Giant Boulder of Death

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Game Information
Name: Giant Boulder of Death
Genre: Strategy
Release Date: Sep 05, 2013
Developers: Pik Pok
Publishers: Adult Swim
Age rating: 9+
Platform(s): iOS, Android

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Synopsis

When a boulder holds a grudge, no one survives. Bowl your way down the mountain and destroy everything in your path. Crush villages, cars, yetis, golden cows, crush everything!

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Gameplay

The game begins with a cutscene showing a boulder being enraged by recent events, it is this that causes the boulder to take revenge upon a village by rolling down a mountain. From the moment you hit play you are thrown into a slow roll down the mountain; trees, homes, villagers, animals and fences are in your path of destruction. However, the villagers have placed huge spiked walls in an effort to stop you in your path, if you hit one of these spiked walls you are required to either; give up and try again, or to pay gems in order to continue on your destructive paths. As you smash through various things in your path, you earn points with each successful destruction. As you progress with the game, you are given certain challenges to complete which earn you rewards, these challenges start off pretty simple, but they become more difficult over time - requiring a little more thinking in order to obtain them. Through your progression of obtaining further distances, you will notice red balls with spikes coming towards you in an attempt to destroy you, if you get hit by one of these you will loose. Another challenge within the game are cliffs towards the left and right of the track, if you fall down the cliff you will loose as well. As you roll further down the mountain creating more destruction, you start to speed up, this makes it a much more difficult task of avoiding obstacles trying to stop you. This adds a more challenging aspect to the game, making you ever more determined to try again and again.

Although all these challenges are present, there is a way to overcome them. Towards the left of your screen, you will notice a power bar slowly raising with the more points you obtain from destructing things within the game. Once the power bar reaches the top, you will be instantly transformed into a bigger, bright yellow/orange coloured boulder with spikes - this significantly increases the time you are as the invincible boulder, your jump height and a few other advantages. The invincible boulder allows you to smash through anything in your path, even those annoying spiked walls. You can also bowl straight through houses, and other larger obstacles. Basically you are given a free run down part of the never-ending mountain for a short period of time. Even though this ability only lasts for a short period of time, its a fantastic incentive to obtain this ability as soon as possible after time runs out.

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Graphics

The graphics within Giant Boulder of Death are very nicely done. The individual look of all the objects in the game look very nice and you can even see a little detail on some of them. The general landscape is portrayed in a nice way, not to much detail present, but enough to enjoy the game without having to worry about a ugly looking landscape. The boulder its self looks quite nice, you can see slight cracks when you loose, as well as a polished finish on the boulder. When the boulder turns invincible, the general look is quite good adding that extra delight when obtaining the ability. The buttons and interface of the game looked quite well, not to much detailed used, but just enough. Overall the game has sound graphics that will keep the player entertained enough to play the game.

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Controls

The controls are pretty basic, however this is a great thing as its very easy to pick up and mater them pretty quickly. The universal controls are swiping upwards to jump, and the usual pause and average buttons. You are then also given the choice of 3 modes in order to control the direction on the boulder:

Tilt: Tilt is pretty simple to use with a smaller device such as an iPhone, basically you just tilt your device to the left or right to make the boulder go to the left or right respectively.

Tap: Tap makes the game easier to use on larger devices, such as an iPad. With tap the bottom left and right of the screen is pretty much broken up into 2 buttons (Not visible). If you press to the bottom-right of the screen, the boulder will move to the right, if you press to the bottom-left, the boulder will move left.

Joystick: With joystick as the controls, you are given a horizontal bar towards the bottom of the screen, if you move your finger to the left or right along this bar, the boulder will move in its respected direction.

The controls with Giant Boulder of Death may seem very simple, and thats what they are. With the controls being simple, you don't have to worry about learning them. Instead you can head straight into the game and fully enjoy it.

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Ratings (Personal)
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Controls: 9/10
Overall: 7.5/10