QuickAdvice: "Floop" Your Way Through An Adorable World Of Physics
Floop ($0.99) by blacksmith games is a new physics-based game with the simple goal of shooting the acorn into the squirrel's mouth.
It seems that the iPhone is just the perfect device for these types of games, isn't it? Those physics games where your goal is to get something from Point A to Point B with a bunch of obstacles getting in your way?
Time to add Floop to that collection, and I have to say that this is a very cute and polished game.
You start off with the acorn/squirrel characters, with more to unlock. The objective is to direct the acorn so you can shoot it into the squirrel's gaping mouth. To do so, the acorn will have a translucent white circle around it when it's ready to be shot. Place your finger on the circle and drag - an orange line will appear that will guide you as to where the acorn will (or should) go once you release.
It sounds simple, right? Yeah, it is--for only the first couple of levels. The challenges get increasingly harder as you are face with obstacles like air vents, spikes, ice, and much more. But with more obstacles, there are more tools to help you along the way, but not without some skill, of course. These include stuff like cannons and catapults.
There are four worlds to explore, each more daunting than the last. Each world has it's own theme music, which combined with the squeaky noises from the acorn/cheese/banana, can become either lovable or annoying, or both. Luckily there is an option to turn the sounds off.
Each maneuver counts as one move, which is kept track of on the top right corner. If you mess up, you can cancel that move, but it adds another count to your total. The best thing to do if you mess up a lot is to simply restart the level, unless you don't care about the stars. The less number of moves you use, the more stars you get, with the maximum of three. You can take as many moves as you want, really, but you will get only one star.
As you collect stars, a certain number will unlock the other characters, which are the cheese cube/mouse and banana/gorilla. If you view the levels that you've played, you'll notice that there are three silhouettes on each, to help you keep track of which set of characters you beat a level with.
The physics of the game are pretty accurate. The game does get a bit aggravating if you strive for 3 stars on every level like I did. But that's part of the fun!
Floop has Game Center integration, so you can track your achievements (an achievement for clearing each of the four sets of levels and certain amount of stars) and leaderboards.
If you get a phone call or text message while playing, don't fret! The game automatically pauses and lets you resume it from that point the next time you launch the app. Ah, the magic of the saved-state from iOS 4.0.
There are plenty of levels and plenty of challenge to keep you entertained. While you may get a bit annoyed at some parts of the game, there is never a dull moment. It's a well-done game and definitely one that should be checked out.
Simple to learn, hard to master. Are you up for the challenge?
