Dance with me, make me Sway.
The iPhone really does seem like the perfect platform for games. With it’s touch screen, accelerometer and built-in internet access, it has more technology in it than most of the current line up of portable gaming devices. Super Monkey Ball was one of the first games released and it’s the perfect game to showcase the iPhone’s abilities; using the accelerometer to move the character around the platform and the graphics are great! But the initial controls were pretty harsh and unforgiving. After a fun first few games, it quickly lost its appeal.
I’ve bought a lot of games on the iPhone since then and that pretty much sums up my experience with them so far. They’re fun and novel for the first few minutes but the excitement wears off quickly and I’ve generally thought of most iPhone games as novelty tech demos…
… Until now.
Sway is a new game for the iPhone which for me rivals the addictive gameplay and replayability of Tetris, along with the innovation and similar graphical style of Little Big Planet.
You control the hands and body of your character and the aim is to ‘sway’ to the end of the level, collecting stars and keys in order to unlock new levels and characters. The graphics are genuinely beautiful and the stunning rag-doll physics is extremely entertaining – you will spend a lot of time just swinging your character in random directions around the level (and probably most often off the screen!) just to watch the way it moves.
While the whole concept of the game sounds like it’s going to be a little complicated to play (and it will take a few minutes to get used to the controls) the interface is brilliantly simple and very intuitive.
I haven’t been surprised by or enjoyed a game on any platform quite as much as this in a long time (with the exception perhaps of Little Big Planet on the PS3!). I’m sure Sway will be a lot like Marmite for many people: You’ll either love it or hate it. But for me I’m glad this developers has managed to harness the power and technology on the iPhone to create a thoroughly enjoyable game.
Sway is well worth the £2.99 price tag and they’re already working on a free update with 10 news levels and 3 more characters to play! Check out the trailer for Sway here. My only issue with the game is that my girlfriend is loving it and won’t give my phone back!
I also recently discovered that many of the games which I initially had some niggles with have had updates and new content via iTunes! The controls of Super Monkey Ball have been significantly improved and it is now far more playable than before!
March 13th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Omg this looks so freaking good. I can’t believe the graphics are that good…(!).
If only they had something like that for the Nintendo DS…. I’m very tempted to get a iPod Touch now! Just for this game…(!)
Gimme, Aidan [yoink]
March 15th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
I’ve checked a few other games out this weekend Choz… This is still the best by far.
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I wanted to call you a slacker for checking out more games but knew the flaw in this statement was that it was probably more of a statement of self!!