Previews

E3 2011: Hands-on with Chillingo's Contre Jour for iPad

Cut the bumpy road of goo

E3 2011: Hands-on with Chillingo's Contre Jour for iPad
|
| Contre Jour

Contre Jour was one of the big mobile surprises of E3. Though Chillingo announced it alongside a few other titles at the beginning of the week, that dispatch was easily missed in all the noise.

It was a strangely subdued entrance for a game with conspicuous hit potential.

Beautifully presented in monochrome and accompanied by a haunting accordion score, Contre Jour is a fashionably surreal casual puzzler in which you have to steer an eyeball towards a glowing exit in 60 levels spread across three worlds.

Etrangement familiers

There's nothing very new in Contre Jour beyond its particular combination of influences. In the first two stages alone it borrows from Bumpy Road, Cut the Rope, and World of Goo.

To propel your sprite - named Petit, in honour of The Little Prince, the classic French story around which the game is themed - you have to push the ground up with your finger to make a slope.

To move Petit through the air you can drag hanging tendrils onto him, and if you do this with more than one he'll be suspended between them until you instruct one to let go. Later on there are portals.

Secourus par style

The parts of Contre Jour are derivative, but the whole is new, and the affected literary theme and impressive score go some way to distinguishing it from the growing number of quirky casual puzzlers on iOS - many of them published by Chillingo.

We suspect it's going to do well, but you'll have to wait till next month to find out.

yt
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on
Rob Hearn
Rob Hearn
Having obtained a distinguished education, Rob became Steel Media's managing editor, now he's no longer here though.