Finding paths with Chuck the Ball and Super Fruitfall
I've tried out two different "path" games this past week from the App Store. Both Chuck the Ball and Super Fruitfall have you navigating paths on the iPhone, both using the touchscreen a little differently to send items you don't directly control around the screen.
Super Fruitfall is made by a developer called Universomo and published by our friends at THQ Wireless. It's a relatively simple game -- there is some fruit sitting on a rotateable field, and your job is to match the fruit up with others of its type. It's amusing, in the way the old Labyrinth games were, but it's frustrating in the same way, too.
Extra frustration enters the scene when too-sensitive controls cause you to flip the screen an extra turn, losing any patterns you had going. A "juice mode" makes the game a little more interesting by keeping the fruit flowing as you match it out, but at $3, the game's a little too boring, unless you really love tilt puzzles. Personally, my outcome at the end of each level was brought about just as much by my randomly flipping the board around as it was any strategy I tried.
Chuck the Ball is a little more promising.
The gameplay is reminiscient of the great Chu Chu Rocket! -- you have a soccer ball that you must guide around the game field (and all the obstacles contained therein) by placing little arrows in his way. The game starts out easy (two arrows will get you to your destination), but quickly ramps up from there, and eventually you'll have split seconds to place arrows down in front of Chuck before he rolls off somewhere he shouldn't go. Things get more frantic when powerups and paths that Chuck must follow enter the mix, and, as with Fruitfall, multiple goals through the levels offer some good replayability.
Chuck the Ball is also available right now for $3 from Makeshift Games in the App Store, and the higher difficulty level (it can get really, really tough, as you've got to move Chuck quick and place arrows quicker) makes it that much more fun.
