'Isaac Newton's Gravity' – Namco's Physics Puzzler
posted by Eli Hodapp on January 23rd, 2010 10:33 PM EST in $3.99, 3 stars, Games, Puzzle, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Isaac Newton's Gravity [App Store] is Namco's latest foray in to the casual puzzle aisle in the App Store. Originally released as Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity for the PC in late 2008 then a simultaneous Wii and DS release in early 2009, Professor Wolff (A real scientist who even had a brief appearance on the Ali G show and his own British television series.) was apparently given the boot for Sir Isaac Newton himself. Aside from this scientific swapperoo and half as many levels, very little seems to have changed aside from obvious interface modifications to adapt the game to the touchscreen.
The game involves solving physics puzzles by arranging blocks and other objects on each of the 50 levels to hit a switch. Pressing the play button on the top right of the screen causes a ball to shoot out and if you positioned everything right, hit the various objects you strategically arranged to fall over, knock in to each other, or otherwise cause some kind of chain reaction that involves something mashing the goal switch.
As it stands right now, Isaac Newton's Gravity is a fairly basic physics game with better than average graphics and controls which can get a little finicky at times. The real magic is apparently coming in the 1.1 update. According to Jon Kromrey, the GM of the Apple games division over at Namco, the 1.1 update will be hitting the streets sometime in February or March which will allow players to share custom made levels they create online instead of the current implementation which only allows players to create custom levels then share them via Bluetooth.
In the meanwhile, if you enjoy these types of games, Gravity will keep you scratching your head for quite a while, especially if you have someone local to trade levels with.
App Store Link: Isaac Newton's Gravity, $3.99
TouchArcade Rating:
This game was previously released for Wii, DS and PC under the name Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity. Not a very good game, at least the DS version which I played left much to be desired. Wonder why the name change.
nothing will ever go above the incredible machines (or toon machines)
buggy game, DONT BUY!!!
I usually like these types of puzzle games. I'll wait for some reviews maybe ill buy
Bought it before this article and those comments have been published. Unhappy. Controls nightmarish. Next time I will wait. Game is not worth the money in the current state.
I agree with Symbolist, it's very hard to master mostly because of the controls
Sounds to me like they just got lazy and want the users to make levels for them. User generated content should be a good thing, if they release the update as promised, but why cut the number of levels in half?
Sometime I find the brainless games like doodlejump to be more fun. If you're like me checkout SaberBall at http://bit.ly/SaberBall it's a cool lightsaber game. Just imagine the Lightsaber app and skeeball combined. It's addicting and entertaining. Give it a try.
Thanks for all the comments about Isaac Newton's Gravity. We appreciate your feedback about the game and want to make sure you have a great experience.
We have extensively tested the control system and thought we have it right but clearly we're not describing it well enough, or there is an issue we're missing. Could you please send us some detailed reports on these control issues so we can investigate and address for the game update? You can reach us at support@namcogames.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
We have released tutorial videos for Isaac Newton's Gravity!
Spanish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o66TJ87jnzo
Japanese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UV_bX5×7XE
Italian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=652WWmryMW8
German: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNOAzGylx6o
French: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEI560KytR8
English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4XNQBbPUo0
Chinese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBVDnWW9HdE
For more info: http://www.namcogames.com/iphone_games/isaac_newtons_gravity
Thank you.