Our youngest and most talented journalist, Noodles, dusts off her iPod Touch for another review.
Hollow Grounds is an original game. It’s something different. It’s style is unique and refreshing compared to the other games you can find in the app store. This game is about a cartographer that is going through the holes of a planet. How’s that for original?
I’m going to start with the controls. If you are one of these people that is really bad at using tilt controls on your iPod, iPhone or iPad and can’t keep whatever you are controlling steady (like me) then this game is not really for you. I constantly kept on crashing and hurting Piri – the cartographer. I’m not even going to say how bad i did on the challenging “S” turns in the game. I found it a challenging game to play from start to finish. Although it was my own fault, it was incredibly annoying when I accidentally deleted my saved game and had to repeat all 24 levels just to get to where i got to before, but even with all the extra practice I couldn’t get any further than I did before.
I quite liked the fact that the player is always warned of what lies ahead. For example, if there is an “s” turn, a few seconds before you reach it you get a warning. This gave me time to prepare myself mentally for all the damage i was going to do to Piri. I also liked that even if you hit Piri against a wall you don’t die. If that was the case then i would probably still be at the very first level.
However there were a few things that annoyed me. For instance, when you pause the game Piri keeps falling. He is moving slowly, but still moving. I’m not gonna lie. I took advantage of that a few times in order to keep Piri safe from the walls whenever I had to turn and wasn’t sure if I could make it. Also, when you pause the game and the menu appears I could see two different options and a third was only partially visible. I’m not sure if it was because i was using an iPod but even if its better on an iPad its no excuse for poor interface design.
Another thing that got on my nerves was that sometimes when you die and you get a sign with how many lives you’ve got left. That little see-through sign doesn’t go away until you die again.
Its not all bad. Its nice that the game tells you in which direction you need to go, so you are not completely confused. Even if you do happen to go the wrong way you still get a sign telling you that you are going the wrong way so i quite liked that.
The music in the game was suitably catchy. It got you in the mood to go through holes. Whenever you are doing well and you don’t crash for a long time the music starts and gradually gets louder until you reach its maximum level, so if you get to listen to the music while going down the holes that means you are doing well. You start thinking “Wow! I must be getting the hang of it!” and then you hit Piri in the wall and the music stops and you feel like you’ve jinxed it.
Overall i think the game is cute and if you can control your iPod, iPhone or iPad and you are into these types of games or you are not good but you still enjoy them I would recommend it. I think the graphics are quite nice and the music is sweet and when the little bugs get fixed it will be even more fun to play!
7 silent cartographers out of 10