Over the past few years, one of the most popular flash based games has been Line Rider. A physics based entertainment game were users create “courses” for the Line Rider character “Bosh”.
By drawing lines and establishing paths, a player takes Bosh trough hills and valleys, loops and cliffs, and anything else that the creator may want to take them. Create a course and then see how friendly it is to Bosh by sending him through it. Because of the unique game play, Line Rider has been a huge success on the internet and is now available on your iPhone.
Gameplay
Line Rider is fun. It was fun on the internet and it is fun on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Like any game on a mobile platform, I gage its success on how re-playable it is. Line Rider passes the test. It is a game I can see myself playing randomly while waiting in lines, before bed, or just for kicks.
Controls
Line Rider on the iPhone has a unique interface compared to the flash based version of the game found on the internet. Instead of using a mouse to design the course, the iPhone version of the game was designed with touch controls. You literally create your course by dragging your finger around the screen.
The interface is fun at first as you see yourself drawing lines every which way you move your finger (I let me 3rd old son “draw” on line rider when he wants a turn). The interface shows its weaknesses when you’re working on precise setup for your course. The slightest miss step during course creation leads Bosh to destruction. This is difficult to correct with Line Rider for the iPhone.
Other Features
Line Rider includes save game features. This makes it easy to work on a course over a number of short periods of time. Without this feature Line Rider would be extremely frustrating as you’d have to “Master” the controls each time you decided to spend some time on a course.
Luckily, Line Rider does include the save feature. An Additional feature that Line Rider for the iPhone includes is the ability to share your courses with others. Create a linerider.com account and send off your courses to your friends.
Conclusion
Although Line Rider’s interface isn’t perfected for the iPhone, it is still a very enjoyable game. It has great re-playable, strong extra features, and is social. The combination of those three make it an easy buy if you have $2.99 to spare and you’re looking to add to your iPhone Game Collection.
