The Crystal Maze review
For those of you old enough to remember the quite frankly brilliant game show The Crystal Maze, you’ll remember a show hosted by one of the most colourful presenters around at the time, hosting a show that challenged contestants’ skill, mental attributes and of course their physical sides in the form of different games. There were also the mystery games which threw the odd classic into the mix.
The show was eventually (and sadly) pulled from our screens, along with other greats which included Gladiators. Thankfully cable TV came along and we could watch all of our old favourites once more, the only way we could get our fix. That is until now.
The iPhone and iPod Touch does have some terrible games on it. And when a game like The Crystal Maze comes along, you wonder just how it’s going to do. Thankfully it doesn’t do too badly!
The game itself has been made very well, with a lot of attention to detail going into the games design. The map includes the four original zones from when the show started; Aztec, Industrial, Futuristic and Medieval. The way the map is presented to you is just like the show and of course the games will have appeared in some similar form during the show’s history. You really do get that feeling of watching the 90’s show and being a part of it.
The games have been well designed and use the features on the iPhone and iPod Touch well. The motion sensor and tilt function do get a look in, but it is of course the touch screen that sees the most action.
Sadly there are currently only 4 games with the title and with a price tag of £1.79 this could be seen as quite steep. However Dynamo Games have confirmed that more games will come in the form of add on packs. Dynamo have also confirmed to us that these packs will be free, with the first pack due in March adding one more game to each zone. Of course this might take a while for your collection of games to build up in The Crystal Maze, but for less than £2 can you really complain?
It’s unclear to me how the game will actually play when the new games are deployed for The Crystal Maze. Currently you play one game in each zone trying to earn the crystals. Each crystal you win will earn you 15 seconds in the dome, which of course builds up to a maximum of a minute in the dome, but more of that in a minute. So when the new games are available it will be interesting to see whether the format continues of 1 game in each zone, meaning the games vary each time you play it. Or perhaps the game will extend with more games available in each zone, allowing you to potentially earn more crystals in each zone. Only time will tell though, but either way the game will still play well.
As mentioned above, the final part of The Crystal Maze was always the time in the Crystal Dome. The object was to try and catch as many gold tokens as you could, trying to ignore the silver ones also flying around. And in this iPhone version the object is no different, with your touch screen being used to great affect allowing you to actually drag the flying tokens into the awaiting bucket. The amount of silver tokens you collect are taken off your final total and you have to hope you have done enough to get to that magic 100 figure. I won’t spoil the surprise that awaits those of you who do manage to crack the crystal maze.
There are a lot of Apps and games available on the Apple App Store right now. Most are rubbish, but occasionally a little gem comes along. The Crystal Maze is one of those gems. Or should that be crystal? Granted there are only 4 games, 5 if you include the final adventure in the dome. But there are at least 4 more games coming and 8 or 9 games for £2 isn’t bad value for money. It’s great value.
