Flashbulb Games is a company formed by the founding members of the gaming studio Press Play, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2012 and shuttered in May of last year. They’ve made it their mission to ensure that some of the best games put out by Press Play can live on under their new studio’s moniker, and they’ve already done so in the mobile space by releasing the previously Windows-exclusive Tentacles: Enter the Mind (Free) onto iOS last November and re-releasing the previously Microsoft-published 2012 hit Tentacles: Enter the Dolphin ($2.99) to iOS in December. Their next big project was to bring Kalimba, a novel puzzle platformer released by Press Play in late 2014 on Xbox One and in the spring of 2015 on desktop, over to iOS. They were on the hunt for beta testers early last month, and it appears as if all systems are now go following that testing period as Kalimba is all set to arrive on the App Store this Thursday.
One of the things Kalimba emphasized in its console and PC releases was cooperative mutliplayer that saw each player controlling the little totems in the game independently and working with each other to move past the game’s various obstacles. That spirit will remain alive in the iOS version, at least on the iPad, which will feature same-device co-op for two players. iPhone owners don’t quite have the screen real estate to pull that one off, but fortunately there’s a robust single-player campaign to play through so I don’t think it will be a feature that’s missed too much. If you enjoy puzzle platformers and like the look of the above trailer, then look for Kalimba on the App Store this Thursday at a price of just $3.99.
