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Hands-on with controversial indie title Phone Story

Stop being part of the problem!

Hands-on with controversial indie title Phone Story
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| Phone Story

Have you ever opened your bowels on a neighbour's front lawn and then been surprised when he got mad?

How about if you had a serious problem with the way your neighbour had laid his lawn - would you do it then to prove a point?

Controversial indie developer Molleindustria released a game for iPhone this week called Phone Story that attempts to provoke reflections from users regarding where exactly their smartphones came from.

Unsurprisingly, the game was removed from the App Store hours later, as Apple noted that the subject content had broken a number of the terms and conditions of the store, including the depiction of child abuse.

As bizarre as the whole situation is, it meant that we couldn't get a copy of the game. Until now - Phone Story has arrived on the less censorious Android Market.

From dust

Phone Story comprises four mini-games that attempt to show your phone's journey from birth to death.

Each mini-game has a narrator speaking over the top, explaining what's going on in each scene and why you should care.

The first, for example, shows young boys gathering the coltan mineral from the ground - used as part of that lovely smartphone of yours.

As the boys become tired, you can press on them to make an armed soldier walk over and shout abuse at them, causing them to work harder.

In another mini-game, old phones are being taken apart and the various bits and pieces are split among Ghana workers and salvaged in harmful ways.

The game has a clear goal: to shock you and compel you to do some research into whether it's all true.

iWork

Apart from the main Story mode, there's also Obsolescence mode.

This plays through the four mini-games over and over again with a great chiptune soundtrack, showing each iPhone being produced, from the original model to the iPhone 4.

As you play, the mini-games grow harder and faster. If you can't satisfy the conditions in time, it's all over.

You also have a score in the corner that is recorded at the end. It sort of takes away from the overall message of the game, but Molleindustria clearly understands that if it doesn't put enough actual game elements in, then the message will most likely be lost.

Message vs game

As a message, Phone Story definitely does the job.

Shortly after playing, we found ourselves visiting the game's official site and reading up more on the various issues that it raises.

But as an actual game, Phone Story is incredibly short, with a single playthrough taking around five minutes and the secondary mode lasting another ten minutes on top of that.

The mini-games don't all feel great to control, either. The suicide level feels clumsy, while the iPhone-lobbing game is a little awkward.

The game also closes down automatically if you allow your screen to fade out, which can be very annoying if you want to pause for a little break.

Overall, the message is a lot more powerful than the game itself, suggesting that you may want to simply read the information given on the game's site.

However, at roughly 60p a purchase, it's a small price to pay for a genuinely unique and interesting account of the issues associated with the everyday objects that we take for granted.

Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.