Previews

Gamescom '12: Upcoming Chillingo games round-up

Fall! Ride! Drive! Go insane!

Gamescom '12: Upcoming Chillingo games round-up
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iOS

Ahhh, Chillingo. When not releasing a billion games a week onto the App Store, the now-EA-owned British publisher heads to games shows with a squillion games loaded onto the company iPads.

Then, it proceeds to sit in the darkest room in the whole convention centre and gets forgotten about by the console EA reps (at least, that's what happened when I completely confused my host).

Given how writing individual previews of each new Chillingo game would probably result in my not finishing until next year's Gamescom, I've 'gone casual' and put them all in this handy round-up for you to peruse.

Unless otherwise stated, all of these games are slated to launch sometime next month.

Sky Hero

Apparently, quite a lot of people really liked Jetpack Joyride's coin-collecting, challenge-beating, endless-jetpacking action.

Not that Sky Hero is essentially just a vertical Jetpack Joyride, I hasten to add. I mean, does Jetpack Joyride have coins? Okay, power-ups? Electricity gates you have to avo- damn it!

In fairness to Sky Hero, the enemy design is rather crafty, with some dropping on you (then tearing back up); others helpfully painting a line on-screen where they'll go then suddenly changing direction just as they hurtle towards you; and others still darting around randomly, causing you to inevitably hit them.

And when I say 'you', I mean 'me. Every damn time.'

It looks like a slick little freemium game, so if you're not yet tired of the endless-whatever genre, it's certainly worth jotting down in your diary.

Kumo Lumo

Kumo Lumo is a bit of an oddity. On the one hand, this 'rain-'em-up' is about as basic a title as you can get, with your little cloud watering various critters as they pootle about on the curved surface of the world.

On the other, it's a bizarre and occasionally dark game in which you have to deal with stuff like pirate foxes that set fire to everything they find and horrific scissor finger things that flee when you put water in a giant teacup.

Oh, and everything looks like it's been taken from a child's sticker book - as you do.

The developer described the game to me as "a little bit mental" when I sat down to take a look at it. It's a fair description.

Endless Road

This one-man effort to inject something new in the rapidly oversubscribed endless-whatever genre is actually shaping up to be quite an interesting mixture of Forever Drive-style minimalism and a Tiger LCD handheld game from the late '80s.

Your aim is - can you guess?! - to go as far as you can down the endlessly constructing road, switching lanes to avoid traffic, collecting familiar power-ups, and riding over speed boosters.

Making things a little tricky is the fact that both the front and back of the track are formed as you drive, meaning you can not only fall off if you go too slowly, but you can also end up nose-diving over the edge if you travel too fast.

One to watch out for, I'd say.

Pony Trails

Pony Trials is the most misleading game of this bunch. Not only do you get to ride horses (as well as ponies), which makes the title factually inaccurate, but also the game's grooming-focused opening seems to suggest the title is Chillingo's response to NaturalMotion's My Horse. Which it isn't.

Instead, Pony Trails is actually closer to N64 cult favourite Pokemon Snap than any virtual pet title. The main bulk of the 'action' (it's a rather sedate game) involves your trotting along various trails taking snaps of wildlife with your camera - the better the shot, the higher the star rating.

Alas, I only managed to take a one-star image of a bear peeking around a rock and an uncomfortably close shot of a duck's bottom during my (awful) attempt at virtual wildlife photography on horseback.

The resulting images in the photo gallery literally made me laugh like a maniac for minutes, after which I was politely escorted off the premises.

Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).