Namco kicked off the App Store launch with the release of two classics: Pac-Man [ App Store] and Ms. Pac-Man [App Store]. Priced at $9.99 each, the games are priced twice as much as the earlier iPod ports.
The gameplay of these historic games is pretty well known, so I won’t bore you with the details. But as Pac-Man, you navigate a maze with while avoiding the ghosts. In order to be succeed at the game, however, you need relatively precise controls with the ability to make quick turns to avoid getting captured by the ghosts.
(As a side note, of the two, I’ve always felt Ms. Pac Man was the perfect form of this game with just the right feel to it. Similar to my insistence that Doom II felt far better than the original Doom.)
As it turns out, these games turned out to be a good test of the iPhone’s unique controls applied to a traditional game. I purchased Ms. Pac-Man (due to my aforementioned bias) for this purpose and found it offered three methods for control.
D-Pad
This tries to emulate the most familiar gaming controller — the D-Pad. While a great method for a physical controller, its implementation on a touch-screen falls pretty short. Of the three input methods, this one felt the most finicky. The lack of tactile response makes it impossible to be certain you are pressing in the right spot. Since you are paying attention to the game play, you can easily lose track of the exact spots to press. And missing one turn is enough to prematurely end your game. I tried both using two thumbs to press the correct spots and also centering my finger in the middle and sliding towards the right direction. In both cases, it was too easy to miss turns.
While it seems likely you could get better with practice, I’m not sure it’s worth the time as there’s a better option available.
Accelerometer
All developers are going to feel pressure to use the iPhone’s accelerometer as an input method. Namco allows you to tilt your iPhone in the appropriate direction to guide Ms. Pac-Man through the maze. The on-screen joystick reflects your current input (centered, left, right, up, down) and the neutral centered position is at about a 45 degree angle. While it works better than I had expected, it still falls short in the same critical way.
Again, it’s hard to remember where center is. You may have tilted one direction but on subsequent turns, you may not tilt far enough for it to register. While the joystick’s visual cues are helpful, in practice you can’t pay attention to it while you are playing the game.
Swipe
Another gimmick? Surprisingly, no. Simply swiping your finger up, down, left or right anywhere on the screen provides a precise way for you to direct your Pac-Man. There is no “center" that needs to be remembered or visualized. Simply pick a place on the screen and swipe in the appropriate direction. It allows for quick and precise turns and makes the game playable at a higher level.
Input controls are going to be an ongoing issue for most games, and a challenge to perfect. It may take some time to find the balance between gimmicky and useful. If you have any interest in the Pac-Man franchise, however, you can be rest assured that the input can keep up with the game.
Game Details
Name: Ms. Pac-Man
Developer: Namco Networks America Inc.
App Store Link: Buy
Price: $9.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch
Sweet! Thanks for the mention.
and its for posts/tips like these that i keep this site in my RSS reader. thanks!
When I read the original review, Radius seemed like an interesting idea, but I was a little leery about paying $4 for a rotating sphere. Now that it's only $0.99, I decided to give it a try, and it's a pretty cool game. Knowing what I do now about the game, I gladly would have payed $4 for it (but I'm obviously glad I waited). And with word of adding a global high score and music, this game will only get better.
I've bought the game but the sound doesn't work for me (running iPod touch here). The only sound that the game plays is the 'game over' sound - no other sound at all, which is very strange. As you can imagine, it makes the game very hard to play because you have no idea when an enemy spawns.
I've tried deleting it and reinstalling it, but no luck :(
I'm with Brad on this. I too have looked at this game for a while and decided to take the plunge and get it a couple minutes ago.
And guys, this is a great website -- keep up the good work....
Totally buying it. Loading up the app store as I type this. I was on the fence about it but i can't pass it up for a buck. Great move on the dev's part to get some attention and customers. Hope more dev's follow this trend and the trend of "light" versions of their games.
Noodles, do you have your sound effects in your iPod settings set to "both"? I don't have sound effects in some games (most notably Trism) until I do this. Unfortunate, because I find the clickey sound effects to be pretty annoying.
Thanks Cougar, that worked! I've had the Sound Effects setting turned off because I find the clicking when navigating irritating, but didn't know it affected games because all of my other games have all of their sounds. I guess they must use a different method to play the sounds, or must override the setting, whereas Trism and Radius obey the Sound Effects setting? Interesting, thanks! (now I just have to put up with the clicking sounds...)
Hey Guys,
I just wanted to stop in and thank everyone for purchasing Radius. We've had an overwhelming response since the price was dropped to one dollar. We moved from the 90th position in top 100 GAMES to 34 and in overall top 100 to 82. This is a massive win for us and it's definitely thanks to all of your for purchasing and spreading the word.
We're working hard on getting you global high scores and new music/sounds. I'm sorry to hear about the ipod touch issue that some of you are having. Right now to fix that would mean a massive overhaul on the way that we handle sounds. So for now we're going to focus on high scores and ask that you please use the fix that enables sound FX.
Thanks for all of your support!! Please keep helping our success grow. We love what we do and you make it possible.
The game and the new price are nice, but those quick price drops are a kick in the face of the people who paid full price. (I already "lost" about $15 on price drops, including Radius, in less than 1 month of App-Store.) If this trend continues, I won't buy any apps/games before they drop in price or stand stable for at least 2-3 months.
^ to customer053, you are right, but that happens with everything in life, even the phone that you are playing these games on. The longer you wait, the cheaper it will be, and that goes for everything.
Sure, but a price drop of 75%, just a few days after I bought the game (and after it has been released), is unusual and huge. Makes me think twice before buying games of this developer next time. The same thing happened to me with some other apps. I bought stuff for €60 within the last two weeks and now I could buy the same apps/games for ~€45.
Hello Customer053,
I'm sorry to hear your pricing woes. Let me first offer an explanation. The app store, for the moment, is the wild west. It's an old fashioned land grab. As you have seen all of us are feeling our way through the market. I think that in a few months you will see the prices stabilize. Sadly, early adopters always get burned with price fluctuations, buggy early builds, and shoddy production. Though it is the early adopters that pave the way for a market. I've personally lost quite a bit of money due to price changes. I can't speak for the rest of the industry and Apple has no refund process in place but if you want to email me at [email protected] I think that we can arrange a way for me to give you back three dollars.
Sorry for the sporadic pricing. Now that our lesson is learned our next release will follow a more stable pricing plan.
Thanks for your offer PatternMakingCo, but I don't think it's worth your and my time to arrange a refund. It's enough for me to know my Extra-$3 went to a small developer who is interested in customer satisfaction.
PatternMakingCo, I just had to comment on your great answer. I really like the idea of supporting the "little guys" that over on the console and desktop side of things have been replaced with large, money-grubbing companies. Reminds me of the early days of computing, which were also the wild west. ;-)
I just bought this, and I'm looking forward to playing it. Good luck with your company and future endeavors!
omfg get the thing 2 work!!!! It crashes the min I load the thing!! I have givin up launching the app all togeather.
@youtap,
I can certainly understand your frustration. If you could provide a bit more information maybe I can help you fix the issue. Have you updated to 1.02? After the app is installed have you restarted your phone? Are you on an ipod touch or iphone? Do you have any settings turned on or off that are not standard? Is your phone jail broken?
Your additional information is greatly appreciated. We just haven't been able to replicate this issue beyond rebooting to fix it.
If you'd like, you can email me at [email protected].
Michael
PatternMakingCo's response to the customer who paid full priced just convinced me to go and buy this game.
You can't beat great customer service.
Umm... the game is permanently $0.99. That's not a sale, that's a price drop.
I don't think it's really cool to do that, a lot of people may have rushed to buy the game with the expectation of getting in on a deal before it goes back up...
But I guess we should just be happy with a lower price in general. Peace.