Pirates and wizards almost ne’er get along. We scallywags will never trust anyone waving a silly wand and creating things out o’ nothin’. For me, me boat, me trusty blade, and Calypso are the three things I trust. Oh, those and me nagging wife back home. Aye, if you can’t trust your ol’ ball and chain, you shouldn’t trust anything else. Now, back to wizards, I hate em’. Ne’er liked their kind, which is kind o’ strange that this new app I just discovered, Wizorb, allows me to play one. Here are me thoughts on this strange but quite satisfying game app.
An old school puzzler. Aye, that is exactly what I would brand this little app here. As I mentioned earlier, you basically play a wizard named Cyrus, tasked to break bricks in the most efficient of ways. You see, the Kingdom of Gorudo is under siege from some kind of evil. As the Arch Wizard of the Kingdom, Cyrus (You), need to solve puzzles in order to protect it. This involves traveling to a variety of locales to take down bosses, while making a lot of dough on the side, which you can use to restore Tarot, a devastated town, to its former glory. If you are into a game that requires you to think hard, this game is definitely for you.
The Wizorb is a Weapon
Cyrus is a wizard but his only weapon to combat the forces of evil is a small orb called the Wizorb. Using a platform, you can manipulate the Wizorb to demolish bricks. As long as you keep the orb alive, you have a deadly weapon whirling about. Keep destroying those enemy blocks until you wipe them all out. Obviously, like any other brick-breaking game, the going gets tougher as you move on through different levels or dungeon runs.
The Cool Feature
One of the cool and pretty unique facets of this game is the player’s ability to take breaks from the typical brick-breaking fun and exploring the town you are tasked to restore – Tarot. With the money you make from each level you break, you can help the citizenry rebuild their homes. Helping them do that often come with rewards – in most cases, some special item, which you can use for the next levels you will soon encounter. Some items will be in the form of power ups while others will be equipment that will bestow more oomph for your brick-breaking power.
The Graphics of Yore
Nothing to brag about here. The game sports a simple, old school, 8-bit graphical display very reminiscent of what a usual game on the Gameboy or the old Nintendo consoles would provide. Nevertheless, don’t be fooled by the visuals as this game is a killer when it comes to content and actual gaming value.
Controlling the Wizorb
The first version of this game came out on the Xbox 360. Since that console made use of a game controller, moving and manipulating the platform or paddle was easy. For the iOS, the controller transitioned into the swipe. So, to move the paddle, simply swipe to the left or the right. Unfortunately, while it sounds easy enough, it actually is quite tough to control the paddle the way you would like to. In other words, the controls may leave you with a lot of frustration if you don’t see it as a challenge. In my case, though, I just found it annoying as opposed to frustrating. But then again, that is purely a subjective matter.
The Conclusion
This game should be a sure hit. “Should be” is the operative phrase, if only the developers took more time in fixing the control issue. Instead, they focused on putting a nice price tag on it. The game retails at $2.99 per download for iOS devices, which can be quite expensive considering the old-style graphics, the “been there, done that” concept, and the control problems. But, if you really want a brick-breaking app that has absolute value in terms of content combined with fresh features, it might just be worth your while to take this for a spin.
