More than a decade ago, Flash platformer N made waves in the gaming world with its splendid brand of precision, ninja-based platforming. I didn’t play it myself until it arrived on the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS as N+ a few years later, but I could definitely see what all the fuss was about. Developer Super Smith Bros is attempting to bring an N-esque platformer to mobile called Collect or Die, and while it doesn’t feature all the wall-jumping ninja moves of its inspiration, it does feature lots of deadly traps to avoid and plenty of coins to collect. There’s even a touch of Portal in there as your character moves from test chamber to test chamber as you watch the action unfold from closed-circuit television cameras.
While Collect or Die looks great based on this trailer, there’s one very important point that I just know from years of experience will be a very controversial decision amongst mobile gamers: The game is controlled entirely by tilt. No virtual buttons here, folks. This was a deliberate decision, and accordiing to the developers they feel the tilt-only control scheme “contributes to the frustrating but rewarding experience we were going for." That may well be true, but some players simply won’t touch tilt-controlled games no matter what. For those that don’t mind tilt, and those who love super difficult platformer, Collect or Die should fit the bill nicely. It’ll be $1.99 with no IAP when it launches next Thursday, and sometime after that a free with ads version will be released so you can see firsthand how this tilting platformer works.
