Static Motion Review
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2
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There’s a surprising amount of challenge from a game where tapping things is the goal. This is thanks to the variety of objects to tap, that act in different ways. Each object has its own behaviors and even physics, such as when two objects are linked together, and destroying one will cause the other to then act differently. This makes Static Motion actually quite interesting to play.
It is challenging because everything is moving so fast, that it feels like it’s difficult for the screen to keep up, and there’s often such little room to tap on that it’s a challenge to be accurate. This is even just on the Medium difficulty, higher difficulties carnk the speed up even higher, and the challenge increases by an exponential amount.
However, there is one thing about the design that I don’t like: the use of iOS menus. See the screenshot at right for what I mean: they’re native iOS menus instead of an in-game solution. It takes away from the rest of the game’s etherial aesthetic, and it serves as a reminder that the game is a bundle of compiled code running on a computer, not as a game experience. Now, the counter-argument is that elements like notifications are a similarly disruptive experience, but they’re an expected part of the iOS experience, and part of the language that each game speaks.While this visual faux pas is disheartening, for those who want a game that follows that old cliche of “easy to play but hard to master” then Static Motion is not a bad choice.