Kometen Review

Developer: Erik Svedang
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

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Some games are created to challenge you in one way or another. Some games have you shoot things, some games have you race things, and some games have you outsmart things, but Kometen is not that kind of game. Obviously inspired by the randomness that is Katamari, Kometen subscribes to the eastern way of thought in that games do not need to have a point, they only need to look pretty and be able to be played for as long as someone can sit down.

Kometen has a simple premise. You are a comet, and you like to eat things and go fast. You fly around the galaxy searching for planets while eating things orbiting planets so you can use your speed boost. To fly, you have to attach yourself to planets gravitational fields by clicking on the planet. After spinning around the planet for a bit and gaining speed, you swipe the screen to let go and you race off to the next planet.

After spinning around things, eating space junk, using speed boosts, and discovering planets for awhile, you are done. There is no more game to play, you just float along through the galaxy seeing how fast you can go during speed boosts. There is obviously a certain percentage of population that has reached some sort of nirvana that can let them play this for hours on end. These are the same people that enjoy playing Pocket God for hours at a time, as well as Nobi Nobi Boy.

The shining beacon for this app is its style. Everything is very nicely hand drawn (or hand made) with rich colors and fun effects. Your comet, while just a comet, has an expression filled face that changes depending on if he is eating, moving, not moving, and moving in hyper speed. The game deserves huge style points for looking so darn good, but I'm not sure if it is enough.

Like the time wasting app hall of fame games before it, there really isn't much to do. The problem with Kometen is that there is really nothing to do. The game needs more variety to keep it worth playing for more than 10 minutes. The is only so much flying around you can do without longing for something that pays you back with something. I'd love to see some more effects drawn in for doing special things, or even some kind of basic mission added just to keep me excited.

I really want Kometen to succeed for the sole reason that it is extremely pretty. My hope is that I will be rewarded for my purchase with some sort of update package a la Pocket God, but I fear that I won't. In its current state, it would be hard for me to advise getting this game if you are expecting a game of any kind. If you aren't a gamer though and just want something pretty to pass the time, Kometen might be right up your alley.