Achtung Review

Snake is the classic, oft-included game for mobile devices. Naturally, some iOS developers are going to try to reinvent those games in new and unique ways. One iteration of Snake that I recently reviewed was Hyper Snake, now I’m on to Achtung. Achtung is a multiplayer Snake-like battle for up to four people. We need more of these “huddle” games on the App Store immediately.

Achtung reminds me of a specific mini-game from a party game on the original XBox, Fusion Frenzy. In that game, a mini-game existed where up to four players would ride around on bumper cars that left a trail of fire. If a player ran into the trail of fire, that player would be eliminated. Achtung works in exactly the same way. Players control a cosmic-looking laser snake that leaves a trail. The last player standing wins. Since the only controls are an arrow to the left and right, having four sets of controls for each corner of the screen isn’t cluttered at all.

A new single player mode has been added to the game in Achtung’s 2.0 release. The developers added a bot to play against that’s quite challenging. Unfortunately, there aren’t any difficulty settings to the bot (unless changing the game speed counts). New players will definitely be challenged by the bot, and it’s a great way to learn.

The game does something that annoys me with quite a few apps. The orientation of the screen can’t be flipped. I prefer to have my home button on the left when I play games so that I can use the smart cover to prop the iPad up. For the game, the home button is always on the right.

The one thing I would really love to see for this app is bluetooth multiplayer. Getting four people to huddle around an iPad and play a game is fun. But I envision four iPhone controllers connected to the iPad and being projected to my Apple TV via AirPlay. Achtung would become similar to a console party game.

Achtung Duo is the iPhone/iPod Touch version of Achtung. But instead of allowing four people to cram around an iPhone, Duo only allows for two-player multiplayer.

Achtung should be an instant download for anyone who loves to share the iPad by playing multiplayer games. From experience, it’s great for long car rides in the back seat.

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