A good concept from Strange Games.
Demolicious is created by developer Strange Games. Strange Games are a collection of game designers that previously worked on big AAA titles. Their Bio on their webpage says that they are now looking to be innovative, but how does their first game fare?
The story behind Demolicious is that you have to destroy wooden crates to free an ancient race of people, trapped within the crates by an evil sorcerer. I presume the story was made to be slightly ridiculous on purpose. A slight negative I have at this point is that you wouldn’t know the background story unless you watched the launch trailer, as the cinematic isn’t on the game. Though as the story is not why you are playing this game, the missing cinematic is only a slight negative.
Demolicious has 3 chapters, each with 19 levels and a special end of chapter level. All the chapters start the same. You are presented with a cannon (or sometimes multiple cannons) and some crates positioned within the circus ring. Your objective is to destroy all the crates with the limited amount of cannon balls you have. While there is a fair amount of levels, I didn’t find any of them particularly challenging and as a result I wouldn’t say this game has a very long lifespan. The real challenge comes from trying to achieve a 3 star rating on each level, but even that won’t take too long.
Gameplay works by you tapping and holding on the screen to bring up a line of fire for the cannon. Move your finger around the screen to move the cannons aim, release your finger to fire. On the left of the screen there is a button that enables you to zoom in and out to shoot with more accuracy, and on the right is a button to switch to other cannons that are positioned around the circus tent to get a better angle on the crates. Tapping on the screen with 2 fingers allows the user to freely rotate the screen around the boxes allowing for a tactical view.
A star rating is received at the end of each level depending on how many cannon balls you had to use, the fewer you use the better rating you will get. To complete a level you must get at least one star. Once the last box is destroyed you will be treated to some very satisfying replays of your final shot. The slow motion replays are great and really show off the 3D visuals.
The graphics are particularly nice. The 3D visuals help to give the game added depth but are done in a cartoon style. There are weather effects in the levels too; the snowflakes moving across the screen look incredible. A little disappointment I have with the weather effects is that they do not interact with the cannon balls as they fly through the air, which would have been good to see.
At the end of each level you receive a score, so it seem like a bit of a waste that Game Center integration isn’t included. Overall it seems like this game focused a lot on its visuals and gameplay and not enough on the quantity or complexity of its levels. It is fun to play in short bursts, and perhaps in short bursts it might last you a little while. If you like long gaming sessions though, it can easily be done in a few hours. Hopefully in future updates Strange Games will add new chapters that are a lot harder, and integration with Game center.
- Sound: 7
- Graphics: 9
- Gameplay: 8
- Longevity: 6
7
Good
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