Grabatron Review: Stuffed teddy bears need not apply.

Details

Published on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 10:07

What would you do if you where an alien that's just made it to planet earth... that's right, goes around abducting every living thing in sight. Packed full of hostile humans, you have to survive long enough to carry out all the missions set for you by your home planet!

Name: Grabatron | Developer: Future Games Of London | Genre: Arcade & Action | Players: 1 | Version: 1.0.6 | Size: 30.23MB | Price: $1.00 (Full)

Grabatron Features:

• Big open world to explore.
• Upgradable spaceship (in-app purchase optional, as can be found throughout the game).
• Over 30 missions to complete.
• Power-ups hidden around the world to find.
• Tilt Controls.
• Realistic phsyics.
• Openfeint achievements and leaderboards.

Gameplay

When I review games, I like to jump in head first and see if the game tries to educate you on how it's played. One quick loading screen with a brief picture to show you how the controls work just isn't enough in my opinion. Now unfortunately this title only calibrates your proximity sensor then throws you in at the deep end. Jumping right in will suit some gamers as some of us just have a natural instinct when it comes to playing games. For me, I think every game should come with a tutorial, especially with a unique game like Grabatron.

Bouncing cows off of water towers is what I call fun. Luckily for me, this game lets you create tons of fun by doing crazy things. My personal favorite is grabbing any object of your choice, living or not, fly as high as you can and drop it, then race it back to the ground... it's rather fun.

Coming to the missions, they're not complex at all and won't confuse anyone. The majority of the missions are to abduct all different types of people or animals for experimentation. Also coming across small holes in the surface of the earth can lead to all kinds of good... or bad experiences. The game does consist of a large area to explore, but somehow Grabatron still feels light to play.

One major issue I found, or not found, was the ability to save the game. I played through about 10 missions and wanted to save the game but couldn't find anything or any way of doing so. I closed the game then came back to find nothing was saved at all, if anyone knows please leave it in the comments.

Graphics

As for graphics, I'd imagine they'd look really good on a phone but as I played it on a tablet, I didn't find them too amazing. I'm pretty sure on a smaller screen they would look really good. Just a tad pixelated on a tablet (10.1 inch screen).

What I found really good was the animation on the spaceship and grabber claw. Depending on how fast you're flying in either the left or right direction, the spaceship tilts with the angle and it really gives the impression of a 2.5D game.

Controls

The lack of control choice slightly frustrated me. Tilting does suit the game, but for me when I'm out and about I don't want to be sitting on a train waving my Android device about like some 60 year old trying to turn a corner by tilting a control pad. All I would like is an on-screen choice so I can be more discrete in public.

A nice feature in the game is when you do pick up an object/animal/human, swiping on-screen will fling the object in whichever direction you want. Throwing a truck and trailer at a sheep is very entertaining... and slightly bloody.

The tilting action for the controls in the game aren't too bad, as sensitivity is at least included in the options. Tilting your device will control the overall direction; up, down, left and right, so hopefully you can see why I wouldn't mind having a V-stick for public use.

Overall

My overall opinion of this game is quite high. I love a game that brings something new to the table. I'm sure most of the features in the game have been used in other games, but the blend of all of them together give the game a nice fresh feel and that's exactly what I needed as I felt like the majority of android games lately just felt too similar.

I would recommend it for something different to play. It isn't a deep game, it feels quite light and something you could come back to multiple times. If I could find out how to save it, I would greatly appreciate anyone who knows... as for now... I'm gonna make some cows go splat.

Rating: 4/5

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