Rock Pocket Games’ latest title, The Package [99¢], hit the App Store a little more than a week ago. As soon as we saw the screenshots in iTunes, we had to give the game a try. Truthfully, The Package had been on our list of games to review since then, but every time I’d sit down to write about the game I’d end up loading it up on my iPhone and toiling away trying to solve the 20 included levels instead of actually reviewing the game.
In fact, how long this review had been in waiting should serve as a great indicator of how much I’ve been enjoying the game. Some of my favorite games on the App Store are similar physics puzzlers, and they all work very well on the device because they don’t require any kind of quick movement, and all of them can be put down for a few moments if you need to attend to something else without really even needing to pause the game.
If you’re also a fan of these kinds of physics games, the premise of The Package will instantly be familiar to you. Taking place in some kind of crazy futuristic warehouse, you must get the package from the start to the green zone at the end of the level. This goal is accomplished by positioning various items in the game world such as fans to blow the box, ramps for the box to slide up, springs for the box to bounce off of, and other things.
The 20 levels increase in difficulty quite nicely, and much like Enigmo, it didn’t take me long to get stumped to the point of experimenting for an embarrassing amount of time moving the different puzzle pieces around to get the box to where it needs to go. If you’re an over-achiever, there are even golden packages for you to collect in game for additional bonuses. Also, the graphics of The Package are some of the best looking I’ve seen from a game like this, with third-generation device enhancements that are enabled if you’re playing on a device that supports them.
The controls work well, although after being spoiled by the massive touch areas of the puzzle pieces in Enigmo Deluxe for the iPad, I can’t help but hope they eventually release an iPad version of the game. The Package shares similar issues with all physics games in that in once you advance to levels that require complicated positioning, grabbing and manipulating the correct pieces can get tricky, but it never caused more than a few easily fixable mistakes.
At the launch price of $3.99, The Package was a little hard to recommend as there are tons of other games with far more content and very similar gameplay available for much less. However, at its current sale price of 99¢, this should be an instant-purchase for any fan of physics puzzlers, especially if you have an iPhone 3GS or 3rd Generation iPod touch.
