Tag: La Boite »

The iOS Moffee experience seems to be a bit of a mixed bag, what with the somewhat lackluster response to their dice app and the fun-but-flawed nature of TheColossusAge. Well if early impressions are any indication, the bag is going to get decidedly full of more awesome once they release The Temple of Ogrosh.

In a nutshell, The Temple of Ogrash is meant to be a gamebook set in the Moffee universe. For those without any prior experience with the genre, try to think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure book with major RPG elements such as an inventory system and dice combat. At the moment there isn't a whole lot of info to go on but I can reiterate some of the tidbits from the press release. The game will include five chapters, each at about 130 pages apiece, for a total of 650 possible pages of gamebooking. There will indeed be an inventory, as well as experience, sleep and hunger systems. Combat will still involve dice rolling like most gamebooks, but will also feature element attacks (fire, ice, poison, etc...) and a ton of possible weapon combinations (1920, plus unique items). Add to all of that the inclusion of multiple enemies, difficulty levels, several heroes and actual animations (ANIMATIONS, guys!) and this is looking like one heck of an awesome thing.

The Temple of Ogrosh is still a ways out. No pricing or release info has been made available yet, but judging by the checklist in the press release it's roughly around the halfway mark. We'll do our best to keep everyone up-to-date on this glorious-looking adventure.

I'm not entirely certain of the story behind TheColossusAge. I recall owning the exact same game, using assets from the exact same source (Moffee), only it was called "Wharr: The Colossus Age." This game had since been pulled from the App Store. Now it's apparently back under a new name. Yeah, I've got no idea what happened or why. Regardless, it's the same game it's always been and is a game I'd like to talk a bit about.

TheColossusAge is what most iOS gamers would refer to as a "Jumper" or possibly platformer. As with other games in the genre the point is to tilt the device from side to side in order to land on platforms so that the character can bounce up to the next level of footholds and so on. Unlike other games in the genre, it's not endless. Each stage is actually a massive boss fight of sorts, with the Orc Queen facing off against a number of colossi. Navigating from platform to platform is still essential, but players also have to contend with falling spiky things, changes in wind direction and the colossus itself. They can swipe with a finger a handful of times between each jump in order to directly damage these giants, as well as destroy those pesky pointy obstacles. It sounds tough, and it is, but thankfully any cash earned through victory can be spent to upgrade the Orc Queen with various special passive abilities (i.e. earn more gold, do more damage, etc...).

The very concept behind TheColossusAge is what makes it so interesting. The need to constantly chip away at the colossus' health while maintaining control and planning that next touch-down is unlike anything I've experienced in another iOS jumper. Being able to upgrade also keeps things from getting stale as the improved abilities can make quite a difference.

On the flip-side, there isn't a whole heck of a lot of variety to it. Granted that's the nature of the genre, but each colossus amounts to more of a scenery change than anything significantly different. They get tougher, but that's about it. The complete and total lack of any sort of music also makes the game feel more devoid of life than it really should. Sound effect are there, but everything seems so empty without any background tunes to accompany them.

Still for a one-dollar jumping game that isn't already well known by 95% of all iOS users, TheColossusAge can be pretty fun. It's certainly not as robust as other more popular games in the genre but it offers a more unique experience. One that I'd gladly recommend to people who enjoy this kind of stuff.