REDDEN Review

Developer: Team Bulosodeuk
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

Graphics / Sound Rating:
Game Controls Rating:
Gameplay Rating:
Re-use / Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

REDDEN is a bizarre game that's kind of a puzzler. It's about controlling projectiles in mid-air as they make their way toward their intended targets. Theweird premise - paired with its slick sense of style and its interestingly deep narrative - make it feel more like a mobile game developed by Suda51 (killer7, No More Heroes). It's not the easiest game to play, and it does have some problems, but its brand of crazy is so up my alley that it's easy for me to look past the shortcomings and revel in its eccentric sensibilities.

In the beginning players find themselves looking inside a junk shop, while starting the game allows them to enter and meet some of the cast; including a cutting board, a pot, and a cleaver. The thing these "characters" have in common is that - at a certain point - their base materials served another purpose: The cutting board was an arrow, the pot a shuriken, and the cleaver a bullet. These characters tell their stories to other objects in the junk shop, and it's up to players to reenact each object's former glory in the hands of their former owners.

How does this translate into gameplay? Well, each level is a specific scenario where one of the junk characters' former owners needs to accomplish increasingly complex feats of accuracy, and it's up to players to tilt these airborne projectiles around and through objects to make sure they hit their target. If players don't like to tilt, they can also choose to use their finger to control the object's trajectory. To aid in the process of navigating levels successfully, they can also tap and hold the left side of the screen to activate a limited special ability that is unique to each object and becomes a necessary tool to complete most levels. Upon hitting the designated target, players are scored and awarded stars based on their overall performance before moving on to the next challenge.

While the general core of REDDENis solid, there are a few things about it that aren't so great. The first thing to note is that it seems a little buggy. Occasionally the in-game subtitles refuse to appear for certain letters, making everything impossible to read. This is exacerbated by the fact that all of the"voice acting" is a bunch of garbled gibberish. Secondly,there are times when the physics can end a run prematurely without players really knowing what's going on. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the beginning of every level starts with a pretty prolonged and unskippableanimation.

REDDEN is definitely not for everyone. Because of the difficulty, players that are curious about the story may go long stretches without getting what they want out of it, and if they hit a cutscene they may not be able to read it. Even with these problems though, it's kind of hard not to admire REDDEN. It's a gorgeous game that refuses to be normal in almost every way. For that, I have to sayit's definitely worth checking out.

[youtube d809X6w3Rpo600]