David. Review

In the dawn of minimalistic games, tons of simple yet difficult games are popping up every day in the App Store, which would normally mean that competition for this sort of title should be fierce. However, David has little to worry about in this regard. Because unlike 99% of all other such games, this one feels original, full of heart, and much less frustrating (in spite of its intended difficult nature).

David is not exactly like a platformer, because every level sends players straight to the boss battle. This means that users are immediately thrown in the danger zone and left to figure out how to destroy their enemy. All of the levels are represented by a door that David can enter from the main screen. Most of them are open from the beginning, giving players the option to tackle them in whichever order they see fit.

On any given level players must deal with the anomaly in a specific way (kind of like a non-complicated puzzle), but ultimately the game really boils down to one goal: charge David’s power until it’s ready to shoot at the enemy. It’s a physics-based game that will require people to use a small amount of creativity in trying to understand how their shot will play out. Often times, shooting the monster will cause it to break in to a multitude of smaller pieces which then quickly charge at the player.

There are two difficulty levels: “Okay” and “Very”. On Okay, players have a few dots of health that leave room for some mistakes, but on Very they only have one chance – and that complicates things. A lot. Finishing every level on Okay will unlock a bonus one, and completing them all on both difficulties will open up the final door. While it should take a pretty short amount of time to finish them on the first difficulty (less than an hour), going for Very and getting to a point where one can unlock the final challenge is a different story altogether.

As for the controls, things aren’t quite as nice and calming as the overall atmosphere. Players must move their character left and right with one hand and tap on a separate button to leap upward with the other hand (which can be done repeatedly, giving players the possibility to reach any height they like). The problem is that David must also defend himself and, by now, the player has probably run out of hands. In other words, if one is to actually hold his thumb on David in order to charge his power until it’s ready and flick it at the enemy, the player must either not move or not jump – that complicates things even more. It does help that time slows down once the player is holding his thumb for the attack, but the controls can still become quite frustrating at times.

Ultimately however, David is an original take on a quickly saturated genre, and fans of the style should definitely give it a try.