Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge features superb gameplay
Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge is another entry in the Tilt to Live game series. This time, the arrow travels through a side-scrolling obstacle course picking up pointonium as it goes along. The three main courses are filled with spiked walls, fire balls, enemies and more all of which you should avoid to complete the challenge. Unlock the boss round to finish the game once and for all. Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge is US$2.99 for iPhone and iPad.
The app description of Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge says the app features "famously responsive" controls and it's hard to argue with that claim. To maneuver around obstacles in the game, you have to tilt your iOS device up, down, left or right. The app provides standard settings for the way people usually hold their devices: Regular, at a bit of an angle, Top-Down, or basically flat and Custom to let you calibrate the tilt yourself based upon your current angle. Optionally choose between slow, normal and hyper tilt sensitivities.
However you choose your tilt settings, the game is buttery smooth and in sync with your movements. You also get three lives per round, which is convenient because despite the responsiveness it's not the easiest game in the world. It's not meant to be super challenging, but it should take you a decent amount of time to complete the three gauntlets before moving onto the final one. That's a plus though when calculating value based on money spent and time spent playing.
The three gauntlets are Lockdown, Pointonium Mines and Arropolis. Each is a bit different from the others, but not so much that they have their own learning curves. They just have some different obstacles and they're playable in any order. What I love about the graphics is that even as a new player, it's easy to immediately spot what looks like it should be avoided and what you should collect, i.e. pointonium.
The pointonium, by the way, don't do much of anything. The game doesn't have any in-app purchases or upgrades to spend them on. They just add up as you collect them and display proudly in Game Center leaderboards. That's fine, but with a cool name like "pointonium" it's begging to be put to better use in a future update.
The points system does contribute somewhat to the achievements, which are built into Game Center, but you need to complete nine of them to unlock the final gauntlet and reach the boss. A variety of achievements for each gauntlet are up for grabs so you aren't limited to following a specific path. The freedom to play as you wish is a trend in Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge that I admire.
It's been a while since I've played a decent game that uses the iPhone and iPad's built in sensors for controls, but I'm happy to report Tilt to Live: Gauntlet's Revenge fills that void. At $2.99, it's just a tad pricey for a game in this genre, but you're getting a fantastic experience.
