IPod Touch Applications Reviews: Lifeboat

Lifeboat, a new action game from Fuel Games, has been released into the app store.

Captain Rickety’s boat, the S.S. Anchor, isn’t quite up to code when it comes to battling the elements. Eventually, his ship’s going down and we need to get as many people off of the boat as possible before that very last glub glub glub. Lifeboats will randomly appear on either side of the boat, equipped with timers that indicate how quickly they’ll shove off, with or without passengers. Tilt your iDevice left, right, forward, or backward in order to influence the direction that the passengers will tumble from the boat. Tumble five passengers into a lifeboat and receive a “full boat” time bonus, adding time on to the overall timer. There are green and gold lifeboats that offer greater bonuses if you manage to fill them to capacity. Many of your passengers will end up in the water. Tap them to toss out life preservers, yanking them back onboard. Better do so quickly, as a hungry shark has been seen circling this site… and it’s lunchtime. The more people you save, the better your score. When your timer runs out, the boat will slip into the depths of the ocean.

Lifeboat offers a helpful tutorial to get you acclimated to the controls. The game auto-calibrates to your current position when you start, so you can play in any orientation. Lifeboat offers both Quick Play and Campaign options. Quick Play is just straight up, save as many as possible for a high score. Campaign requires you to save a certain number of people in order to move on to the next location. You can earn coins to purchase upgrades, such as dynamic ballasts, swimming lessons, and more. Current and lifetime statistics are maintained, so you can check out your stats if you so desire.

Graphically, the game looks nice. There is nothing groundbreaking or Earth shattering here, but the game is pleasant enough to look at. Sounds are decent, with funny little comments by the passengers heard over an upbeat soundtrack. Controls, however, feel a little clunky. The boat seems slow to roll from side to side and passenger physics sometimes seem a bit off, like they tumble in place for a period before moving in any direction. Most of the passengers simply tumble off of the boat, which is slightly annoying. It would be nice if there was a mechanism to corral them somehow. Overall, gameplay if all right, but it gets repetitive really quickly.

Replay value is there, but it’s not as high as one might have hoped. In essence, Fuel Games has created a time management game, but not one to really threaten stealing the thunder from the other games in this ever-expanding genre. It is priced appropriately at $0.99, so you’ll feel like you got a great deal if you enjoy the game. Lifeboat finds itself disappointingly stranded in 3-Dimple territory.

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