The Game

Reflecting light off of a rotating platform is quite a pain.

Rolando is a fun puzzle/adventure game that uses the accelerometer and touch screen features of the iPhone and iPod Touch. You control most Rolandos by tilting the device to make them move from around. You use the touch screen for menu navigation, interacting with objects in the game like elevators and hinges, and selecting Rolandos. You can also make the Rolandos jump by flicking your finger up on the screen. Occasionally, some Rolando commandos will be under your control, these spiky ball stick to surfaces and jump to other surfaces on your command. You learn the basics through tutorial levels, but the basics do take quite some time to get down.

Your goal is to get a certain number of Rolandos through a door. Sometimes, this can be simple, but at times it is actually much harder than it seems. For each stage there are medals for beating the stage within the time limit and collecting all the gems. This is great because it gives the perfect challenge for each stage and increases replay value. Though you don’t get a medal, it is fun to try to do all of them in one go. One of the best features of Rolando is iSave, essentially an anti-rage-quitting tool that will save your spot should you leave the game, for any reason.

You can change gravity, on some stages, by rotating the device on it’s sides.

My biggest complaint of Rolando is that it has been done before. If you haven’t played LocoRoco, let me get you up to speed. It looks, feels, and plays exactly like Rolando, minus the iPhone/iPod Touch features. The features added for the iPhone/iPod platform does make, obviously in my opinion, Rolando a better game, but it bothers me that they are so similar, like HandCircus and ngmoco:) were not trying to make an original game.

Graphics

Rolando’s graphics are acceptable. The game is very charming in every sense, such as the pop-up book level selector, the colors, and the Rolando’s themselves, just to name a few. Everything is nicely colored or not colored, like the enemies. It has a good feel about it. I hate to say describe a game like this, but the graphics can best be summed up as cute.

The pop-up level selector is one of many little things that make it charming.

Sound

Like the graphics, Rolando’s sound effects are just as good. There isn’t a whole lot of detail to go into about them, but it is definitely a game to have the sound up all the way, or under 80% of maximum volume if your using headphones. Safety first! The music, though hard to describe, works in perfect harmony with the rest of the game. Once again, I do have to advise playing this game with the sound on.

Additional Comments

Rolando is one game that is hard to put down. Once you get going, it always seems to be, “one more medal” or, “one more stage.” The game is dangerously addicting at best. There is plenty of content through the many stages, both bonus and regular, the medals, and just playing the game to play it. Even if you have played the LocoRoco series, Rolando is still a game worth picking up.

Conclusion

Rolando is the perfect game for anyone looking to get a game for his or her iPhone or iPod Touch. The game is full of content and is just plain addicting. It is quite sad to know that ngmoco:) was planning taking Rolando off the App Store when Rolando 2 came out, but don’t fret, it is still there. With a $5.99 USD price tag, I can easily say it is worth every penny. If you get done with this and are itching for more, be sure to check out Rolando 2 or the LocoRoco games.

The Game

You call that an invasion?

The universe is in deep doggy doo – the S’Rath, an evil alien race, is invading planets and wiping out all of the inhabitants. You, the trusty strategist of these gaggle of planets, are given the task of protecting the fleeing inhabitants from being completely wiped out by these S’Rath jerks through the creation of defensive structures that will stop them dead in their tracks. Are you scared yet? Don’t be, because Star Defense is genuinely one of the best tower defense games I have ever played, let alone on the iPhone, and it is so well polished that I could literally see my reflection in the very well detailed models of the game.

In essence, you have four towers at your disposal: machine gun, flamethrower, slow, and lightning. The machine gun has a high rate of fire, but will only deal damage to a single individual enemy. Flamethrowers cause damage over time, slow will slow down your enemies, and lightning causes high damage over an area. There is of course a tower limit depending on the level and difficulty, and they must be spaced out appropriately. These towers can be upgraded to Level 3 towers where they increase in power and range for every level gained, but they are all rather pricey.

Oh… that’s a little better I guess…

As for the game itself, you are going from planet to planet helping the survivors fend off the onrush of S’Rath invaders and each planet increases the number of incoming waves of enemies. By my count, there are at least eight different kinds of S’Rath invaders, ranging from non-factor Probes to slow-resistant Man-O-Wars who will breeze past your machine guns. Once you complete the mission at a specific planet, you can also continue on for Endless mode where you survive as long as possible as the enemies continue to become stronger and stronger.

Star Defense also implements the Plus+ network, the social gaming platform from ngmoco:) that allows you to chat with other players on the network, try to get a score onto the leaderboards, or tackle one of the many achievements available to Star Defense players. This was my first experience with the Plus+ network, and I have to say I was mighty impressed and I look forward to future interactions with it. One of the fun little features that I found was that Star Defense had many challenges available to the user and you could send that challenge to one of your other Plus+ friends, which they could beat for bragging rights.

Graphics

Star Defense has gorgeous graphics – entirely 3D with very detailed sprites that are smoothly animated. In addition, the planets you will be playing on are lush and full of little intricate details that add to the environment. If you are anything like me, you will spend a lot of time rotating and zooming into the planet just to check out all of the different details while checking out the paths that the enemy combatants will be traveling on.

Sound

Welp, I failed.

Star Defense has a great futuristic-style soundtrack in the menu that definitely made you want to kick some alien butt, but once you enter the game, you are given a musical score that is very fitting for the planet. For example, the nature-like planet had a very serene and calm soundtrack with mostly piano, and the ice planet had a very cold and distant feeling soundtrack. Otherwise, the only music you will be hearing is the sounds of your enemies being obliterated – and is it an ever sweet sound.

Conclusion

Star Defense is one of those fantastic games that you definitely will have to buy, a tower defense game that is just so polished, so detailed, and so fun that you will will spend hours battling back hordes of S’Rath invaders just to save the universe. So what are you waiting for, a cape?