Gaming apps are always the trickiest purchase decisions when venturing inside the virtual confines of the App Store. Compared to any other type of application, games have thousands of titles to choose from, higher price points and larger file sizes.
More importantly, it can take just a few seconds to realise your expensive download may have incontrovertible flaws, as first-day owners of App Store launch title Super Monkey Ball and it’s rubbish accelerometer can attest.
Simply put, there’s no time to be fannying about with duff, gimmicky, complex titles – you need a game with a concept so simple and easy to use even your Nan can give it a go. On the toilet. Canabalt is exactly that app – a flash parkour title which grew exponentially in popularity before it hit the App Store.
It’s not hard to see why. What exactly is your suited avatar running from, and why? It’s all completely irrelevant. Gameplay in Canabalt is so ingeniously simple that the game actually does the running for you, with the only prompts coming from quick jumps or extended jumps from the player’s finger. That’s it – and it’s brilliant.
The sole goal of the parkour action is see how far along the pre-determined course you can make it before plummeting hideously to your death. This involves jumping across skyscrapers, cranes and crumbling buildings.
Like all the best gaming apps (Peggle, Word-Fu), success in Canabalt is part skill and part luck. Your avatar’s route and obstacles are randomly-generated so there’s no use in trying to memorise the course and learn from your mistakes. Simply reload your game and see what happens – there’s no shame in dying within seconds and if you do manage to crack your high score developers Semi Secret Software have helpfully included Twitter integration to post your proud achievements.
Canabalt is so stripped down concept-wise that the game even adopts a retro, charcoal-based palette to create a visual style that wouldn’t look out of place on the Commodore 64. In stark contrast with the minimalist graphics the score is a thumping, frenetic tune which complements the action and really gets the pulse going if combined with headphones.
Sadly there’s currently no free “Lite†version of Canabalt available but its developers have happily included the next best thing. Pop http://adamatomic.com/canabalt/ into your browser and you can try the entire game for free. If you manage to get any work done today now then you’re made of stronger stuff than ourselves.
Thus Canabalt is our App of the Week as it understands the core concepts of any great mobile gaming experience – accessibility, simplicity and that indefinable “one more go†sensation. It’s a simple, simple pleasure and revels in that very fact.
The Canabalt app from Semi Secret Software is available to download from the App Store for €2.39.
Emmet Purcell
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