Sonic Dash

onic the Hedgehog made his first appearance in 1991 when he replaced Alex the Kid as the face of Sega. Since then, countless titles have featured him across many genres, from platform to racing to RPG, he’s proven to be a versatile character. In Sonic Dash, Sonic makes his debut in the endless runner genre which could be almost the perfect platform.

‘Could be’ because there is a lot of room for improvement here, but there is also a great deal of potential. Lets start with the gameplay, everything is controlled with a swipe or tap, and it sounds really simple, the track has 3 lanes and you can change lanes to dodge obstacles by swiping left or right, jumping is a simple upward swipe and if you swipe down, Sonic goes into a spin enabling him to duck under obstacles and this also doubles as an attack. The controls are simple but when the obstacles begin to get more complicated, it’s also very restrictive, I would have preferred tilt steering, this would give you the freedom to concentrate better on your jumps and spins and would reduce the amount of swipes you need to take at the screen, in some sections it’s like having a sword fight with an octopus.

Sonic Dash really looks the part, a lot of attention has been paid to the appearance, characters are well fleshed out and track is smooth with good visibility of distant objects. The backdrops are pristine, serene waterscapes with islands in the far distance, even the reflections look great. At the moment, there are only two track designs, both inspired by levels in the the original Sonic adventures, hopefully there will be more soon. You can also unlock extra characters to play as though this

is really only an aesthetic change, there’s no difference in performance from character to character.

The sounds effects are very similar to the original platformers where Sonic gained his popularity, the electric whine as you go into a turbo spin really brings back memories. The music is quite unremarkable but in this instance, that’s not so bad as you barely register it so even after long play sessions, it never gets too old.

There’s no underlying story here which is a bit of a shame because Sonic has more than his share of villains to add some motivation or urgency, I think some battle scenes could be incorporated to break up the grind of the endless run. The only real goal is to get a high score and save up your gold rings to upgrade your power ups. There is a daily challenge where you need to collect four puzzle pieces and you’re rewarded with revive tokens, boosts, rings and even premium currency. After five consecutive days, the prizes become random but more generous and you can even win a playable character this way.

At first you won’t be able to achieve scores of any real substance, but by doing the missions you can increase your score multiplier. Some are as easy as collecting a handful of rings but others require you to perform specific actions under the right conditions and can be extremely challenging. As long as your boost metre is full, your multiplier is doubled, you’ll sometimes want to use your dash to get out of trouble but this means resetting your dash metre and halving your incoming points for a time, it’s a good trade off and it appeals to your sense of greed. Through Game Center, you can compare your scores with your friends and there are also achievements to earn for those obsessed with trophies and points.

Sonic should be the perfect character to enter the endless runner genre but in Sonic Dash, I feel the developers have fallen a little short. A basic story would give a little more playability, perhaps a daily boss battle or race. The controls are simple but restrictive but the aesthetics are top notch, both the visuals and sound do the Sonic franchise some justice but it would be nice to have a few more track designs. It would also be good if the different characters had different abilities in game but fans of the series will still want to unlock their favourite characters, perhaps additional characters like Shadow will be available in future. As a runner, it’s not the best I’ve played but the potential is there and all in all, it’s still enjoyable to play. 3 Stars, but a few minor tweaks could easily make this a 5 star title.

RAD Soldiers

If you are not a fan of tower defence, it can be difficult to find a strategy title on the App Store. RAD Soldiers is a turn based strategy title with gameplay very similar to tactical RPG’s, but simplified for a better PvP experience, your only goal, kill the other guy, or die trying.

Gameplay is very smooth, when its your turn, select a unit and then either move or attack. Each soldier has different skills and is proficient in a specific weapons use. Any action uses up your soldiers energy, movement costs can vary depending on their armour weight and strong weapons cost more energy to use than weaker ones. The weapons also have

different ranges and varied optimal ranges meaning some consideration needs to be used when selecting your team. Each soldier also has a special attack unique to them which complements their class, snipers for example, may have a piercing shot which allows a shot to go through multiple targets or the soldier who could have a grenade or remote mine. Using the special abilities wisely can turn the tide of battle considerably so you also need to be aware of the team your opponent has as well and place your team accordingly.

There are 2 ways to win a match in RAD Soldiers, the first is the easiest… just eliminate the other team, the second is a little harder. Each level has a target area for you to capture and hold, you win when you hold it alone for 5 turns, the downside being that in the target area there is little to no cover leaving your team open to greater damage, the plus side to this mechanic is that games are short and sweet, most are finished in 8-10 moves as both players need to maintain a presence in the same area or forfeit the match.

When you begin, you have only a 2 man squad, you need to earn some bucks to build up your squad and equip them. You can jump straight into the online matches if you want to but it’s probably a good idea to have a look at the challenge stages first, there’s not many and there are some really tough ones but its a good way to build up a little cash before taking on other players. The online play is remarkably easy, you can play against your Facebook friends but unfortunately, none of my friends play RAD Soldiers, however you can also play against a random Game Centre opponent and match ups are always quick and balanced, the brilliance with this title being you can face an experienced player with better gear but still be on equal ground, the reason for this being each person has a limited number of squad points. Each soldier uses squad points to join the team, giving them a stronger weapon increases the squad points they use so stronger weapons equals a smaller team, and that makes this title all about the strategy.

There aren’t many levels but these are very well planned out areas offering a variety of cover options from a variety of materials, some cover items give you complete protection from one direction while standing near a fence will only protect you from a little damage. RAD Soldiers looks really good, the stages are crisp 3D models and you can check out the whole battlefield with full 360 degree rotation, units all look great and sport any changes you make to them and they’re all very clear on the battle field. The menus have been well crafted, they are easy to use and understand, but bright and exiting. Sound effects are well crafted, realistic gun shots and explosions and the music is clever blend of battle sounds and sirens overlaid with a subtle score, truthfully though, I didn’t notice it until I forced myself to hear it, it’s just enough to fill the silence but subtle enough to not be a pain.

there aren’t many stages but these are large and complex areas, still, a few more would have been nice, there are new stages added from time to time but its a long time between updates. You can buy more challenge levels and new maps but I found these a little overpriced, there’s not a great deal of content for the price. There is however a wide range of characters and weapons to buy, each with their pros and cons, but it will take a while to build up the cash for these, you’ll need to invest some time to afford them, even if you focus on just a few squad members. On the plus side though, it’s a well made app, no problems or glitches as yet and the amazing PvP more than makes up for any shortfalls in content.

Aside from the lack of stages and the overpriced premium content, RAD Soldiers is a fantastic edition to any gamers library, it looks and sounds great and the online play is unrivalled. Developers have managed to make something simple to play yet with amazing depth in strategy, a veritable gem, 4 stars, any strategy fan would be happy with this title.

Iron Man 3

As a gamer I have always been wary of titles linked to blockbuster movies, developers are on very tight deadline and game content suffers, often movie related titles can feel a bit like an unfinished project with clunky controls, buggy code or a lack of depth. So how does Iron Man 3 stack up?

The easiest way to describe Iron Man 3 is to label it an endless runner, and that would be mostly accurate but it feels like more. You take the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man, after an encounter has rendered his latest and greatest armour a temporary wreck forcing him to utilise older equipment while he tracks down those responsible for the trouble. You start out with the Mark III armour, Stark’s most basic of backup armours and set out to find out who attacked you and why.

Game controls were a little overwhelming at first, by default, the bottom third of the screen is just for movement and the top section is for weapons, tapping or swiping there makes Iron Man direct a beam of energy there. For movement, Iron Man follows your finger exactly but if you need to dodge something quickly you can execute a barrel roll across the screen by tapping quickly on either side of the movement area. Alternatively, you can change to tilt controls in the main menu, this makes the barrel roll harder to execute but I found it a preferable configuration allowing for finer control in some areas and making extended battles a little less complicated. Once I got into the game a little however, I gradually got used to the control and it wasn’t quite as complicated as it first appeared.

For an iOS title, the graphics are quite impressive, there is a little bit of pop-up, but long range visibility is quite substantial. Stark’s suits are all unique in appearance and backgrounds are in high detail, even though the actual stage design is a little repetitive the random obstacles and enemies break it up well. It the little things that stand out the most though, for instance, diving down from high latitude to level off above water will kick up. Fine water spray obscuring your vision momentarily and leaving a few water drops to linger on the screen is a nice touch. There are a few minor issues with obstacles taking up more room than they should and the occasional delayed collision but otherwise developers have really put in a good show here.

The soundtrack has a rock

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feel to it, on close inspection it’s incredibly simple and repetitive but the in game sound effects actually drown it out most of the time, despite that, I thought the sound effects could have been louder but otherwise they are a great array of booms, beams and splashes, the explosions are well done however the sounds of the fighter jets swooping in didn’t sit well with me, but to be honest, I’m just nitpicking there, the whole package together sounds fantastic.

You collect currency in game in the form of Vibranium, which you can use to upgrade your existing armour and unlock more advanced suits, naturally, you can speed up this process by buying premium currency, you don’t need to but you may find progression very slow without it. Armours steadily get more expensive and require a lot of grinding to raise the necessary funds, in fact this is my biggest complaint, Vibranium appears very sparsely however you can earn extra through the mini missions, usually simple tasks like collecting certain items or travelling set distances, occasionally these missions can earn you premium currency as well. There’s also the daily mission which requires you to fly a set distance and then face off in a boss battle, featuring villains from the movie, completing these not only gives you premium currency but also makes new locations available as the story unfolds.

I actually found Iron Man 3 slightly addictive, there’s something very satisfying about buying a new armour after saving up for it for so long. The whole package is quite enjoyable but it would be nice if you could earn money faster. I was impressed when each new armour was not only different aesthetically but also had some slight handling differences from suit to suit. I’m going with four stars, I was pleasantly surprised with this title and I think it does the franchise justice.

Tiny Troopers 2: Special Ops Review

If you played the original Tiny Troopers then Special Ops will already be familiar to you, on the surface, it’s the same game, the same controls and the same tiny troopers. Why change a winning formula? Tiny Troopers 2 takes all the things that were great about the original and expands on them, making an already great game into something really special.

For those that never played the original Tiny Troopers, gameplay is incredibly simple, all actions are initiated with a tap, tap where you want your troops to move, tap where you want them to shoot… that’s it. Using a grenade or rocket launcher is as simple as dragging it to wherever you need it to explode and for long walks you can just hold down in the direction you want to go. This title was designed with simplicity in mind, it’s not perfect but it suits the tablet interface to a tee, occasionally you’ll find yourself shooting a civilian when you want to walk but any problems are minor as this makes for a very relaxed and effective control method.

So what has changed? Nothing major, but the campaign has a little more structure and depth being divided into four operations, each consisting of seven missions, the menus are easier to navigate and look much better. In Tiny Troopers, raising the difficulty meant getting more Command Points (CP), that’s changed here, points are the same across all difficulties but completing a mission on a higher difficulty will earn you bullets which are needed to unlock a zombie survival stage, there’s a different one in each operation and these stages are great for earning CP without putting your crack troops in danger, just like the first game, troops earn rank for surviving missions and gain strength as they do. Maintaining a kill streak will increase your multiplier meter, doubling or even quadrupling CP earned in stage.

You can spend your CP on upgrades for your troops, the upgrade options have been improved greatly giving you multiple ranks to achieve in each field like damage, accuracy, armour or range of fire. To boost these attributes further, you can now also purchase new uniforms as well, some give you extra CP bonuses on mission completion while others boost HP or increase stealth. If you don’t have the CP, you can also purchase upgrades and costumes with medals found in missions, usually out of your way. If you don’t feel like earning things the hard way you can purchase both medals and CP via IAP but you should be able to unlock and upgrade everything without spending with a little extra work. Having trouble with a mission? You can also use your CP to purchase airdrops which can contain health packs or weapons. If you’re still having trouble, you can also purchase reinforcement troops for a single mission, these cost a lot of CP though so at first you’ll need to be sparing when it comes to enlistment but they’ll come in handy when trying a level on hard.

Little has changed graphically, but things are a little bit clearer, crisp, there are more environments and the colours seem a little sharper, and the game screen has been rearranged, all the same stuff is there but it feels much less cluttered. Stages are larger and more complex and directional indicators have been added so you know which way your objectives are without needing to check the map constantly.

The music takes a subtle tone through most of the game but picks up in volume and intensity when the enemy is engaged and fades back again when the action stops and that really helps build some tension and atmosphere and shows that the developers have put some real effort into the title. The sound effects are more in the spirit of humour than realism but this doesn’t detract from the game, it suits the cute image that the characters portray.

I highly recommend Tiny Troopers 2, it’s fun to play and the short missions make it perfect for on-the-go gaming but still fun for extended play sessions as well. Chillingo hasn’t gone over the top with this sequel, it’s essentially the same gameplay in a better looking package. I think most people will be happy with this title and its simple and relaxed gameplay mechanics.

Scrabble

Scrabble is perhaps the most iconic crossword board game in history and it has spawned countless clones but for many, the original will always be the best. It’s surprising that Scrabble has taken so long to release a smartphone/tablet edition with online multiplayer, it’s been almost 3 years since Words With Friends did so and it’s almost overshadowed the Scrabble brand entirely in that time. While you have been able to play Scrabble on your iPad from day one, its only with the latest update that both online play and Game Center have been added.

The first noticeable change after the update are the graphics, it’s now displayed with HD and the design has been given a facelift, it all looks crisp and clear but the change isn’t drastic. If you find it a little too much you can change it back to a more nostalgic look in the options, I found however that I liked the new look. All the menus have been streamlined to better suit the touch screen interface and the board now rotates so you can play in portrait mode.

The music is quite relaxing, almost classical, it helps you to relax and concentrate and it really contributes to the mood of the game. Sound effects are designed to resemble the real sounds of the board games, the little things like the clacking as you rearrange the tiles on your rack, or place them on the board, it wouldn’t surprise me if these were recorded sounds from a boxed version.

There is a built in dictionary, if you have a word but need to check he spelling just type it into the search and it will tell you if the word is accepted. Opening the dictionary tab also gives you a full list of valid 2 letter words, if nothing else, you need to know these, they greatly increase your scoring potential. After you’ve played you can hit the Teacher button which will show you how you could have used your tiles better, this is by no means a cheat as it can only be accessed after you’ve played but it does however give you an opportunity to increase your vocabulary.

You can connect with both your Facebook account and with the Origin network, but surprisingly, not with your Game Center friends which I felt was an opportunity wasted, it seems a little pointless to have GC integration but not use any of its benefits. If you’re having trouble finding opponents you can also match up with a random opponent, and it matches you up based on your ELO rating, you start out with a rating of 1200 and a win will increase it, losing decrease, how much depends on your ELO rating and your opponents, it’s not perfect but it does increase the chance of you matching up with a player of comparable skill. Unfortunately, you can only play 1-1, it would be nice to set up a 3 or 4 player game with your friends. While waiting for your turn you can still play a game against the computer, here you can play 2-4 players and even adjust the difficulty of each AI opponent individually. Playing against the computer though will not affect your ELO rating. For competitive enthusiasts, you can have up to 50 games going at time.

There are a few bugs and glitches but that’s to be expected at this stage of development, the occasional force close and trouble updating games, iv found that games don’t always update automatically either. I expect these will be sorted out quite quickly in future updates, and hopefully some other things like better use of Game Center and hopefully (fingers crossed) 3 and 4 player games. Otherwise, this is an impressive app, with some really good ideas.

Is Scrabble good enough to reclaim its popularity? I believe so but it may be some time before it gains a big enough following to tackle Words With Friends for the top spot and it still needs a little love from the developers but it does have some great advantages over other crossword board games and it looks great. It would also be nice to have a few achievements, but as is, still worth 4 stars and I hope some great updates come soon.

MetalStorm: Aces

It’s been a long time since I played a flight sim on any platform, it’s a difficult genre to get right but when it is done well, its exhilarating. MetalStorm: Aces puts you in the shoes of a combat pilot, trained by an elite squad known as the Aces. But the Aces become greedy, they use their skills for personal gain and turn against you, the mission falls to you to hunt them down and bring them to justice.

I don’t really know why I expected but it wasn’t this, a dogfight flight simulation with RPG elements, MetalStorm: Aces boasts an extensive single player campaign with some real depth of story and fully fleshed out personalities. The single player campaign is divided into missions, each concerning one Ace pilot, there are 4 submissions for each and objectives can vary from taking down as many planes as possible in a set time to taking out ground targets or surviving with as little damage as possible, developers have really tried to add some diversity and it works, the story doesn’t feel repetitive and the different mission types make it a more immersive experience. On top of all this, is a well designed multiplayer mode where you can duke it out with your GC friends to earn parts and credits for your campaign.

The graphics are pretty amazing, developers were ambitious, but they’ve done their job right, environments are huge and detailed, crisp and clear and enemy planes fly around in a believable way, there’s a good variety of levels as well, like the desert canyon, snowy mountains and a nighttime cityscape. Explosions are well done and it’s quite satisfying flying through the debris left by your incinerated foes.

Background music is practically non-existent, but it’s really not a problem, it just fills the void left between the sound effects, the whine of your jet, or your missiles streaking off towards their target, they all sound quite realistic and the whole experience is very immersive. When navigating the menus, you’ll here a lot of background noise, as if you were standing in a busy aircraft hangar, and navigation buttons add to this illusion with the kind of machinery sounds you would expect in such an environment. MetalStorm: Aces is a masterpiece both audibly and visually.

My personal experience with flight sims is, they come with a complicated control method and are often quite limited in manoeuvrability. That’s not the case here, the iPads capabilities have been fully utilised and the control is incredibly simple, all movement is with the gyro, tilting left or right turns and tilting the top back and forth will make your plane climb or dive, there is no movement restriction, if you want to, you can fly straight up for some time, or nose towards the ground for. Death dive. Speed controls are on the left, and weapons on the right, easily accessible with thumbs. Advanced manoeuvres are activated with a swipe, horizontally triggers a barrel roll that’s great for evading missiles, swipe straight up and your plane flies straight up quickly and swiping down will execute a half loop, turning your plane around, great manoeuvres for shaking a plane off your tail or just to get out of trouble, these techniques take energy though so using them comes with some strategy in mind, energy does regenerate but it does so slowly. Missiles need time to lock but they do a lot of damage, while your machine guns are good for a fast unguided strike but don’t do a great deal of damage. With a little practice, you are even able to pull off some realistic aerial moves, stalls and loops and fast turns.

What I loved about this title is the upgrade options, as you advance, you can purchase stronger, more agile aircraft but each of these is also upgradable, using parts found in the campaign you can upgrade the parts of your plane that best suit your play style like upgrading engines to allow for more energy for manoeuvres and speed, machine guns for better close range damage and accuracy, faster targeting or better missile lock times. You can also pick one of 5 perks that boost these skills even further. You can also order more powerful ammunition, missiles that do more damage or track better and machine guns that can have crippling abilities like draining enemy energy or setting their guns on fire so they can’t fire or a time. You can also buy specialist planes with premium currency for a bit of an edge, you get a little bit when you begin a game but there’s no way to win premium currency so if you’re interested in these planes, you have to pay for them.

The online versus mode gives you the opportunity to earn more credits but they are hard won, you’ll be facing off with someone of similar skill level with all the same tricks as you. You’ll find it difficult to gain the distance required for a missile lock so these battles are largely decided by machine gun skill. You have a 2 minute time limit and both players can re-spawn limitless times, the winner is determined by the number of kills or by the most damage. If you’re not interested in the campaign, you can unlock all the planes by advancing your pilot skill here but you don’t need to play multiplayer to progress, so if you just want the campaign, that’s fine too.

I encountered a few minor bugs, the only real problem was the occasional force close, which only ever occurred in the menu screens and wouldn’t be a problem except that you often lose any credits you’ve just won. The Game Center achievements currently don’t seem to work and they don’t offer enough points. For a game that looks and plays so good though, these are fairly minor issues.

MetalStorm: Aces was a huge surprise, it’s unbelievable how good this game looks and how easy the control is. The flexibility to the play style makes this a real winner and the campaign is not only huge but also very challenging, it’ll take some time to play through. The multiplayer is reliable and enjoyable with rewards that make it worth your time, it’s not just an aside but a fully integrated part of the whole package. The bugs are only minor but it’s frustrating to lose credits, especially after a tough battle. This is a real gem hidden in the App Store, and with the possibility of more content in the future, this is a great pick.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush

If you haven’t seen Despicable Me yet, you’re missing out, but if you have seen it, you’ll be familiar with the tiny little maniacs known as Minions who run Gru’s laboratory. Step into the shoes of Dave, a Minion on a mission to become employee of the year in a workplace where anything goes and despicable actions are rewarded. Despicable Me: Minion Rush is an endless runner where you’re goal is to get ahead of your colleagues by any means necessary and create as much mayhem as possible.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush is similar to titles like Subway Surfers and Temple Run, but far more entertaining, controls are pretty straight forward, swipe left or right to change lanes, down to roll and up to jump. In a few areas you’ll also need to steer by tilting your device, on slides, rockets and fluffy unicorns. Avoid any obstacle in your way and survive to keep running…. simple. Where Despicable Me: Minion Rush differs from other runners is you can increase your scoring multiplier as you run by committing despicable actions. Wherever you see another Minion hard at work, push him, knock him down or jump on him, and damage as much property as possible, and while you’re at it, pick up as many bananas as you can, Minions love bananas. The occasional boss battle starts randomly as well, featuring characters from the movies and these offer a slight change of pace and break up the endless run tension.

Minion Rush is a visual spectacular, everywhere you look, something is happening, the Minions are hilarious and the obstacles are ridiculous. There are two main areas to run through, you’ll start off in Gru’s lab but you’ll soon find yourself running wild through the suburbs of the city above, both areas are well designed, awesome backgrounds and inventive obstacles and hazards but also offer a variety of sub-areas. The menus are nice and simple and decorated with characters from the movies, I thought the home screen was a nice touch, you can poke and prod the Minion for comedic effect.

The graphics are amazing, but the sound is the real star, the Minions are incredibly entertaining, their maniacal laughter never gets old. The sounds of the machinery are an amazing array of explosions and clanks overlayed with the nonsensical babble of the Minions, with a satisfyingly dramatic tune to tie it all together, although you could easily play this with the sound off, you will want it cranked, it really glues the game together and adds a lighthearted atmosphere.

You can spend the bananas you’ve picked up in game on a variety things, power ups, to give you a score boost or costumes to give you passive bonuses. When you begin you’ll only have access to a few pickups, some you’ll unlock in your early missions but others you’ll need to buy on your own initiative, unlocking them is cheap but upgrading them gets more and more expensive with each rank. You’ll find a few items that can only be bought with premium currency, you don’t need these items to progress, but they come with powerful bonuses, they also come highly priced, one of the costumes alone would cost in excess of $50 in Premium chips to purchase. You can find up to 5 premium chips in game everyday but it would take you months to save up for most items and some are still out of reach.

You can link up to both Facebook and Game Center, and compete with your friends in both groups, I had some initial connection problems with GC clashing with Facebook but once it was all merged and set, there were no additional problems. To avoid annoying your friends on Facebook though, it may be a good idea to head to the options and turn off the auto-publish. Through GC you also receive trophies, once earned you can claim some premium currency from them. You can also maintain a competitive rivalry with your friends by issuing challenges, you can choose to challenge on three things, distance travelled, bananas collected or score, and these can be sent with an accompanied taunt to fire up your opponent. You’ll only have one taunt available to begin with but can open the others with bananas

It’s a free title so there’s bound to be some advertising but its handled very subtly, I was playing for hours without noticing. App stability is good but there’s a little slowdown when you receive notifications and as always, clearing the multitasking bar helps improve performance.

To sum up, this is possibly the most entertaining runner I have played yet, so much so that i have let my Subway Surfers addiction slide, it looks amazing, sounds better and gameplay is varied with nice simple controls. The boss battles are a nice touch to break up gameplay and the power ups are well designed. Some content is overpriced, I have no problem with premium and exclusive content but it should be affordable as well, still, this is a minor concern as these items are non-essentials. This title is definitely worth your time, 4 Stars.

Rolling Idols: Lost City

It’s difficult to find a match-3 type puzzler with something new to offer and with Candy Crush and it’s addictive game mechanics dominating the genre, it’s difficult to commit to a similar title but next

time you find yourself waiting for your lives to recharge head over to the App Store and have a look at Rolling Idols: Lost City, a slightly different take on the match-3 formula.

Six elemental gods keep The Lord of Chaos imprisoned, but somehow, he breaks free and starts devouring the elements. Three of the elemental gods escape and start rebuilding the lost city in order to free their brothers and once more imprison The Lord of Chaos. As the city slowly gets rebuilt, the elements are released and start to regain their powers, only when they are all returned can they rebuild the calendar that seals in the evil Nibiru.

Gameplay is fairly straightforward, swap two idols in order to link 3 or more together in a line. It’s quite easy at first, there are only 3 colours on a large board and making groups of 4 or 5 is no problem. To get the biggest reward from a stage you need to finish within a set amount of moves, and you can set 2-3 moves in motion at once however just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should, moving quickly gives you no bonuses, the real points come from combos, essentially, getting consecutive matches of the same element. To stop you just hammering stages out though, you need to match the crystals on the level to unblock the scoring bar, failing to match the gems results in a period where you can’t score and this wastes your moves potentially reducing your rewards at the end of the level. As you progress, more and more crystals are needed and as they appear on random elements they often require you to break out of a combo run to collect them.

Matching 4 idols results in an explosion and matching 5 or more sets off two lightning chains that wipe an entire row or column, so what’s different about Rolling Idols? Every element also has its own unique powers to unlock and upgrade, and as the play areas get more complex with extra colours and obstacles, these powers become necessary to clear levels. The power ups are quite creative and really add an element of strategy and they also make for huge points when used in combos. You can buy and upgrade these abilities using stars earned by clearing levels, getting 3 medals earns you more stars for upgrade.

Rolling Idols looks really good, the colours are bright and easily definable for the most part, it’s easy to mix up the brown power ups with gold though, but you get used to this quickly. Animations are smooth and the effects look quite nice, it’s a nice touch when you set off an explosion and nearby idols not really effected are thrown back. New idols roll in from the top and they sport different expressions. Menus are incredibly easy to use, the whole system is designed to get you on to the next level as quickly as possible but its easy to spend time agonising over your next upgrade choice.

The sound is a little disappointing, the music isn’t bad, but it’s not great either, it would be easy to say its comfortable and while it doesn’t really detract from gameplay it doesn’t add any atmosphere either. Sound effects are barely audible, even when pumped up to max in the options, and this feels like a missed opportunity, even the explosions seem muted and all these different power-ups could have really popped with some decent effects to accompany them, I even tried putting my own music on to spruce it up but this app doesn’t allow for it.

Rolling Idols multitasks really well, and its very stable, if your distracted by another app, you can switch away and back and take up where you left off, even hours after. You can earn premium currency by earning Game Center achievements which you can spend in-game on extra moves. The great thing though is that you don’t need to make any purchases to get everything out of the game. There’s quite a bit to play through, depending on your dedication there’s about 10-20 hours of gameplay but unfortunately, there’s not much replay value, you can clear you save data and start from scratch but it might have been nice to have a plus mode with a little more challenge, perhaps even add in a timer.

Rolling Idols is a great take on the match-3 genre implementing RPG elements to create a more strategic level of gameplay, the audio is a bit of a let down but don’t let it discourage you, it really is a great game with many hours of gameplay well worth the time.