Coin & Flour Alpha Issue Review

Coin & Flour isn't the most memorable of names, admittedly, but it does tell an interesting and well drawn story in a Manga vein. It's a shame then that the app's controls let it down somewhat.

The app isn't the longest of reads, offering a brief glimpse into what's to come for followers of the Manga, but it just about grabs the reader enough to make them want to see what happens next. It follows the tale of an angel and a demon, set to fall in love despite their peculiar backgrounds. Flour is a mail separator in Heaven, while Coin delivers things in Hell. Yes, it is pretty odd, but interesting.

Playback is available in two different formats depending on the orientation of the iOS device. Reader mode, activated through portrait orientation, allows users to flick through the pages themselves, reading at their own pace and enjoying the comic book appearance. Player mode, via landscape orientation, plays Coin & Flour as an animation, bringing with it a more cinematic quality but detracting slightly from the comic book nature. Options to expand the text balloons prove beneficial to those with sight problems.

Both methods work equally well as a storytelling device, but, equally, they struggle with their controls. Reader mode has some issues when flicking from page to page, as well as tapping on individual panes, while Player mode suffers from small, awkward buttons that control the action. None of these issues are deal breakers, given the sedentary nature of the app, but they are irritants.

Coin & Flour struggles through its presentation based issues, but it does tell an interesting story. The animation and artwork is quite attractive and should appeal to anime and Manga fans, even if future instalments could do with more attention to detail with the controls.