Twisty Sky is mildly entertaining for a casual gaming experience, but dedicated mobile gamers might greater value in it by competing to be the best.
Take Doge where you have never taken Doge before…up.
In the world of casual gaming, rarely do you have time to dedicate gaming efforts into one title. The very definition of casual according to dictionary.com is “relaxed and unconcerned”. Casual gaming is not made to be a permanent fixture in your life. It’s a come and go sorta deal that we’ve all agreed to when we adopted mobile gaming into our lives. Honestly, it’s probably safer for your mobile device that it’s a casual affair because otherwise you may have more broken mobile devices, and our lives would be twisted without our mobile devices. Right? Yep.
Moving on, you might be wondering why in the hell I’m defining casual gaming and giving you some half-hearted explanation of what it is, so let me get right to the point of the conversation. Developer Elephant Mouse has taken the above concept of mobile game reasoning and created a simple game that absolutely fits the bill for the word ‘casual’. The game is called Twisty Sky and it simply involves moving a character up a series of connecting, movable (in a twisty way) sections of a square column, where you have to make ladders meet to progress your character upward. You do this by simply swiping a section until ladders match up. It’s so easy. Along the way, you have different devices requiring your reflexes to keep the progression going, such as a moving a conveyer belt switch to the proper position to move your character in the correct direction (horizontally) to go up a ladder or moving a passage way, using a horizontal swipe, to another side of the upward square column to keeping progressing upwards. All of which requires a bit quicker reflexes to make work and avoid hindering one’s progression upward.
You might be asking yourself, is there an enemy in this game or is it just a character going up a ladder? There are several enemies in the game in the form of imps. They attack from below or they patiently await for your character’s arrival on a section of the square column that you rotate. To get rid of them, you simply swipe left or right on the column, which propels them off the section. You can also use traps, like a giant punching glove that you’ve got to push back using your finger to set it, thus also sending the poor imps flying off the column. The imps, while entertaining when they’re cast off of the square, add another layer of concern to the progression of the game and they become more prevalent as you go up.
So, what’s the goal of this game? Well, the goal is to keep going as long as you can. For every level you go up, you get a point. The more points, the more impressive the game. The more impressive, the more characters and enemies move faster. The game throws a lot of obstacles your way as you progress and it requires you to think on the fly. Not a bad deal for a casual game. It reminds me a lot of Space Invaders in a sense, where the intensity of the game makes fun, with a sprinkle of Dig Dug where the color of the columns help to visual dictate your progress (they change color and texture as you move up).
That said, I think the longevity of the game is great concern, even for a casual gaming experience. Having the highest score and competing with someone makes this game better. Having the ability to gain points, purchase new characters and keep the experience going helps out a little bit, but the charm wears thin quick. Beyond that, it’s a game that I think I would break out after the Subway Surfers of the world when I wanted something a bit different. The charm of the game is built on high-score and characters obtained, but not a helluva lot else, and maybe that is enough for some people. I mean, the player on the top of the leaderboard has 578 points right now. There are apparently very dedicated individuals out there. Maybe this game is for them. As for me, I think it’s decent to good, but nothing mind blowing. I like the look and feel to the game, especially its simplicity, but I want a bit more from it. What that may be is not up to me, but as is Twisty Sky is mildly entertaining for a casual gaming experience, but dedicated/competitive mobile gamers might greater value in it by competing to be the best.
