The App Store is a store of small, fun games, you are not claimed to impress with special effects and color combinations of those games and are not intended as yet another revolution in video game, but you can get entertainment packages through well-aimed and simple ideas, or thanks to a thorough process of game design and level design. This is the case of Arctic Escape, a simple evolution of the gameplay made famous by Lemmings, which is addressed here in a slightly different perspective, and not without flaws, but still be able to provide challenging, fun and entertaining game. The basic mechanics, as mentioned, it inherits the concepts expressed by Lemmings a decade ago (probably people still not forgotten the saga of Grand Theft Auto ): a group of some animals call penguins walk together – go straight for a location, typically encounter death, and we have to stop them by giving orders to bring them safely to the exit level.
FLEEING TO SAFETY
The various levels are obviously scattered with obstacles, traps, pits and ditches that open suddenly, assorted creatures and a few vehicles. The ultimate goal is to reach the helicopter to escape to as many penguins as possible in the shortest possible time. the first factor is key to unlock the next levels, the second should be seen more in the sense of finding the best possible result. Everything is complicated by the perpetual motion of penguins, which are so constantly being watched, perhaps while you are moving the camera around to discover new obstacles and trying to keep them at bay controlled with the arrow keys. Sometimes it is necessary to take a moment to study the steady level, but do make sure that the penguins are good, because often developers have placed them in the maps to move towards the abyss from the start.
The result is a puzzle game, except for the first few levels, very simple, haunts the player with a continuous pressure, forced to think about paths but also not to lose sight of the situation at hand, offers a challenge to continued growth and kidnaps with the classic effect of “another and then I stop.” Proceeding of the over one hundred levels, divided into eight worlds, you can reach stages where keeping an eye on everything and simultaneously control up to four or five separate groups of penguins becomes very complicated, but it gives great satisfaction.
In Arctic Escape does not give orders directly to the penguins, but are placed around the levels of platforms related to this or that command (the four arrow keys, jump, an alarm clock that requires stopping for a few seconds). This is not just a difference, because instead of giving orders directly to the individual creature, place them on the ground that every penguin will go from there follow the command. The options are many: we can cancel a command, replace it, he closes the level in the situation where we are now and speed up the time to manage things more quickly after placing the controls. Missing, however, an option to instantly start the level over again, what indeed rather annoying from that will be.
