The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So those Tyrants who write for 1up are calling Zen Bound THE game for the iPhone. I don’t know if I would go quite that far? I kinda doubt it’s going to define the iPhone and iPod Touch game space. But one thing is for sure: it is a DAMN good game, worth every bit of $5, and if you’re someone with a compatable device, you should probably buy it.

Zen Bound is actually a pretty hard game to describe. It’s a game about wrapping rope around wooden sculpture, like the website there says. But that sounds incredibly boring, doesn’t it? The game is anything but boring. It’s a calm, slow and casual paced puzzle game, basically, which tests your spacial reasoning and is really geniously designed.
The goal is to wrap rope around a figure, having rope touch every bit of it (which makes it change color) and then get the rope to a final nail in order to tie it off and complete the level. There are 3 levels of complete for each level. The first goal is incredibly easy to get to, and the second isn’t too hard to reach if you’re actually trying, but the third always comes at 99% wrapped, and that’s where the challenge comes in.
Basically, the rope is attached on two ends. One is tied to the figure, and the other is attached to an offscreen “spool” or whatever. That means, as you wrap, you can’t go under anything, so you actually have to plan out what you’re doing so the rope you already have wrapped around doesn’t block you from getting into the crevices and such of the figure you’re working on. You have to plan ahead in a way you don’t expect when you first pick up the game.
The game basically starts very Zen, and very casual. The shapes are easy, and you’re just having fun wrapping rope about. There’s no challenge. Before you know it, though, you suddenly hit something you don’t get 99% on the first time. The game is kind of sneaky like that. The challenge ramps up in a very hidden way, and once you hit the actually challenge? You’re hooked. At least I was.
It’s also important to mention the controls. They are instantly understandable to anyone who has used an iPod Touch for 5 minutes, and work so well, you don’t even think about them. You rotate the wooden figure with the normal finger motions, and you can adjust the angle of the rope with the accelerometer. This is a game incredible suited to its medium.
The only real problem with this game, though, is the fact that it destroys the battery. I’ve not played many iPod games that were too intense before with the graphics. (WordJong is not very taxing) This game is very visually compelling and physics-oriented, and because of that, it uses a lot of processing power. Playing this game and listening to a podcast, as I mentioned in the last blog entry, I burned through my battery in a little over an hour. I can’t even imagine how screwed that would make someone who was actually playing on a phone. It’s something to think about if you’re going to play in long sessions.

Still, this game is pretty well the best iPod gaming experience I’ve had so far. It makes me want to pick up the other critically acclaimed iPod game, Rolando, and see if it’s just as good. I’m sure it is.

But yeah, go buy Zen Bound. The developers are nice, too. They responded to my e-mail in like an hour. It was fantastic. And I want Cinnamon Beats. So give them money to finish it. The end.