Cisco Edge Quest 2

In February, Cisco released the flash version of this Edge Quest with a press release about a tournament where top competitors could win prizes depending on their performance. Cisco has now ported three levels of the game to the iPhone platform. In Edge Quest, the your vehicle races along a set of five lanes, collecting packets and avoiding data loss along the way. There are five types of packets. The first is standard data. The second are speed upgrades. The third and fourth are damaged packets and QA (repair) packets. The QA packets must be collected within a short time period in order to fix the damaged packets. The last type are obstructions. Obstructions must be avoided, as they reduce uptime. You goal is to navigate the lanes, ensuring the greatest uptime. This is done by pressing the left and right side of the iPhone or iPod Touch's screen. If at any time your uptime falls below 99.999%, you'll have to restart the level.

The entire experience of Edge Quest is almost an exact copy of the flash game. The graphics are nice looking, the sounds are vibrant and the narration is well done. While the controls don't always work as well as on a pc, they are completely passable. The game works best when you've acquired several speed boosts. At that point it begins to feel nicely frantic and enjoyable. It's also at this point that you begin to wish for more levels.

My only real complaint about the game is its length. The three levels speed by in no time and you're left trying to simply boost your scores. It's just far too short. It feels like there should be a link sending you to the App Store to purchase the retail version. Perhaps the idea is to drive people to the online tournament. Whatever the reasons, the lack of more content frustrates all the more because it is a fun game. In addition, a minor aesthetic wish that I have is for curves. Even if I'm not steering, I'd love to feel a curving landscape around me. Hurtling forward in a perfectly straight pipeline limits the game's impact.

I'd love to go on and on telling you about Edge Quest, but, in truth, the game seems more like a demo than anything. It's solid on many levels and is a fun distraction when you're waiting in line. However, some may be reluctant to fill a valuable slot in their iPhone with a game that doesn't include more content. Here's hoping that more levels will be added soon.