Dizzy Drops

In a world where gaming is no longer confined to handheld consoles, and wanders freely on our mobile phones or music players, it’s always nice to sample the vastly growing number of delights that are out there. With over 50,000 Apps now available on iTunes, it’s not always easy to find out which are the ones worth downloading. The latest sample to hit my iPod Touch and tickle my fancy is ‘Dizzy Drops’ from Dynamo Games.

The first thing I would like to clear up before I continue is that not all games are made to be epics; in fact it seems to be a growing trend to create disposable applications, that’s to say titles which will hold you as long as is worth 59p and then happily find themselves stacked on your PC gathering dust while you make way for new ones. This is by no means a bad thing, as it’s obviously changing the way in which people can access content, making things such as Xbox Live almost feel outdated; sometimes a quick fix is far more necessary than a 20 hour mission! Occasionally, and I’m glad to say this is an example, there are little gems that are simple, slick and quick fun, which actually keep you captivated for longer than you thought they would.

Dizzy Drops is a fun little puzzle/action game for people with fast hand to eye coordination. The object is simple – collect the falling rain drops in the corresponding coloured bucket by using your finger action to rearrange the containers. It runs much like drop puzzle games of old, Tetris for example, where progression results in faster and trickier combinations of pieces, or in this case, droplets! Add in some nifty bonuses such as extra lives or exploding bombs and you have quite an addictive little bundle.

The game sports two different modes – Classic and Memory. The first is an endurance game, with a new high score as your main goal. This is where the game really got me. My competitive streak urged me to keep playing longer than I expected it would, as scores are given a leaderboard style ranking. Seeing that my measly 63,860 was no where near the 140,000+ score uploaded, my inner gaming demon is still making me tap away in the hope to gain a little ground on that far too dexterous player! Memory mode involves guessing hidden combinations for droplets, with points awarded for how quickly the correct colour order is uncovered. Unfortunately playing a guessing game isn’t nearly as addictive as the Classic mode and is easily left behind.

The only real downside to this game is the annoying soundtrack, which promptly got turned off and replaced with the latest Muse album instead thanks to its highly repetitive and grating sounds! However this is easily forgiven and outweighed by its best feature – its bargain price! For 59p you really can’t go wrong. My ever growing experience with i-ware has left me realising how much you can be charged for what can only be described as ‘crap’. This game is not one of those examples yet keeps the same price tag! It’s a great bit of fun which will happily entertain for as long as you want it to.