Romper Games has recently released an arcade-style block elimination game called ReBounce [App Store] that Peggle fans might just find right up their alley.
ReBounce challenges you to use a golden puck to eliminate screenfuls of marbles of varying colors. Tag a marble with your puck and all surrounding marbles of the same color change to the next color. The color sequence goes: green, yellow/green, and then yellow, with a final hit causing the elimination of all adjoining yellow marbles. Puck control involves tapping the on-screen puck to slow down time, and dragging and releasing in the desired direction to send it where you will. It’s an agreeable control method that, along with the puck physics (gravity, inertia), takes little getting used to.
In all, the game offers 40 levels divided among three different types of play: Rush, Puzzle and Bonus levels. Rush levels involve eliminating enough marbles to at least reach the indicated goldScore while not letting the puck fall off the screen. It is also important not to let the growing field of marbles, scrolling in from the bottom of the screen, reach the safety line at the top of the screen. Puzzle levels are set against a timer and are completed when either all of the marbles on the screen are eliminated or the special Goal marble is eliminated (in the case of the latter, the more marbles eliminated before the Goal marble, the higher your score). And Bonus levels are similar to Rush levels, with an expanding field of marbles, but are set against a timer and the risk of losing the puck off the screen is removed. The various level types are intermixed in the standard play mode and can also be selected individually by type, as well.
We discussed ReBounce in our latest podcast (#10) and had mixed, but overall positive, reactions to it. I love the game, finding it to deliver a feel highly reminiscent of Peggle (one of my favorite iPhone games), but with the notable addition of a fast paced, real-time element. Arnold, too, enjoyed the game but felt that the intermixing of the three different board types in the standard play mode can be, at times, awkward. Eli, on the other hand, found the intense, real-time action to be a bit out of place in a game of this sort. A look at the developer’s gameplay video should help you decide of ReBounce is for you.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
I just spent the entirety of a two and a half hour flight knocking out marbles with my puck, never finding it turn tedious. Noting that, at a debut sale price of $0.99, ReBounce seems a rather solid bit of iPhone gaming for your dollar. At least, two out of three experts agree…
App Store Link: ReBounce, $0.99 (limited time)
