Scoops for iPhone – Stacking Game Takes Cool to New Heights
I’m sure most of our readers enjoy eating ice cream (who isn’t?). Scoops for iPhone is not about eating/drinking Ice Cream, but about having fun with ice cream, something I’m sure most of you have only dreamt of doing. Well, if you have $1.99, you can, thanks to this great game!
Scoops is made by an excellent developer, Ian Marsh, who developed apps like Threads and Hanoi.
Scoops is a great game for people of all ages. Whether you’re an eight year old or a seventy year old, it’s sure to keep you entertained. Everything in the game is extremely simple and straightforward, which is actually one of the pros of the game. I loathe applications with cluttered menus, and difficult controls. This is where Scoops excels. The user interface is basic, and so is the game itself and its controls, which you will see later in the review.
The user interface, as mentioned before, is clean. It does what it’s supposed to do. There’s not much else to talk about it.
The gameplay, like the application itself, is simple. You control an ice cream cone. Your objective is to stack the ice cream scoops on top of each other. The farther you go, the more points you receive. The faster you do it, the bigger your score multiplier is. This is a great thing – it will help you drastically increase your score, if you have the skills to do it right. The number at the top left is your current score (Who would’ve guessed?). The stars at the top right represent the amount of lives you currently have.
There are several different “flavors” of ice cream that fall from the sky and as you tilt your device from side to side to catch them (your ice cream cone moves in the direction you tilt your device), and to spice it up a bit, you have to avoid the vegetables that also fall. Vegetables will ruin your stacked treat and cost you a star. Once you lose all your stars, the game is over. If you collect two scoops of ice cream that are the same flavor, you get bonus points. The rainbow flavored ice cream scoop will change itself to match whatever flavor you have under it. You’re guaranteed to have the rainbow flavored ice cream turn into the flavor of the ice cream cream scoops directly below it.
The speed at which the scoops and veggies fall increases as you stack your cone higher. Catch a veggie by mistake and the scoops slow down again. You also lose one of your stars (which is your life).
The purple ice cream scoop with stars on it gives you an extra life if you are able to catch it. It normally doesn’t come when the speed of the game is slow, since it’d be too easy to get it. It usually comes when the speed of the game is very fast.
The game requires reflexes, which brings us to the controls of the game. The controls to the game are a cinch, especially since there’s only one control. Scoops utilizes the accelerometer in your iPod Touch/iPhone, so moving your cone to the left or right just involves you tilting your device in the direction you wish your cone to go.
The graphics are not impressive, but colorful and the background changes as the cone reaches higher and higher into the sky. You can even stack the cone clear into outer space, surpassing the moon. Also, you can turn on your own music from your library and listen while you play. Additional features include an online daily leader scoreboard and the ability to email a high score challenge to friends. Personally, I’ve been up to Mars (in the game, not real life), which is very cool. Right then, though, I managed to die, unfortunately.
The replay value of the game is very high, since it makes you want to play it again and again to get higher and to beat your previous score. When I first got the game, I remember playing for an hour straight, just catching scoops of ice cream.
Final thoughts? Scoops for iPhone is an amazing, addictive, and fun game for the iPhone. At $1.99, however, it is a little bit pricey, especially since the graphics and the game itself isn’t exceptional. It would be a much more appealing game to me if it was 99 cents. I managed to grab this game for free though, on National Ice Cream Day. If you want it for free too, you can wait until then. If you can’t wait, I highly recommend that you buy the game! It’s a great game suitable for all ages, definitely worth a look.
Our Rating: 4/5
Developer Link: Ian Marsh
