Review: Penguin Blast

Score:
61%

This is an intriguing twist on the 'single button' game, coupled with one of the most SEO friendly animals on the planet. But don't hold either of those facts against Penguin Blast, because this is a fun diversion to keep you occupied while on the streets.

Author: Space Geek Software

Version Reviewed: 1.4.0.0

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Penguin Blast is an endless level type game, where you have to get your Penguin (amusingly called Petey) as far to the right of the scrolling landscape as possible. You don't directly control Petey, you control when he is pushed out of a barrel. You'll start by falling into a barrel, and tapping anywhere on the screen and out you pop. And that means careful timing is needed because you need to land in the next barrel to keep playing.

Penguin Blast

Miss the barrel and smash into the ground? Well it's not quite game over, you lose 25% from your health, and if you're still in a fit condition you'll be dropped back into the last barrel you were in in order to try again. Too many misses, and it will be time to reset the scores and start again.

All of this is naturally complicated by barrels that won't stay still, with some spinning around when you are inside them, others that travel up and down to present a moving target. Dotted between them are black holes to bonus levels, health boosters to crash into and extra points to pick up.

The graphics are comical but you're talking about moving barrels, a few icons, and a penguin flying through the air. It's hard to go wrong. The only issue is that in landscape mode the in-app advertising banner takes up a huge amount of room.

The one thing I miss is being able to compare my progress to previous games. Yes, there is a high score table, but it doesn't feel right. I think I would much prefer to see a 'distance travelled' style of record keeping rather than an arbitrary score which is influenced by bombs, bonus levels, and pick-ups scattered through the level. This might sound weird - after all, what else is a score for? - but it feels artificial compared to the level. Because of that, when I return to the game, it's not to beat my high score, it's because the mechanics of the game are both simple enough and addictive enough to make me want to come back.

Needless to say I think a better way of recording progress would help the longevity of Penguin Blast by a significant amount.

Penguin Blast

Developers Space Geek Software have a decent number of applications in the Windows Marketplace, and part of me suspects that once a title gets to a certain level of completeness, out it goes into the world to keep the volume of downloads (and in-app advertising) high. That's a perfectly valid strategy for a developer as long as they keep in mind that this leaves the final application feeling a little bit unpolished. That extra bit of TLC can sometimes make a lot of difference.

Ultimately, Penguin Blast is still on my phone weeks after I downloaded the title, so something is being done right. But it's not pinned as a Live Tile to my start screen. The games that really capture my imagination get that accolade. There is work to do in Penguin Blast to make it a classy title, and while it has picked up a number of updates since launched, it still falls a little short.

No matter - it's a good second strong title that I keep coming back to. So congratulations to Space Geek Software, and I look forward to seeing more titles... perhaps with a dash more care and attention.

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