Review: Roll in the Hole (Xbox Live)
Score:
78%
Let's run this week's Xbox Live game a day early (as I suspect we might be a bit busy with other things tomorrow). Roll in the Hole, from Chillingo, hands you a Panda called Po-po, with a lust for lollipops. Can you help him roll around the 80 levels and finish up guiding him to the exit hole each time with his snacks?
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0.0
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One point of view on this style of game is that it's very much a turn-key development process. This is yet another mobile game that makes best use of the sensors in a modern smartphone (the touch screen and the title accelerometers), which act upon a central character in a predictable way. That character has a relatively simple goal to achieve, alongside an optional goal that is much harder to complete on the same level. There are a lot of levels, and this volume adds to the complexity and longevity of the game, rather than having a few impossibly huge levels. There's a 'three star' rating to say how well you did. And it's all wrapped up in some cute and cuddly cartoon graphics.
Let's fill in the gaps of Roll in the Hole.
Our character is Po-Po, an eternally hungry Panda who just happens to be perfectly round, so he can roll around the level like a marble. Being hungry, he wants to roll into the lollipops that are dotted around each level before reaching the exit. Naturally you'll be graded out of three lollipops at the end of each level (and you might even get a special medal if you finish in a fast enough time).
The levels, while they are very compact (and early ones can be finished in just a few seconds), start to have devilish twists not long after you start. The physics-based nature of the movement means you have to pay a close eye on Po-po's momentum, where he bounces, the surface he bounces on, and the angle of the platforms. Don't fall off the sides of the screen, because the level will be over, as it will if you fall to the bottom of the screen as well.
You have the choice of two control options. The tilt option might seem to be the natural choice, which rolls you in either direction depending on which way you tilt the handset, but it doesn't feel natural to this older gamer, who prefers using the touch screen - tap on the left side to spin anti-clockwise, and the right side to spin clockwise.
Keep an eye on the spin, because it's almost independent of your movement, so you can make a huge jump in the air and set up some backspin to hold your position, or some topspin to bounce off and reach a distant platform. That's far easier to set up using the on screen touches than tilting like crazy and trying to stay focused on the screen and where you are going to land.
And you will need to focus on where you are going to land - I'm pretty impressed with the design of the levels. Yes, they are incredibly short, and in a ten minute gaming session you can, if you're smart enough, fast enough, and accurate enough, get through more than ten of the levels early in the game. As you play, you could probably manage to get to the exit in under a minute but you'll need to spend a little more time on each level if you want all the lollipops.
There is nothing unique or spectacular about Roll in the Hole when you lay it all out like that. It follows the 'modern' recipe for a casual game, but while some chefs can make passable cakes even with the greatest recipes, Chillingo tend to make the lightest, fluffiest, most edible games possible.
Roll in the Hole is a pretty edible snack of a game.
It's not got a huge amount of staying power, it's not going to be in your little addictive pile of games, but for 79p it's going to give you a good time while you are playing and you're not going to feel short changed.
And then there's the Xbox Live 'bonuses'. Many of you are collecting the gamer points, and thanks to the speed of Roll in the Hole, there's a lot of quick points on offer here. Most of them you'll gain simply for progress through the game (number of lollipops, stages passed, worlds completed) so get ready to rack up 170 without a huge amount of effort. The final 30, for collecting every lollipop, that might be a might more challenging, but 170 easy 'g' for 79p is a pretty sweet deal in Xbox Live.
I suppose my only regret over Roll in the Hole is that there's not enough games like this (yet?) on the Windows Phone platform. Hopefully Chillingo's success and the upcoming Windows Phone 8 (with associated changes and options for developers) will encourage more people to join in the fun. If they do, here's hoping they are as smart at design and packaging as Chillingo have been with Roll in the Hole.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at