iOS Game Watch: La Jangada, Bingo Words, Hotel Transylvania Dash
Today we look at G5′s La Jangada, a casual interpretation of a Jules Verne novel; Bingo Words, a good idea gone bad; and Hotel Transylvania Dash, a dashing game with no sparkles.
G5 Entertainment has decided to explore some classic novels for the next game they published. Epic Adventures: La Jangada is based on his novel Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (The French title is La Jangada). The game takes you back to the 19th century as Minha travels with her family through the Amazon River to her wedding in Brazil on an amazing ship…a jangada. She is to marry her love, Dr. Valdez. But danger threatens when her father’s dark past, an accusation of murder, catches up. The novel itself is quite fascinating, so the storyline for the game promises to be intriguing. However, the gameplay looks to be standard adventure and hidden object and the graphics look rather low quality…the characters look like creepy androids. You can download a copy of the game for free from the iTunes App store to check it out, then upgrade to the full version for $2.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch or $4.99 for the iPad.
I don’t often recommend AGAINST a game in the Game Watch, but this is one of those times. Win Interactive’s Bingo Words is a study in bad game design. Though the game is described merging aspects of Scrabble and Bingo, it has nothing definable as Bingo gameplay at all. The goal behind the game is to form words on a 5×5 grid as fast as possible, making sure that you cover all of the stars on the grid. The grid has 2 stars on it and you have a certain number of letters to use to make words. You don’t have an option to exchange letters…you just continue making words until you can’t anymore. Then you issue a challenge to your opponent to beat you. This more resembles aspects of Boggle gameplay, but I suppose Win couldn’t call it Boggle Words. You are required to log in to Facebook to access the game at all; there is no Game Center support. Game sessions cost coins which you presumably earn when you beat an opponent. And the coin packs themselves make no sense…the list of coin packs on the App store don’t match the list in the game, either for number of coins or even price. The game is free, so if you download it you won’t have to pay anything. But frankly I would consider even that a waste of time.
Sony is getting into the crossover business. It’s upcoming animated comedy, Hotel Transylvania, has a game to match. Published by PlayFirst, Hotel Transylvania Dash sends players racing against the clock to help Dracula run a monster-exclusive resort, juggling multiple demands from a kooky collection of guests across 30 levels. Some have complained that the game is just Hotel Dash with changed graphics, but it’s already quite popular. Hotel Transylvania Dash is available for free with an in-app upgrade purchase of $2.99 to get the full universal version.
