(4 votes, average: 5.5 out of 10)
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Where to start, where to start… ?
I found out about Billy Frontier - get this - yesterday from my friends over at What’s On iPhone. Yes, I know … I should be paying better attention to every release that comes out for the iPhone, but let’s be perfectly honest - most of it is complete and utter shite. I frankly feel like most times I spend a minute looking further into an app - its a minute wasted that I could have been doing something else. However given how much time I’ve spent on Enigmo (also from Pangea) I just had to give this a game look.
Unfortunately, sometimes this personal policy of non-time wasteage leads me to missing potential gems. This was one of them - not because its the next killer app, but because I missed out on a great price for it. PANGEA!! Drop the price back to $2.99. At $2.99 this game is solidly in the “sweet-spot” for value and impulse buying without remorse. At $2.99 its definitely a recommended buy, at $5.99 its just one more game that I would have a hard time deciding if its really worth it. For $2.99 its money well spent, for $5.99 its sort of “meh”.
Pretty harsh eh? Truth be told - I really like the game. Really I do - I spent almost 2 straight hours on it last night and a good portion of my lunch hour today. Its quite fun, but I’m really just questioning the price point.
Click on through… I got some more to say and a ton of screenshots!
In a nut shell - you can forget about some kind of story line. I’m sure in someone’s mind at Pangea there was one, but in execution there just isn’t. Billy has 4 mini game “modes”, 2 levels for each mode. Quickly - there’s shoot stuff on a mission, shoot stuff like its going out of style, run like the wind before you get run over and button mash so you don’t get blasted. Them be the modes… you be the player.
There’s a few screens of the mission mode. There’s only two missions, so enjoy them while they last. Personally the whole game could have been about 20 of these and it would have been perfect. Lots of fun, lots of frustration - basically just the right mix.
Complaint time … if you score 3000 points on a level, go get coffee. These freaking coins seem to fall forever as it adds the points a few at a time. Easy fix Pangea - let me tap out of this and just add the points to my total.
Button masher mode. Hit the triangle and circle in order… kill some aliens. Hit buttons too slow… die. Not overly tough to figure out - plan on dying the first time just for the fun of it, because it doesn’t happen often. Killer graphics though - the end animation (win or lose) is really good.
This one is run your butt off mode. Run, jump and eat chili. Just don’t throw your phone when you get caught up on a rock for the 20th frickin time in a row. The game doesn’t hate you… really.
And last but not least … kill ‘em all mode. This one’s a lot of fun too. Basically its a shooting gallery and a good little trainer for the rest of the game. Barrels make you money, TNT hurts, killin cows is good, and wine gets you drunk. The story of life.
So there you have it. Billy Frontier. On My iPhone - and staying there. I really enjoyed the game last night and I think between the mission mode and the target practice mode there’s a lot of good replay time in the game. I don’t think you’ll end up playing this all the way through time after time - but I think if you’ve got a couple minutes here or there, you’ll pick it up and blast some aliens. I know I will be.
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by Ragart, on September 6 2008 @ 2:31 am
A couple of comments I’d like to add:
The shooting parts were pretty tough for me when I started out, but it actually gives a pretty good “shooting from the hip” kind of feeling.
The major drawback of this game in this 1.0 version is the lag. I get quite a lot of it. The end of duels are always laggy, and I experience quite a bit of lag when I blow up cover during firefights.
A minor issue with the duel mode is the lack of any reward during the gameplay itself. You’re tapping and tapping towards this cool end animation, but you have nothing to show for it while you’re doing it. How about if they broke the action up? You press the buttons for a good 20-30 seconds and then you see a cool animated sequence…then you do it for 20-30 seconds more and get another one…until you end the duel with the coolest looking sequence. Duel right now just feels like a button masher that doesn’t quite have its focus, but it could get a lot more exciting if I had something more to play for.