Sound Ride Review

Sound Ride is a tough game. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times it's irritating, and a few times it's downright infuriating. Its charm will take it so far but a sometimes illogical physics engine will ultimately annoy.

Players control Kiwi, a running bird keen to escape various perils while also creating pleasant new beats along the way. Music manipulation is one of the shining moments for this game, with the collection of various objects affecting what music comes out of one's iOS device. Typical auto-running controls feature here with jump initiated with one sole tap, and double jump requiring two. Across the 20 levels available players must dodge pits, spikes, rotating platforms, and the curse of face-planting into any object.

It's a fairly challenging selection of obstacles - with one hit taking the player back to the beginning or, if they're lucky, a halfway checkpoint. Problems lie in how the game's engine reacts to certain moments, with unfair deaths sometimes annoyingly plentiful. A mixture of a camera that only gives a brief glimpse of what's ahead, as well as awkward physics, hinders what could be a very delightful game.

That's not to say that Sound Ride isn't worth taking a look at, but do expect to be infuriated as often as one is tantalized. Alongside the 20 levels on offer is a daily ride mode, allowing players to compete with others to reach the highest score on a randomly generated stage. It's a neat touch, greatly adding to the game's replayability, but those flakey responses still rear their irritating heads here.

The potential often evident here, Sound Ride will beguile and infuriate in equal measure. It sounds delightful and has a minimalistic charm to it. It's just unfortunate that time spent with it will often require some hefty patience levels.