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After hearing good things about the game Trace I decided to give it a test drive to see for myself if it was as good as the hype made out. It has to be said, the game probably is as good as they say.

The objective of the game is simple. Draw lines on the screen to help move your little character through levels avoiding various moving hazards, with the levels getting increasingly difficult as you go. The game comes with a massive 120 levels from 6 different worlds all of which are played along to with unique soundtracks.

The controls of the game are simple. You just touch and drag your finger on the screen to draw lines and shapes for your block to navigate along in the levels and you use simple forward and backwards arrows and a small button to jump.

You can choose whether or not you want to draw out your level in advance or you can do it on the fly, which sometimes helps on levels with unpredictable hazzards. After you complete each world you get a run down of all your times on each level and a total world time, which just invites you back for more as you attempt to beat your previous best.

Visually the style of the game is something you would see a 5 year old draw in MS Paint, but it works perfectly in this style and adds to the experience. I found the game good fun and challenging and it’s great when you just want to sit down and relax for a bit, perhaps on the bus or train. It’s bound to keep you busy and entertained for a good few hours and apparently there will be the addition of new levels and perhaps even a level creator in the future, so there’s no reason for the gamelife on Trace not to improve in future updates.

Overall though I would highly recommend you try out Trace. First of all it’s free so you have nothing to lose, but more importantly it’s fun and entertaining to play and a welcome addition to my iPhone.

4/5

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Darts is a relatively new darts game brought to you by developer Brian Hammond. The game features impressive 3D graphics, touch based controls and a hat full of different game options and configurations that are sure to keep you busy as you try out each one.

It has to be said I’m no darts expert, but my initial impressions upon playing the game were positive. The controls are as easy as swiping your finger up you iPhone screen to throw a dart. The power of the throw depends on the speed of your swipe, and the accuracy depends on the direction in which you swipe your finger. Although it takes a bit of getting used to before your getting anywhere near the targets you are aiming for, after a bit of practice the controls start to feel very natural.

You can choose from two different types of game modes. X01 is what you will be most familiar with seeing on tv, which is when you start with a score of either 301, 501, 601, 701 or 1001. The idea here is to throw take turns throwing 3 darts, with the first player to reach the score of 0 winning. You can also select how to finish the game either by scoring with a single or having to hit a double score (very challenging). The other mode is cricket, where the object is to hit the numbers 15-20 and the bullseye 3 times each. The first player to do so while also having the most points wins. You can select from either practice mode or choose to play an A.I opponent with 3 different skill levels ranging from beginner, intermediate and master.

Visually I found the game very impressive. This combined with a nice touch of sound effects results in an impressive experience. The animations are also good and once you get the hang of the controls and controlling the direction and power of your darts it doesn’t take long for you to really start enjoying the game.

It would be nice to see some more game modes in the future and perhaps something like…

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