Ruby Hunter HD Not For The Easily Frustrated Gamer
RubyHunter HD (Free) by Shadow-Embryo requires the skill and timing of a game such as Dragon’s Lair.
You command a ship in search of rubies on Mars. While you gather the rubies, you will also be navigating the Martian caves and avoiding enemies. The ship’s controls include two directional arrows and a throttle slider. While the controls are simple, controlling the ship is not.
The main difficulty with flying the ship is that there is a fine between giving too little or too much power to your engine. Even if you do get a handle on that, you have to add in the loose controls and uncharacteristically strong Martian gravity, and then you really have a challenge.
I can understand encountering an obstacle in the game and then trying to figure out a way past it, but when the whole game is nothing but “How can I stop exploding?” the bar is set a touch too high. The game has 24 levels, which progressively become harder. Considering how rough the first couple of levels are, that seems like a tall order.
Touch the wall? Explode. Can’t pull up fast enough? Explode. Get a ruby? Good job! But you smiled too long and exploded on a wall.
A shield power-up is provided, which will at least protect you from a single bump. After that, you will burst a second later. The one lifeline this game offers is not even enough to make a difference.
What’s more is the music. The sci-fi synth isn’t only grating on the ears, but it also felt like it riled me up. Hitting the mute button solved that. You can also turn off the music in the game’s menu, but that would involve interacting with the game more than I’d like to.
I really like the graphics for the game, which is what attracted me to it in the first place. It’s just such a shame that it comes wrapped in a very hard candy shell.
