Game Review - Canabalt : IPhone : Adamatomic

Another game that I have played recently that I would like to cover is actually a mobile title. The game is called Canabalt. I originally heard of this title through twitter, it was posted as a twitter score with a link to the developers website where they provide the game for free to play.

The game was an developed in 5 days with a focus on simple designs with minimal feature sets. I think that Canabalt meets these requirements very well. The premise of the game is that you are a runner that runs on top of roofs in a parkour fasion (immediately sounds like Mirror's Edge). The feel of the game is dark and grey, so immediately you assume without any sort of back story that your main character is running from something. The art in the game includes a desolate city with battling robots in the background and flyby spacecraft that attempt to kill you by dropping bombs onto roof tops.

Controls in the game are simple, touch the play field to make your runner jump, touch it longer and your runner will jump higher. As your runner progresses, he gets faster, the speed in the game will build to a mind numbing speed that makes survival difficult and thus provides the challenge. Hitting obstacles such as boxes and chairs will cause you to slow down and if slowed down too much, makes it impossible to clear some gaps in the game. Play continues until you die. Your score is determined by how far you were able to run. Scores can be posted on twitter with a cute quote describing the cause of your death.

The Good:

The game is challenging, it is extremely difficult once you reach a certain speed. The hardest things I have found is that some buildings you have to jump into a hallway through a window. I find myself often jumping to high on these obstacles and hitting the wall instead of the window. Honestly, I believe that the challenge of the game is what makes it addicting.

I also appreciate the simple interface as well as the concise game mechanic feature set. The game is not cluttered with unnecessary features which is appreciated. Also, given that the game is a non-zero sum game (for those of you who are familiar with game theory), the fact that the game challenges you by driving you to reach a never ending increasing score based solely on your skill as a runner provides a non-stress inducing game play. This differs to games that have a definitive ending and a final goal. The Germans are big fans of non-zero sum games, games such as monopoly, which is a zero sum game, are not played as much by the Germans as they find it too competitive and find that cooperation is more satisfying than backstabbing. I honestly have to agree, games where additional resources are injected into the environment provide more options for players and creates a more diverse strategy. 

To get back on track, Canabalt also strikes my fancy due to the art design in the game, simple and elegant, yet hints at a more complex and deeper meaning to the world that is constructed by its blacks and grays. I think that the animations are smooth and transition well. It makes me wish that there was a graphic novel based on the game that would explain what the runner is running from and where he is going. What are the robots in the background? Who is the organization that is after you and what other technologies are they hiding besides giant fighting robots and spacecraft with big crazy bombs that turn you into a fine mist. This game I think could inspire some great fan fiction for those with that interest who like cyberpunk story writing. (If there is any out there based on Canabalt, someone post the link in the comments to this post, it would be greatly appreciated.)

The Bad:

I honestly have little to say that is bad about Canabalt. I think the game is well designed and even better implemented and executed. I think the only major issues I have are the random generator of the buildings. Sometimes this will generate random levels that are almost impossible to get through (actually I think sometimes they are impossible). I hate games that create deaths that feel cheap, especially when you have a really good score and you feel like you could keep going for a while, and for no apparent reason a gap between buildings are impossibly far apart.

The only other issue is actually the location of the twitter your score button. It is right where I tend to touch the screen to jump and as a result, I have more than once submitted scores that I would not have submitted to twitter. Nothing is more embarrassing than twittering a pitifully low score of 173km, ok there may be a few more things that are more embarrassing than this, but I still feel that there might be a better location for this button.

Overall:

I must say that Canabalt is by far one of the best IPhone App games on the marketplace. After playing the flash based one online, I had no problem paying the 2.99 for the game to have it with me anywhere I go. I think that this game would not have been so popular and successful were it not for the fact that the IPhone still has no flash player for its web browser, as it being free to play online would defeat the purpose of purchasing the app from the store. I am not saying that it is excusable for Apple to restrict the flash player for safari mobile, but I am saying that this has provided an interesting mechanic of advertising games for the IPhone platform that I would like to see other developers take advantage of. By allowing people to use your app on a webpage, it makes it feel more like a try before you buy situation. I think that many developers try to do this with a "Free" or "Light" version of the app on the store, but I find myself using the free or light version and never buying the full version because the free or light version is sufficient for my needs and that the extra pay for bells and whistles are just not worth the money. I still can not believe this game was developed in 4 days, it's just phenomenal.

Check out Canabalt here.