Crossroads

DLC Review from Matt - Wednesday, 12 May 2010 @ 1:29am

There's something about the iPhone that really suits games where you have to drag your finger around in patterns on the screen. I'm not sure what it is... possibly the fact that there's sweet FA you can do with it, and virtual joysticks and buttons are a bit unsatisfying. Some of these simple dragging-based games number among the iPhone's most successful and popular titles. Two that jump to mind are Flight Control and Train Conductor.

Flight Control featured you controlling a series of incoming planes (and helicopter) to correctly path them to their required destination (a runway or a heliport). Train Conductor is more restrictive. There are limited tracks, initially only three, and therefore finite paths. The skill requires in co-ordinating across these limits.

Something tells me I should burst these...

Crossroads is an entry in much the same genre. It's based on cars, with you guiding each car to its destination. As such it's more restrictive than Flight Control, due to the need to stay on roads, but less than Train Conductor.

Basic gameplay is pretty simple. Tap a vehicle and drag a path for it to follow. You get the correct building flashing and you then carve a path to that door. Rinse and repeat for the vehicles that continue coming from different roads.

There are some gameplay variations that come up with levels, which are largely themed. The second map is a fun-fair. Balloons rise up, obscuring your bird's eye view, and have to be tapped to pop them. The third map is zombie themed. The new gameplay element is the requirement to run over the zombies that spawn, as well as get the vehicles home. I thought this one was a little underdone. There could well have been more zombies, or rows of zombies, just to make things more fun.

Putting the Fun in Funereal

The presentation is solid, but not great. Levels are solid, but a little lifeless, and the same can be said of the menus. Compared to many of the other amazing offerings available on the iPhone, such as Fruit Ninja, The Horrible Vikings, or The Hero, it all looks a little sparse and bland.

But of course, iPhone games live or die not by menus, but by simple and addictive gameplay, right? Unfortunately it's the gameplay that is the most lacking. The core concept of the gameplay is simple and effective, but minor flaws in execution mar it. In particular, the method to draw a path makes sense. But the vehicle won't get to its destination unless that destination "locks in". You can tell when this has happened because of a happy "ping" sound from the game. But if you can't hear for whatever reason (like that you're on the bus), you may well miss that. This shouldn't really be that big an issue, right? As long as the vehicle gets close it's there.

Unfortunately no. This is the biggest flaw I have with this game. A vehicle will wander past its destination and never go into it. There's also no way to actually tell whether a vehicle is properly "locked in", except by actually tapping and repathing it to make sure. You get a little circle on the destination if the vehicle is locked in, but if there are multiple vehicles headed there (and there usually are) you can't tell which ones are going to make it, and which ones are going to meander past. It doesn't sound like much, of a big deal, but there are potentially vehicles coming the other way.

This flaw is a critical one, and for me ruined what would otherwise be a solid game.

Hmm... there's only Cancel and Buy... I can't seem to find "Oh hell no"

It's not the only flaw. You can't actually "stop" vehicles, only make them turn back and forward. This in turn wipes their full path. So if you want someone to stop for a second and let his friend go past... too bad. It would seem more logical to simply tap on the vehicle to pause it, and swipe in a direction to make it move that way. Better than making it go back and forth.

I normally recommend iphone games pretty easily, as shown by previous DLC Reviews of titles like Fruit Ninjas. I mean, it's $1.19, what the hell? But this is actually not especially cheap, it's $2.49. For that price you get three maps. A fourth is available for free on the store. But other maps are the rather startling price of $1.19 each. It may not seem like much but that's what you could expect for a whole other game.

Pros

Good gameplay, nice atmosphere in the music, zombie squashing fun, good variety in the maps, at least in terms of style

Cons

That annoying "feature" that makes vehicles just drive past their destination, presentation a little lacking, excessive cost of new maps