Rooftops (Game Review)

Rooftops is very similar to a game called Canabalt which appeared in 2009 and was open-sourced in 2010. Originally a Flash game, I remember playing it and getting bored fast.

Unlike games that were inspired by Canabalt (like Temple Run), Rooftops isn't much different than the original Canabalt, and actually, seems to have a controls problem with Firefox OS.

Here's the basic idea. You run and jump. You start out running from left to right and you can't stop. Ever. You just run. The fun is that if you tap on the screen, your character jumps.

Simple enough, except that there seems to be too much delay from when I tap and when I jump. I've tried this several times, and it just isn't smooth. Maybe it would be different for you.

I would run for a few seconds and I'm supposed to jump to the next building, but I don't jump soon enough and I fall to a horrible death. When I do fall, I am asked to put in a nickname and submit my score. If I don't want to, I have no option except press the home button.

If I submit my score, I get this:

Not very good, but there isn't much incentive to try again. When I hit OK, I get the start screen again:

My stats after a few games aren't good:

Maybe if I had more patience, I might keep trying, but there isn't even any known incentive. The art is dull (so was the art in 2009) and the statistics mentions items, but I don't know what they are.

It would have been nice if the first minute or so was easier and you could get used to the controls. The other games I've played on the ZTE Open with Firefox OS didn't seem to have control problems, but I can't be sure. 

The game is by Rémi Vansteelandt and maybe I'll just leave it by saying the game didn't work for me but 883,636 people did better than me, so maybe it is just me! But when there are better "endless runner" games like Jetpack Joyride or Robot Unicorn Attack, not to mention a new Rayman runner, I would have been more encouraging if there was something original here. It looks just like Canabalt!

I'm bummed out when a game isn't good on Firefox OS, but due to the lack of originality, no learning mode, and possible control failure, I have to rank this 2 out of 5. It does work and you may enjoy it, but I didn't.

Cost: Free

Genre: Arcade
Score: 2 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace

Pipes Puzzle (Game Review)

Deja Vu all over again! I've seen pipes puzzles for a long time (Pipe Mania, Pipe Dream) and this version by DS Effects is similar, but cut down.

There weren't any directions in the game, but the Marketplace says "Tap on the pipes to complete a closed shape within time limit and upgrade to the next level." But where and how to tap. It's been a while since the early "Pipe" games, but what does "closed shape" mean?

After researching more and thinking about it, the goal here is to make a closed loop. In the earlier games, you want to make the pipes connect from A to B, so that water can flow through them.

In this game, there's no start or finish. Here's the opening screen:

New game takes you to a random collection of pipe bits:

And if the Marketplace directions are true, you should be able to complete a level by connecting a set of pipes in a closed loop. Cool. Maybe I can do that!

Well, after more minutes than I wanted to spend, I couldn't do it. The problem with this game is that it sets a time limit, and the limit is only 80 seconds. That's not enough time!

I'm not even convinced that there is a solution for every stage, so I'm left saying that this is a nice game that lets you change the connections but not much more than that. By the way, you have to click in the center of a pipe intersection which then makes that "square" rotate. But the touch seems a little fiddly, so I found I would have to stab a few times to get a rotation. Dragging might be nice, but the goal is still elusive to me and the time limit is harsh. I would have liked it if the time limit could be adjustable (easy, medium, hard) and rather than tapping, maybe dragging?

As such, unless I'm missing something, I have to rate this game as a 2 out of 5: bad directions, bad touch, arbitrary time limit is harsh. Sorry, DS Effects, but I think a few more days with this could have made it cool. I had original thought I wouldn't review games that weren't great, but I now think that it is important to let people know when a game was rushed out too soon and needed more work. This game wasn't a completely epic fail, but won't let you have much fun. 

As always, if I've missed something, I'm happy to change my review and let people know what I missed.

Cost: Free

Genre: Puzzle
Score: 2 (out of 5)
Tested on: ZTE Open (Firefox OS)
Get it at: Firefox Marketplace