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Magical alien balls drop

by Craig Grannell (November 18th, 2010 at 5:23 pm)

Game: Linkoidz. Publisher: Retro Dreamer. Price: £1.19/€1,59/$1.99. Buy the game

Magical Drop is great. Magical Drop for iOS is a pile of steaming shit. As a huge Magical Drop fan, the combination of the previous two statements has resulted in HULK SMASH anger for me since iOS gaming took hold; but now Linkoidz is here to save the day, providing similar dynamics to Data East’s title, but without controls that make you want to take a baseball bat to your device.

The basics of the game remain intact—it’s a chain-based match-three-or-more, and you fire balls into an encroaching pile of balls. Like Magical Drop, the twist is that instead of being fed new balls in a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move-style manner, you drag one from the pile and fire it back; unlike Magical Drop, the pile is bottom-up rather than top-down and comprises hungry aliens who EAT YOUR LIVING FLESH if you let the pile get too high, thereby wrecking your shield.

The main plus for Linkoidz is that it works really well on iThings. By avoiding player movement (your bobbleheaded space guy remains rooted to the spot) and concentrating solely on grabbing and firing alien balls (via responsive touch/swipe controls), the game is intuitive to newcomers and reacts fast for old hands like me, who look a little like a crazily intense Japanese guy when on a real Magical Drop arcade machine.

Elsewhere, Game Center support enables you to battle friends, Linkoidz being a universal app means Retro Dreamer doesn’t hate you (the game is actually a smidge better on the iPad, since you can be more accurate when swiping), and endless modes provide practically limitless ball-drop entertainment once you’ve blazed through the 30 training missions. So all in all, I’m very happy this MAGICAL game DROPped by. (You’re fired, again – Ed.)

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