Flick & Dodge for iPhone: Addictive and Challenging
By: Hillel Fuld
As you probably know by now, video games are not my thing. I will take a great Twitter app over a game any day of the week. Rarely do I come across a game that is done well enough to actually pull me in and keep me playing for an extended period of time. Most of the games I have tried for iPhone are way too complicated (they call it sophisticated) on first glance, that I do not even bother trying to learn the game. Then there are some games that are fun and even addictive, but they are too easy. You find yourself playing the same levels over and over since on every try, you end up completing the game. Flick & Dodge for iPhone is the perfect balance between fun and difficult.
The object of the game is to insert the shapes you see along the bottom of your screen into its partner at the top. When you first start the game on Level 1, you think, “OK, this is gonna be easy”. You have four shapes along the bottom, and you simply “flick” them to the top shape that matches. So you flick the triangle to the triangle, the square to the square, etc, I think you get the point.
Once you complete level 1, you automatically progress to, you guessed it, level 2, which is already significantly harder, with the top groups of shapes moving. They are moving slowly, since it is only level 2, but as the levels get higher, the shapes on top start moving faster and in more complicated patterns. Truth be told, I was unable to get passed level 3, but I did check out the highest level (30, see below) just for the fun of it, and let’s just say, after 15 minutes, I realized, this aint happenin.
At the bottom corner of whatever level you are playing, it shows how many flicks you are up to and what the record was of the minimum amount of flicks it took anyone to complete this level.
The app is designed well, although the first welcome screen, on which you see the name of the app and you need to click in order to go to the next screen, seems a little unnecessary, but then again, what do I know? Once you get passed the original screen, you are brought to another screen with four options. There is Play, Options, Tutorial, and Credits. Play is for those that are fans of the “I’ll just wing it” philosophy and want to figure it out as they go along. I was that guy.
Options brings you to a screen with a lot of wasted real estate, since all that appears is a Sound On and Off option and a lot of little symbols on the rest of the screen. Not sure what their design team was thinking. The Tutorial shows you how to move , flick, and adjust the shapes in order to play the game, and you keep clicking next till you reach the end of the tutorial, which does not have a Play option, rather a back button which you need to click repeatedly to get to the original screen. Sorry, but that is just dumb.
The Credits screen is an About Us page, with some basic information about the development team. Again, no Play button, just a Back arrow to go to the previous screen.
All in all, I am not judging this app but its design, but rather by the game, it’s fun and addictive nature, as well as the challenge it poses. I would recommend this app to people who enjoy video games, but not the type who is a major gaming addict and has played all those “sophisticated” games I referred to above and enjoyed them, this is not the app for those people, but I enjoyed it. Just need to get past the 3rd level, then I am sure I will enjoy it more!
Our Rating: 3/5
Developer: CreatePlayShare
