: Thumb Wars is a sequel bringing more of the physics based block positioning game. If you've played Finger Physics there are similar levels in Thumb Wars, and not actual thumb wars. It's not 1, 2, 3, 4 I declare a thumb war, but instead just more levels as first seen on the iPhone in the Topple series.
Features
There are 80 levels with the majority having you break glass blocks to get the blue star ball to the spiral orange circle at the end. There are also piece stack puzzles with some having magnetic pieces. Each level has stars to collect by either having the blue ball roll by them or have pieces stacked over them. The game is "war" based by having a weekly global competition where the points scored by members of specific countries are combined to see which country scores the most. OpenFeint is included for online high scores and achievements.
The Good
Fans of Finger Physics are in luck to see more of the same, but with new more challenging puzzles. There are new intricacies to each level with the stars to collect as well as new spinning pieces, and pieces only needing slight adjustments. The original has you doing a lot more with your fingers, but Thumb Wars gives you more timing based taps than dragging and positioning pieces. If you like challenges there is plenty of challenge to be had in Thumb Wars. The levels are nice and complex as you go along that need a steady hand and very precise timing. You can upbeat levels multiple ways, and you can always try to replay levels to collect all the stars.
That's not to say the challenges don't blend together, and become somewhat repetitive as you progress. There are a few different styles of play from breaking blocks to opening a path for a rolling ball, or do the more traditional block stacking. A nice inclusion is the ability to skip levels if you're stuck on a particular one.
The game is nicely designed with outstanding visuals with the same polish from the original, but even better. The animations are nice as well with more things occurring in the background, and nice physics of the rolling ball and block pieces. There is a mellow soundtrack in the background that allows for thinking to occur.
The Bad
The game feels just like Finger Physics and is more suited as an in app purchase update than a brand new game. It's advertised as Thumb Wars though it shares no aspect to thumb wars. It's just new levels to break and position blocks that is very similar to Finger Physics which was simply a copy of Topple 2. There is nothing engaging or unique about the game, and with more of the same it gets repetitive and boring awfully quick. There is nothing to keep you going through the levels as they all seem to blend together with each other as well as the original Finger Physics. There is solid gameplay, but nothing noteworthy, and nothing new to entice you to pick it up if you own the original or not.
When playing the game, most aspects are timing based so it can become frustrating as you barely miss the proper timing to complete a level. There is definitely a lack of fun though which is disappointing as even though the original was a similar copy to Topple there was fun to be had. The genre is really becoming stale on the iPhone, and Thumb Wars does nothing to change that.
You can't rotate pieces easily in the game leaving you to toss the piece on a solid part of the level to try to spin it. The global competition aspects seems pointless as whatever country sells the most copies and has the most users will win, and your contribution feels like a drop in the bucket. The game has occasional crashing issues, highlighted when you receive a push notification.
