In the wake of recent mind-blowing puzzle-platformers such as Braid, it’s always great to see new additions enter the fray. I recently got my hands on what I would consider a lower-level addition to the genre. And even better, it’s on the iPhone. Enter iSHIFT.
Now don’t get me wrong, this ain’t no Braid, but what it does have to offer is a fun, easy-going puzzle-platformer that will quickly begin to occupy your time. First a little background. Like a lot of iPhone games, this game originated as a flash game. Yeah, i know, sucks for the iPhone right. Well, maybe not. Certainly the iPhone’s 3D capability is worth more than the average flash/browser based game, but there is definitely a place for the better of the fore-mentioned genre to have a second coming. iShift is brought to us by the flash games site Armor Games and is more than likely the first iteration in a slew of games coming from this franchise, which we should see pretty quickly due to their already being four SHIFT titles freely available online (SHIFT, SHIFT 2, SHIFT 3, and SHIFT 4). According to the iTunes product page, the original SHIFT was released back in 2008 and has seen over 10 Million plays since. Quite the following.
What sets iSHIFT apart from other similar platformers is in the name itself, SHIFT. If you fired up the game, you would soon notice that the levels are entirely black and white. The interesting and compelling thing about iSHIFT is that pressing the shift key allows you to flip the level, and become part of the level of the opposite color. If you can grasp this concerpt, then you should quickly begin to see that possibilities of this title. This may not make much since by just explaining, so see the screen captures below. And yes, the SHIFT key on the keyboard originally performed this function. Thus the name.
As with all iPhone games, the control scheme has to be properly addressed. And with platformers in particular, the transition to the iPhone does not always go over so gracefully. I almost always shriek in horror at the very though of seeing an iPhone game with an onscreen joystick. How does iShift address this issue? Well, since the game was originally in standard definition aspect ratio, it simply adds that to the iPhone as the gaming area, and uses the bars on either side to control the direction the character is moving. Now here is the part that i like. Pressing both arrows at the same time allows your player to perform a jump. Not only is this pretty intuitive, but it allows you to pull off precision jumps pretty easily. Impressive. Also, the SHIFT button, has a few options depending on how your feeling. You may choose to control it via left/right tilt, backward/forward tilt, or use the shift button. Controls are great.
Well, here is the skinny. I am sad to say for all that praise that I can give this game I will definitely say that it has one very bad fault. There are NOT ENOUGH LEVELS. I can’t remember the exact count, but as I found myself really getting into this game, it was over before I knew it. And with little or no replay-ability, it is crucial to have a crap-ton of levels. I sampled the Lite (free) version of this game at first and was instantly hooked. I was more than compelled to purchase the full game. Like I stated earlier, to my dismay, it ended way too soon. That being said, it was only $0.99 so i wasn’t too miffed. My recommendation would be to just download the lite version on your iPhone, and if you really like it, play the full freely available version online.
Well, another week of iPhone gaming in the can. Happy Gaming! Three out of five stars!
[3/5 Stars]
