Game Reviews

Jenga

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Jenga
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I'd be enormously surprised if NaturalMotion Games hadn't watched Apple's big unveiling of the iPhone 4 back in June, but given one glaring omission in Jenga it's not out of the realm of possibility.

To best demonstrate the motion-sensing gyroscopic prowess of its new gizmo, Apple concocted a tower construction game based on - guess what - Jenga.

Even though NaturalMotion Games may have missed a trick by rejecting gyroscopic controls, Jenga is still a faithful, meditative, and genial tribute to the wooden block classic.

Standing among giants

Stripped to its core, Jenga is a test of both physical and mental skill. Decision meets execution roughly down the middle.

From the initial 18-storey-high tower in the Classic setup, you must remove a single rectangular block, place it on top of the stack, then go again until the inevitable collapse. As the structure grows taller and increasingly unstable the removal selection gets harder.

You pan around your high rise by swiping the screen gently. Multi-touch enables you to zoom in and out, affording you a closer look at the structure's integrity.

To extract the block from the tower, you can either touch and slide the block or tap to nudge it out of place. Both methods have their merits and are straightforward to pick up.

Code red

To help you, the game uses a colour-coded guide that displays a block's suitability for extraction. A red arrow, for instance, signifies a Geronimo moment.

Speaking of colour, the second of the two single-player modes, Arcade, challenges you to match blue, green, and purple blocks at speed for special boosts, wildcards, etc.

Yet it's during the thoroughly enjoyable four-player pass-and-play mayhem that the nerves begin to jangle wholesale, as zen-like concentration rapidly gives way to juvenile smacktalk.

Thanks to the almost pitch-perfect physics engine powering Jenga, every sudden movement, every delicate touch, realistically affects the surrounding strata, meaning that you and only you are the architect of your own downfall.

Game Center integration for leaderboards, achievements, and real-time tower-building comparisons provides some much needed incentive to solo play.

At the end of the day, though, Jenga is best served in multiplayer where its convincing physics and straightforward setup facilitate simple fun.

Jenga

Jenga replicates the look and feel of the old puzzling favourite handsomely, although snubbing gyroscopic control is a missed opportunity
Score
Richard Brown
Richard Brown
With a degree in German up his sleeve Richard squares up to the following three questions every morning: FIFA or Pro Evo? XBox 360 or PS3? McNulty or Bunk?