Review: Pocket Devil vs. Pocket God Plus Videos

Overview

Pocket Devil is an interactive entertainment toy. Obviously it's directly comparable to Pocket God, the super popular classic app. Rather than interacting with "pygmies" you instead have devils, called mugat2 at your disposal. Rather than on an island you're in hell. Overall this is just an entertainment app, and not really a game. All there is to do is to kill the devils in different ways. You can't really review Pocket Devil without looking at Pocket God also, so at the bottom is just the verdict and video of Pocket God.

Features

Pocket Devil pales in comparison to the feature set of Pocket God which has had 28 updates. In Pocket Devil you can have six little devils on screen maximum. You fire them in from the cannon in the upper corner. There are six ways to dispose of the devils. You can just grab them and drop them in the lava surrounding them. Also you can drop a chain from above drag them in, and double tap to take them away. Another way is to pour gasoline on them. Also included is a bony shark, and if you drop a devil on it, they become impaled in its bones. Another option is to bring out the guillotine, and cut their head off. Finally you can call out the stairway to heaven, and save the devils from their fate. At any time you can double tap the skull to shoot lava into the air, and burn all of the pygmies, I mean devils.

The Good

This is the first app I've reviewed where I don't really have anything good to say, and if you don't it's better to not say anything at all. The best aspect of the app is that it copies the entire concept of Pocket God. Pocket Devil provides a bit at first launch. You can do six different things to kill the devils, and they have a couple idle animations. It’s nice to see them shoot flame balls at each other. Pocket Devil is well made, and executed nicely. The artwork is good from the design of the lava pit to actually making devils cute. Interacting worked well to cut of their heads or burn them up. It's funny in short bursts, but don't expect more than that. I would definitely give credit to the devil walking up the stairway to heaven. Also I like the guillotine, and blood squirting animation when the head is chopped off. How many times can you do it though?

The Bad

Lets just get this over with, without sugar coating it. Pocket Devil is a cheap knock off of Pocket God, and is only gaining success, because it is a copy. MumboJumbo was able to get Stoneloops out of the App Store, on far less infringement. It’s sad to see so many people buying this game that provides nothing new, and really is embarrassing compared to Pocket God. All it does is slap a devil/hell theme on the pygmy/island theme, bravo, now go make a bunch of money. Pocket Devil would be a solid competitor if it was released in 2008. Now it just provides such a minimal amount of anything in comparison to Pocket God. Updates are planned, but it's so far behind, why bother with it, when you can get Pocket God with all the features already. If you have Pocket God, Pocket Devil doesn’t provide anything new. The animations are just so plain, and the devils just don’t have the personality of the pygmies. There are only five animations that the devils do. When they're burning it looks terrible, and it just doesn't flow that smoothly. The game has no replayability, once you’ve killed the devils six ways there is no reason to ever use it again. Pocket God remedied this with the updates that added stats, the ability to name pygmies, online high scores, and direct challenges. Also great is that you can reward pygmies, it's not all killing. You can make get them to dance, and feed them coconuts, fish, and fried bird. The sounds are annoying at best with the same high pitched, aahh, when you pick them up. The background music is upbeat, ironically, but there is only one soundtrack. Only six ways to kill the devils are included, and even when you tilt the device, they don’t slide all the way off. There’s no variability, or different locations or any kind of other interactions. Also there is just something about killing cute things, rather than harming devils. Let me just clarify this in case you don’t know. After 28 updates in Pocket God there are now four areas with tons of items to interact with in each area. I can’t even count the number of ways to kill a pygmy, its nearing infinite.

The Verdict

Pocket Devil is an embarrassment to the App Store in the highest degree. Apps should not be able to blatantly copy other apps, and then succeed. I don’t know what’s worse, that Apple lets it in the App Store, or that so many people have bought it. The game is definitely well built and if it came out when Pocket God was first released or around the same time it would definitely be superior. Now though it's playing catch-up, and the score is 28-0 in baseball. If I could save one person from buying this app, I would feel good. If there were no such thing as Pocket God this game is solidly worth $0.99. There is though, and it's such a blatant copy that is terrible in comparison. Don’t give Pocket Devil another thought after the last sentence of this review, it’s not even worth that. Even if it was free it should be banned from the App Store, so I give it the lowest rating possible, and it truly deserves the title waste of space. Please see below for my verdict, and video of Pocket God showing all of the things to do. I never thought I would review Pocket God since I assumed everyone owned it. If you're still holding out, today is the day. Of 100,000 apps Pocket God may be the best in the App Store. If it's not the best, it is definitely in the Top 5. After 28 updates Pocket God has become a phenomena, and the pygmies are the most well known characters on the idevice. It began as a toy, but now is a full on game with tons of different things to do. I picked up Pocket God after the 7th update, and its been on my iPhone ever since, and they say iPhone app shelf life is short. There is just so much to do. This game incorporates the iPhone specific features in every possible way, and it really is as though you're the God of these island natives. Open Feint inclusion for leaderboards, achievements, and challenges really make this a game. One of the best features is stat keeping and naming of the pygmies. It keeps track of the number of kills and rewards as well as the most used types. The four different areas could stand alone to be four separate apps, and that's how good Pocket God is. Pocket God is perfect for a couple spare minutes in your day. Just jump in, do a couple things, and jump out. This is the best $1 you can spend probably anywhere, but especially in the App Store. It only costs $0.99, and if you're one of the few who doesn't own it go pick it up. If you've never bought an app, this is the only one you should buy. Overall Pocket God is an absolute must for $0.99, obviously. My video below shows every possible way to interact with the pygmies (though I may have missed a few), and I tried to show them in order of the updates. I also provide a voice over to explain what's going on.

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