Who Can Take Your Trash Out? The Garbageman Can!
by Staff Writer
February 23, 2011
Of the 300,000 apps not all are winners. Some are appealing for reasons beyond quality. One such app is Garbageman. Its name reminded me of The Simpsons, and the song “The Garbage Man Can”. It’s a classic piece of comedy that is a spoof of “The Candy Man” from Willy Wonka.
You can watch the clip by following the link.
Now the Garbageman game isn’t the most complex game in the App Store. Garbageman is simple, but it’s fun in its simplicity. The garbage truck moves automatically, and you run behind it. Your goal is to collect the garbage cans, and toss them into the truck.
You tap the left and right side of the screen to move, and swipe to toss the garbage cans. The game is very easy to pick up and play. It’s surprisingly tough though with multiple obstacles. You can slip on banana peels, run into lamp posts and pedestrians, or be run over by oncoming traffic. You will miss garbage if any of those things happens to you.
While you’re doing your garbageman duties, the civilians and mayor are watching. You need to keep up the happiness meter because if it drops to zero you’re fired. Every missed garbage can decreases the meter. There are so many ways to make errors in this game that the difficulty level is high. You can either not pick up a garbage can or be off the mark when tossing it into the truck.
If you clean up three garbage cans in a row you earn a special prize. These act as power-ups giving you superman powers, or the ability to slow down time. An online high score and achievement system like Game Center could help Garbageman a lot.
There just isn’t much replay factor in the gameplay itself. Once you’ve played through the game once you’ve seen everything. It’s too bad because the basic mechanic is plenty of fun. A few more content additions could really make this game worth picking up.
As it stands Garbageman ($0.99, iPhone/ iPad HD) has an amusing theme. There is fun, albeit simple gameplay. This game is just another of many apps in the App Store that is unremarkable. It’s worth mentioning, but not worth buying.
If the game sounds interesting to you there is a lite version.
You tap the left and right side of the screen to move, and swipe to toss the garbage cans. The game is very easy to pick up and play. It’s surprisingly tough though with multiple obstacles. You can slip on banana peels, run into lamp posts and pedestrians, or be run over by oncoming traffic. You will miss garbage if any of those things happens to you.
While you’re doing your garbageman duties, the civilians and mayor are watching. You need to keep up the happiness meter because if it drops to zero you’re fired. Every missed garbage can decreases the meter. There are so many ways to make errors in this game that the difficulty level is high. You can either not pick up a garbage can or be off the mark when tossing it into the truck.
If you clean up three garbage cans in a row you earn a special prize. These act as power-ups giving you superman powers, or the ability to slow down time. An online high score and achievement system like Game Center could help Garbageman a lot.
There just isn’t much replay factor in the gameplay itself. Once you’ve played through the game once you’ve seen everything. It’s too bad because the basic mechanic is plenty of fun. A few more content additions could really make this game worth picking up.
As it stands Garbageman ($0.99, iPhone/ iPad HD) has an amusing theme. There is fun, albeit simple gameplay. This game is just another of many apps in the App Store that is unremarkable. It’s worth mentioning, but not worth buying.
If the game sounds interesting to you there is a lite version.
