iPhone It In: Soul Trapper
When people are surprised by how excited I am for the iPhone as a platform, Soul Trapper is the kind of game that I bring up. It's odd and it appeals, I imagine, to a pretty small sliver of the market, but if you want a game like this, you're not going to find it anywhere else.
Think of the game as an interactive radio play. You take the role of Kane Pryce, who has two edgy names, so you can imagine the kind of edge we're talking about here. Extreme-itude aside, Kane has one other quirk: A magic box (the titular Soul Trapper) than can suck up ghosts and allow Kane to interview them, or even send them over to the Other Side.
Your input on what Kane does will be kind of limited. After listening to a bit of exposition or dialogue, you'll typically just choose in what direction you want him to head next. There's the occasional minigame, like tapping the screen rhythmically to slow Kane's heart rate, but they're brief and impossible to lose.
No, the real stars here are the writing and performances, along with some really great music. The tone frequently strays into the cheesy, but it never commits the sin of taking itself too seriously, so I was rarely bothered. The audio mix is well-done too, which makes some of the creepier segments really work.
It's a pleasant enough experience, though perhaps a bit draggy in spots. Still, if you're looking for a grown-up take on Choose Your Own Adventures, I think it's well worth trying out, especially with a free demo having been recently released.
Soul Trapper [Demo] (Realtime Audio Adventures, Free):
Soul Trapper (Realtime Audio Adventures, $4.99):
