iDodge: Space Ninja

Jeff Scott — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:50:45 +0000

iDodge: Space Ninja

By Jeff Scott on January 19th, 2009
Our Rating: :: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

An accelerometer based space game that takes the shooting out of shooter and still delivers solid, difficult, and amazingly fun arcade action. An example for how to get the controls just right in a game.

Developer: Jormy Games
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 1.02

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

iDodge: Space Ninja looks like a killer shooter, but it’s not. It’s more of an escape game kind of game. While you don’t have any sort of lasers, or guns of any kind, you do have power ups to help you get through the levels.

In this game, you are an elite space mercenary tasked with delivering an object. You do this by guiding your ship through 40 progressively difficult levels. To do this you guide your ship by using the accelerometer past various different defense systems to the goal. You use just he accelerometer to avoid the defenses by going in any direction, even backwards to avoid their shots. You also have the option of touching the screen to enable the bullet time to give you better ability to avoid the shots by slowing them down. In addition there are seven different powerups you can use to make your gameplay a little easier. These include power ups such as slowing down the rest of the game field and speeding up your ship.

Jormy really gets the accelerometer based control system perfect in this game. It’s one of the best accelerometer controls we’ve seen. It is responsive and accurate as well as having fantastic calibration capabilities to allow you to play with the device in any orientation (laying down, sitting up, etc.).

Here’s a short video from the developer that shows the game and gives you a great idea of the gameplay:

Space Ninja is a delight to play. It’s a real arcade game and it’s not easy to beat. It also takes advantage of the hardware but doesn’t throw in too much to complicate the gameplay. Highly recommended!