Review: Flip It! Gyro Game - Flippin' Out!
by Staff Writer
October 8, 2010
Overview
If you have a fourth generation iPhone or iPod Touch you have that new gyroscope without many ways to use it. Well Flip It! Gyro Game is unlike anything else in the App Store creating a whole game around the gyroscope. You simply do multiple actions in quick succession with your device in your hand.
Features
There are eight moves in total with up, down, left, right, shake, stop, tap, and jab. You begin by holding the device in your palm screen side up, and the do all the actions, and the game will pick them up. There are four difficulties in survival mode providing new moves, and giving you less time to do each one. There is also a challenge mode with five different sets of six levels with each one increasing in difficulty, and your overall performance is timed. There is a new party mode from a recent update where you pass and play with one device with up to eight players. Game Center is included for online high scores and achievements.
The Good
The game is like nothing else in the App Store, and takes full advantage of the gyroscope. It picks up your every move effortlessly, and there are a lot of different moves to make. Most games require you to look at the screen to know what to do, but Flip It will have you relying much more on your hearing. You listen for the next move, and simply react with no time to think or look at the screen. If the game says left you flip your iDevice left, if it says shake, you better shake, and so forth and so on. The game is 100% challenging, and yet 100% fun as you madly flip your hand all around as quickly as you can.
The closest comparison would be a device like Bop It where you do various actions just based on what your told. It's so much smoother by using the iDevice, and the gameplay is on a device you already use often rather than buying a whole separate object.
The survival mode gives you four different difficulties, and you'll want to replay them often to better your score. The challenge mode gives you specific sets of moves with actual conclusions, and you clock in your time. Playing with others shares the fun, but it would be nice for some wireless play.
The inclusion of Game Center also helps replay as the high scores are attainable, and there are challenging yet achievable achievements. Since the game is so much based on sound it's nice that the person’s voice who calls out the moves is easy on the ears, with nice succinct sayings. The game has a really good UI that is slick, and well put together which embodies the app as a whole.
