iBot by Alcomi

January 22nd, 2009 | Games, Puzzle

Update – this game appears to have been pulled from the App Store.

If you like logic games, iBot may have something for you. This game makes you think like a programmer. Fear not, though — it’s very easy to learn! I bought iBot on a whim, but once I started playing I couldn’t put it down. Still, for all it has going for it, there are some serious issues that will make you think twice before buying.

First things first — iBot looks great (even if its main character is an obvious rip-off of a fairly recognizable space robot). When you get to the menu screen you’re presented with three options: Play, Load, and Highscores. There is also a button at the bottom-right to toggle sounds on and off, which is appreciated. There are some issues with the way the Play and Load features work, but we’ll get to that later.

When you tap the Play button you’re presented with a blue platform in space with your iBot sitting on it. There are several icons along the top that are obviously meant for controlling the iBot, but this game comes with no instructions so you are left to figure it out for yourself. Maybe that’s part of the “puzzle” aspect of the game? After playing with the icons on the screen, you’ll discover that gameplay consists of dragging the movement icons to the “Main method”, “Funct 1″, and “Funct 2″ sections on the right of the screen. The goal is to get your iBot to land on and activate all of the light-blue tiles. This is very easy at first, but as you progress through the game you’re presented with challenges such as walls you must navigate over and limited space in the “Main method” box to control your robot. You’ll have to orchestrate the movements of your iBot so that they are as efficient as possible. Reusing movements via the “Funct 1″ and “Funct 2″ blocks is mandatory in later levels. It’s also fun to play through levels you’ve already beaten to see if you can make your moves even more efficient than last time.

I wish I could end this review here with a tidy little paragraph to wrap things up and recommend the game. Unfortunately, there are still some glaring problems with the game we haven’t yet covered. I’ve already mentioned that there are no instructions included with the game, but I’d like to underscore that point. If you don’t feel like dragging icons around and pressing buttons until you figure out how to play, this game is not for you.

The second and third issues are both related to the way the game saves and loads data. It does not save the level you’re on until you go back to the Menu screen. This means that if the game crashes or you click the Home button to quit, you will lose your progress. Trust me, this can be quite frustrating. You must visit the Menu screen to save your progress. I found myself tapping the Menu button to save my progress between levels. This leads into the third issue: there is only a single save “slot”. On the surface that doesn’t sound so bad, but the implementation here is particularly poor. Clicking the Load button from the Menu screen takes you to the last level you were on. However, clicking the Play button erases your progress and starts you at the first level. If you’ve been working on the last level and then accidentally tap the “Play” button, you will be sent to the first level with no way of skipping back ahead. To make matters worse, the Play and Load buttons are relatively small and far too close to one another.

One last issue with the game is its length. Either there are only twelve levels to the game, or there is a bug that prevents you from proceeding. When you finish the twelfth level you’re simply booted to the Menu screen with no explanation. There are definitely some challenging levels, but I was able to complete the entire game in less than 2 hours.

It’s sad to see a game with so much potential fall flat due to so many crucial issues. It seems that these problems should be easy to fix, too. I can only recommend to wait on purchasing this game until after the developer fixes it. If these issues are resolved, this game will get my wholehearted recommendation.