Face it – when you get an application or game, you judge it pretty quickly. If you’re not hooked in around a half hour or so, that thing’s off your iDevice, especially if it’s cheap, or free. Well, I decided to give Tiki Towers a quick look to give you my first impressions within a half-hour of gameplay. Find out if it’s worthwhile after the jump.
I stumbled upon Tiki Towers in my long search for a great World of Goo clone to carry around with me. I was a bit skeptical, but I jumped right past the free “Lite” version and shelled out the $1 for the full version. After playing for a few minutes, I had come to the conclusion that this game shares many similarities with World of Goo, but has one feature that Goo doesn’t that I’m loving; The ability to start the gravity. By unleashing the monkeys onto your tower, you also turn the gravity on. This means that you can build a tower as whacky and unstable as you want, but it won’t come crashing down until that gravity is on, which gives you a chance to strategize more, by making sure that some parts fall to certain locations.
It may sound a bit confusing, but once you get in there, you will understand and appreciate this feature.
Basically, the objective of the game is to build a contraption (tower, bridge, etc…) that will allow monkeys to safely climb from the beginning to the end, crossing paths with as many bananas as possible, which influences your overall rating for that specific level. This is quickly understood as you jump right into gameplay that starts getting more and more complex as you move along, as expected.
In my first ten minutes of gameplay, I was having a blast. The cartoony, fun graphics of this game helped secure my attention for long enough to figure out what the game’s all about. As the game picked up pace, I started seeing a few lower ratings, but I kept my head high and pushed through, and eventually saw them rise again as I got more used to the gameplay and figured out exactly how to maximize my banana pickup. The upbeat music and sound effects match the aesthetics of the game nicely, which influenced me to keep my headphones plugged in for the half-hour, even though I play most games in silence, or with my music in the background.
As I finished up my half-hour, I spent the last five or so minutes stuck on a level where I feel you are not given enough bamboo. Maybe that’s just my stubbornness talking, but I tried quite a few different ways to beat the level, and each of them resulted in my contraption not reaching the finish by just a bit. After a few attempts, my interest started to fade, but that’s just for this level, and not the game as a whole; I’m sure once I find a way to get past this level, I’ll be on a roll and enjoying myself again.
That being said, this game has a lot to offer. There may be the occasional flaw or annoyance, but that can all be overcome by fantastic game mechanics that mimic those of World of Goo enough to make me even prefer it, seeing as this type of game feels better suited for a touch screen device than a computer mouse.
If you love World of Goo, this game is definitely for you. And at 1/20th of the price, you can’t go wrong. If you’re on the fence about it, give the lite version a try. The first nine levels of the game, which are included, should give you a great idea of what’s in store if you decide to venture further.
Current Status: Recommended
Reviewed at: v1.2.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2.1
Download size: 8.4MB
Released on: 24th February 2009
Retails for: £0.59 / $0.99
Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G
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