There have been some very nice genre expansions happening over the last 6 months, helping to make 2012 one of the best gaming years in recent memory. One title that just so happens to be helping push the limits of the Climbing genre is Conix Game’s Twang the Fox, published and critiqued by PikPok. This 3-man development team has definitely created one of the best, if not the best Climber to date, introducing multiple gameplay mechanics, and giving gamers a decent challenge, as well as including a perfect rank-chasing scoring system. Once we heard it was being published by PikPok, the developers behind Dreamworks Dragons, Slam Dunk King and the insanely addictive titles Monsters Ate My Condo, Velocirapture and Extinction Squad as well as publishers of the awesome puzzler, Monster Flip, developed by Launching Pad Games.
Twang the Fox tells the story of a family of foxes, who, while the father, Twang, was out gathering food, were fox-napped by the evil Boscoe Carnivale. The family knew that Twang would be coming after them, so they managed to leave a trail of fruit behind them for him to follow. Now it’s up to you to help guide Twang throughout 6 worlds, and 60 levels, collecting fruit, dodging crazy hazards, and using some great interactive objects, while you make platforms that fling him upward, and keep him from falling down into the ever present rising liquid.
Starting off, there’s not much to each level. To climb through the world, you’ll need to create springy platforms by drawing lines under Twang. The smaller the platform, the higher he’ll jump. A nice little addition to this is that time slows down right when you place your finger on the screen, letting you decide the angle you want Twang to hit the platform, so that you can control where he goes, and it’s fairly accurate. While you’re doing this, you’ll need to avoid hazards while collecting as many of the fruits as you can before you reach the exit. This has a direct influence on how many stars you’ll earn for each stage. If you can collect all of the fruits, you’ll get 3 stars, but anything less, and you’ll get 2, or even 1, depending on how many you wind up grabbing.
As you progress throughout the game, more and more mechanics will be added to the gameplay. This is where Twang the Fox shines, as even in the last world, more and more interactive objects are being added to the game. Some of the first things you’ll come across are rotating cannons. These will shoot you in whatever direction you’re facing once you touch the screen. Lining up shots with this cannon can be kind of tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a great thing to use. You’ll also be able to use a crossbow type object, pulling back a string, being able to fling Twang in any direction. There’s also strange tentacle creatures that will slow you down and push you away, pinball type objects that bounce you around, as well as others that send you in a specific direction, rockets, zero gravity sections and more. About every 5 stages something new is thrown into the mix. There’s also multiple enemies and hazards which will try and impede your progress, and make you second think trying to get every fruit throughout the game.
The graphics are great, and the gameplay is smooth, with extremely polished animations for everything in the game. The colors are extremely vibrant, and the environments change pretty drastically throughout the game. GameCenter is also supported, with leaderboards for each of the 6 Worlds, as well as a Total Score board and 13 achievements, all adding to the replay value, especially if you’re chasing high-scores. The scoring system is great, and dependant on time as well as how many fruits you can collect, which makes it possible to almost always get a better score unless you’ve mastered the game, getting perfect runs on all 30 levels.
With Twang the Fox being priced at $0.99, and being Universal, it’s definitely another PikPok published game that just about everyone will enjoy. If you’re a fan of these types of games, Twang the Fox has got to be in the top 3, if not stealing the #1 position, in the genre. Conix Games has done a fantastic job with their first iOS game, and have plans to add more content in a future update. Though whether this will be an endless mode, or more levels, we’ll have to wait and see, but those are two possible options we could see in the future, which is great, because once you finish Twang, you’ll be dying for more content. Luckily, there’s a crazy amount of replay value able to keep everyone busy until that future update hits the AppStore.
1 comments:
Wow! Five stars? Just might have to check it out!
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