There are a few ways you can look at INKS. ($1.99), the latest release from Lumino City ($4.99) developer State Of Play. On the one hand, it’s a beautiful piece of interactive art, allowing each player to uniquely paint a design based on how they play. On the other hand, it’s probably State Of Play’s most conventional game yet, since it’s really just pinball at its core. That’s a genre which has no shortage of excellent entries on the iOS platform, and when compared on a strictly mechanical basis against them, INKS. is far from the front of the pack. You have to take it as a fusion of both of those things to see it on its best merits, I think. If nothing else, it will teach you more than a few things about how to play pinball, and it does it in quite the artistic fashion.
Rather than having you score-chase or try to complete a series of missions on a board, as in most other pinball games, INKS. gives you 72 stages, each with a slightly different design. Your goal on each table is to hit every colored target, at which point a hole will open up and the stage will be cleared. If you can do that in a set number of shots for that stage, you’ll earn a gold star. Take more than a couple of shots, and you’ll lose the star, but still get a nice gold medal. If you drain the ball, your grade will decrease for every ball lost. You never run out of balls, but after missing a few shots, the ball will become an inky black color that leaves dark trails behind it. As you progress through the levels, new obstacles will be introduced along with trickier table layouts, forcing you to shoot precisely if you want to earn top marks. The later levels take on a near-puzzle quality, forcing you to pay careful attention to every contour to find the paths you’ll need to send the ball along.
The main gimmick of the game is that when you hit the colored targets, paint will explode out of them. How big the splatter is depends on how hard you hit the target. If your ball passes through the splatter, it will pick up some of the paint and leave colored trails behind it for a while. By the time you’ve finished some of the more complex boards, you’ll have something quite reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock drip painting. This is not only nice to look at, but also serves a practical purpose. Those little trails your ball leaves behind are a nice reminder of exactly where the ball will go if you hit it with your flippers in the same spot. It’s nice way of making order out of the chaos that pinball sometimes takes the appearance of.
If INKS. is a pinball trainer, it’s a pretty good one. Some of the tables are quite devious, but once you understand the tricks to them, you’ll wonder how you ever missed. Many of these tricks are the basic tools of the trade for hardcore pinball fans, and as such, those players might find INKS. to feel like one long tutorial for mechanics they already know very well. Now, if you’re the sort of person who plays pinball by hammering away at the flippers anytime the ball gets near them, you’re going to pick up a lot in this game, and you’ll likely have a really good time doing it. Later levels should stump beginners and hardcore alike with their intricate designs and narrow paths to success. The physics can’t hold a candle to apps like Pinball Arcade ($0.99), and I had the ball glitch right through the flipper a few times, but in general, it’s reliable enough that most people won’t notice any major issues.
INKS. leans heavily on its presentation to differentiate itself. Fortunately, State Of Play has done their usual fantastic job of combining clean, attractive visuals with well-placed audio effects. There isn’t any music to speak of, but as you hit the various targets and bumpers around each board, various notes will sound, creating a pleasant melody. The UI is also up to the developer’s usual standards, with a minimalist look that still manages to be quite clear. The cost of those pretty visual effects comes in how quickly the game will chew through your battery. This is another one of those games that makes your phone double as a hand-warmer while you’re playing it.
The base game includes three packs of 24 levels each, for a total of 72. There are also two additional IAP level packs of 24 stages each available for $0.99. On top of those level packs, there are also credits you can buy in various denominations. Those credits are used to buy power-ups, and apart from 100 credits the game gives you initially, there’s no way to earn them in-game. Those power-ups include a stopper that should keep your ball from draining between the flippers, and a slow-motion ball that can help you make tricky shots. Neither of these power-ups is necessary for clearing any of the stages, though they will help you earn some of the game’s achievements if you’re having issues. Both of the level packs are excellent and certainly worth a purchase if you’ve enjoyed the included content.
INKS. is a clever spin on one of the oldest concepts in electronic gaming. Much of the cleverness is admittedly tied up in the visuals, but it is interesting to play a pinball game where you aren’t trying to rack up a high score, I suppose. The level designs are superb, particularly if you’re playing for the par score. You know clearing the board is possible in that many shots, so you really have to scratch your head and think about how you can do it. Hardcore pinball fans might balk at the physics and how much of the game is tied up in teaching you rudimentary techniques, but I think outside of that group, most will find INKS. to be an eye-catching, challenging take on a familiar genre.
Maglor.
Never forget.
where is he? :(
Miss u!
I don't miss that at all sorry. Here: most overrated game of the week (/&:$:!-&:instabuy! LOL sorry just never understood why you needed a guy who made a humanoid cat out of characters to tell you what games to get. Also apparently he left because someone hurt his feelings, what a pussy! Literally. Sorry. I know this is a community that loved that guy but good riddance.
Clearly you don't understand, the pain, it NEVER LEAVES!!
Sorry for being rude I just was never a fan 😱
It's not about "being a fan".
It's about community.
For example, you go to a coffee shop every Wednesday, at around the same time. As you walk in, the barista smiles at you and says hi.
You go back the next week, and they're there again, and says Hi.
This occurs over and over, over a long period of time. You start to look forward to that interaction each week.
One week, you go, and they're not there. You're disappointed. They're not there the week after that either. Or the week after that.
A simple interaction, may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when something becomes part of a routine, you start to look forward to it, and when it's not there, there's a void in your heart and mind. A small thing that one can look forward to each week, and suddenly it's no longer there.
Many people looked forward to Out Now posts, because without-fail, there'd be that familiar cat greeting them.
And now it's gone.
Nice description.
I'm getting Sloomy and Leap day, because they look cute and I'm too busy preparing for casual connect to be playing Long games :/
And a quick review. Sloomy is diamond dash without the energy system. Leap day has really nice pixel art, one tap platformer which I dunno, might be a hit or miss with players. Not really sure what I was unlocking from the chests though.
Leap Day is cool because it gives you a new puzzle every day. Kind of like a continuous challenge game.
I am curious as to if anyone's gonna complain about the "timer".
Solo my is a Match 3, but not bad for that genre because each game is time based and good for a quick play. Doesn't seem like it would get boring as fast as some Match 3's.
Caterpillar is totally awesome!
Dang auto correct. Caterzillar.
Gravity Switch and Gravity Square look like the exact same gameplay with different design aesthetics.
Not sure about Gravity Square, but Gravity Switch looks just like Gravity Guy
Also getting Leap Day and Bushido Bear. Puzzlepops sounds cutesy, but is really a pretty good puzzle game that gets harder as you go.
So far tried Bushido Bear, fantastic. Leap Day, awesome, literally endless replayability. Gravity whatever ketchapp game, sucked, par for the course for ketchapp aside from the rare gem like Sky and smash fu, which I like but it has mid game ads which is very annoying. I'll never understand a dev that is new and trying to make a name impeding on the players experience. It would be like an ad half way through a song. Well, I'm not a dev so I'll never understand the market or lust for $$
I don't think most of these dev's MAKE any money. With the daily flood of cheap knock offs and the app stores motto of "more must be better" most of these games are lost and forgotten in a week. Two max maybe. To many of the same game, too many devs and too much product.
Plus the Internet has devalued everything it touches... If it's not free people don't want it as they see other free stuff and don't want to feel like a sucker. Music, porn, etc... It better all be free.
Totally agree every week a shitload off "games" but the overall quality is soooooo bad minimalistic graphics/gameplay they hope on the Candy Crush effect I never could imagine that CC what I see as a ripp off has such a huge success.
I'm itching for a strategic roguelike to be released.. Is darkest dungeon ever coming to iOS?
Not sure if Micro Machines has left soft launch yet but the latest patch is laced with greed and has completely stripped the fun from the title that it contained in oodles. Greedy bastards..