Review: Heads Will Roll - Gets A-Head!

Overview

Heads Will Roll is a fun drop down puzzle game by Recursive Games. You use tilt controls to guide colorful round heads down a vertical maze of platforms. The screen is constantly moving downwards, so you have to act fast if you don't want your brains splattered all over a platform!

Features

Heads Will Roll features endless gameplay, ala Doodle Jump, online scoreboards, sharp cartoony graphics, seven heads to use, and more heads that are available as an in app purchase.

The Good

Heads Will Roll is a platform based action game, rather like a reverse Doodle Jump. You use the iPhone's tilt controls to roll your heads off of platforms, steer them though gaps and generally travel down the screen as quickly as possible. The game's screen is always moving downward at a steady pace and if a head is trapped between a platform and the top of the screen it is destroyed. Losing all your heads ends the game. Heads Will Roll features a small collection of items to help you. You encounter extra heads you can tap causing you to have multiple heads to steer around; this is both a blessing and a curse however as you have to keep tabs on where all heads are and new heads are randomly big or small. Large heads are harder to fit down small gaps and get stuck more easily, while small heads are the easiest to move quickly, so a large amount of heads can cause traffic jams. Points are added each time a head falls off or past a platform, so multiple heads is also the best way to get high scores.You can also collect items to change the colors of the platforms, allowing heads to fall though platforms that are their colour and bombs which destroy all platforms on the screen. The game also features one bad item, the Failbomb that kills any heads near it if you tap it. Heads Will Roll's gameplay is fun and addictive and its great for filling a few minutes, again much like Doodle Jump. Graphically the game is bright and clear, featuring sharp cartoony graphics and a smooth framerate. It also has very nice hand drawn backgrounds, depicting open sky as you begin your descent, giving way to night sky, storm clouds parachutists and animals. This gives the game a very distinct, warm look and is very well done. Recursive games is planning to add Gamecenter and Openfeint achievement support in the future.

The Bad

HWR has possibly the most pointless and lazy attempt at DLC I have ever encountered in a videogame. In HWR you can choose a head to play the game with. These heads are different colors, which affects which platforms they can fall though with the colour power-up and adds a minor amount of variety to the game with their funny facial expressions, but they all play exactly the same as each other. Why then would anyone buy a DLC that adds six "monster" heads, which are simply different looking versions of the standard heads that play exactly the same, that costs as much as the app itself and that should have been part of the game anyway? Don't even bother with this grab for cash. HWR features no music whatsoever, although the sound effects convey nice minimalism.

The Verdict

Heads Will Roll is a fun game with a neat idea and gameplay that takes seconds to learn. Its bright cheerful appearance and sounds make it enticing for young and old alike. Just don't bother with the DLC. Recommended.

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