Some of the most popular free to play games are criticized for being mindless tap-fests, devoid of strategy or meaningful gameplay. And, for many free to play games, it’s a valid criticism. There’s an artificial sense of progression from opening up a game, making a few taps and collecting in-game rewards, and doing it over ad infinitum as you work towards whatever “goals" the game has laid out for you. In fact, it’s the sort of “gameplay" even a robot could handle, as proven by Uli Kilian who built himself a robot out of Lego that could tap away at Jurassic Park Builder (Free) and earn him in-game income as he slept. Seriously, check it out.
The Lego Technics robot is powered by an Arduino board and connected to a Windows computer. Kilian created a simple program that tells the robot where in the game to tap and at what time intervals in order to collect the rewards from his stable of dinosaurs. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. Wired has a more in-depth article on Kilian’s creation and his motives behind it, as well as a gallery of photos of the robot, so be sure to check that out. What strikes me as funny is that humanity has always tried to build automated ways to get work done that humans didn’t want to do themselves, so if we’re now building a robot to play through a game for us, is it still even a game? Or is it just busy work disguised in a fancy package?
[Wired UK]
A 3D Pivvot? I'm in.
This game is fantastic. It actually made me nostalgic (for an iOS game, already?) for Boost 2, which is pretty awesome and in the same vein and price point.
Maybe no one is talking it up because they are busy playing it?!
Maybe they're scared to comment now. ;)
You stole my name.
Hey sugar!
I'm gonna have to sue you. I've trademarked the name - Kane
This is another great entry in a emerging new genre, along side recent classics like Super Hexagon, Impossible Road, Pivvot, Duet, and Boson X.
And Wave Wave, can't believe I almost left out that gem of a game.
The thread is barren because like everyone who was hyping it is in timeout except for me
It looks like old PlayStation game, Nanotek Warrior without the shooting.
I picked it up and I will play it later if I have time.
You're kidding me, right?? Hodappy bird was definitely the game of the week! You really know how to pick 'em Eli...smh
God, I can only imagine the torches and pitchforks if they picked Hodappy Bird. Would've have been a great joke to do so for a day or two before switching to Unpossible.
Just would've. No have. Oops.
Hodappy Bird didn't win game of the week because it's Game of the Year. I heard that even Dong is addicted to this version.
I might buy it just for the name.
Bought it. had fun. Prefer the touch instead of tilt. What bout u guys?
I prefer tilt, since I have control over how fast it rotates, whereas touch only rotates at one speed, so I have to keep doing little taps. I didn't like the default tilt sensitivity though, and might have gone with touch if sensitivity wasn't adjustable. Once I lowered the tilt sensitivity a little I felt like I had much more precise control with tilt.
I do appreciate the amount of polish and design that has gone into this game. There's a fair amount of thought and planning that's gone into the overall production of Unpossible.
But at the same time, it's still not all that dissimilar to other games of its kind, barring a higher level of difficulty.
I will probably get this game, but I feel that it may soon be swept aside on the store and in people's minds as it doesn't quite bring anything new or fresh to the twitchy-rail dodger type mould.
The parallels between this and Synesthetic are hard to ignore.
I see the superficial similarity, but the aesthetics, experience and focus of playing Synesthetic and Unpossible are very different. Synesthetic isn't all that hard, and seems much more about giving players a cool psychedelic experience. Unpossible is all about testing your focus and reflexes to the max, while also giving you the feeling of being on a thrill ride. So while they both involve navigating along a pipe, I think they'll appeal to quite different sets of people. In any case, when we're talking about $2 - $3 games, they don't need a whole ton of originality to be worth trying.
Awful pick. Hodappy bird was clearly the best game of this week. Corporate shills!! In case anyone is confused this is the very definition of sarcasm.
I dunno, it's fun, but not for more than 10 minutes. It's practically a screensaver... Maybe I'm looking for a little too much gameplay in a $1.99 game, but this just seems like a bit of a rip.
Some of us simply can't play this kind of game. Just watching video makes me a bit ill.
Hodappy bird was way better... I am really disappointed with this game of the week choice. I know you guys want to give more attention to the less famous games but come on.. Really upset right now. This and finding out that all my bitcoins from Hodappy bird were fake.. My week sucks
Excellent choice. Hearthstone was the low-hanging fruit that every gaming site under the sun is talking about, but Unpossible is far more deserving of TA's weekly award. Thanks for featuring such a great new game.
Oh, and please give it the maximum amount of McDonald's golden nuggets.
I'd have to say I'm actually really enjoying Hitman Go. TA gave it a solid score and as a game, it's reasonably unique. Needs more attention.
Hearthstone? Anyone? It was 2 days out when this article was written.
I got bored with Unpossible after an hour or two. It were a fun couple of hours but t doesn't handle a candle to Hearthstone.
I have played more Hearthstone in the last couple of days than I played AAA console titles. That game is truly amazing. F2P done right. Easy to learn, impossible to master. Addictive as hell. Plays fantastic on touch. Beautifully art and animation...
This game looks a lot like the game Proun... Which I wasn't too fond of.
I'll stick with Hearthstone for now.
I just thought I'd mention that Unpossible is one of the first "twitch" games to actually pull me in...
I love reading that!