$0.99Reviews

A Quick Look at Pangea’s First iPhone-Only Title ‘Antimatter’

Pangea Software, creator of Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, has recently released a rather unique physics-based iPhone arcade-style action game known as Antimatter [App Store].

Antimatter is the ultimate arcade game for the iPhone and iPod Touch! You control a stream of Antimatter particles and use it to affect the Cosmic Strings while collecting powerups and bonus points. This game is so unique that it is hard to describe. The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay is very addictive.

Hard to describe?  Quite.  The playfield is comprised of a number of “cosmic strings" (lines) that lazily drift across the backdrop of space.  The player controls a “stream of antimatter" (a really sparkly dot) by way of flick control anywhere on the screen surface.  The goal is to turn the cosmic strings from blue to red by impacting them with the stream of antimatter.  Once.  A second impact turns the cosmic string back to blue, and so forth.  It’s not a simple task, as the stream of antimatter is subject to inertia and, once it bounces into a cosmic string, it bounces right back off–frequently into a string that’s already been turned red.  Various powerups that aid with the task at hand drift about the playfield, as well–shortening the cosmic strings, destroying strings on impact, etc.  Bonus energy-catching levels are interspersed with the standard ones.

Ultimate arcade game?  Well, perhaps not.  I personally find Antimatter fun to play for the price but, granted, was wooed to some degree by various retro touches present in the game.  A recent thread in our forums shows certain of our readers to be rather disappointed with the title.  Hopefully our demonstration video will help readers make an informed decision.

Antimatter is Pangea’s first designed-from-the-ground-up game for the iPhone platform.  Pangea was formed in 1987 by Brian Greenstone as an Apple II development house and shifted focus to the Macintosh in the early ’90s.  Pangea has recently indicated it is dropping all Mac development and focusing exclusively on the iPhone platform.

Game Details
Name: Antimatter (v1.0) Price: $0.99 [Buy]
Developer: Pangea Software Size: 3.7 MB
Antimatter is a simple physics-based arcade-style game with a retro feel.  It’s gotten quite a split reaction from readers, but for $.99 it might be worth a look.