Hands-on: BounceTrap is like Peggle and pachinko (iPhone)

4:00 PM on 12.16.2008   |   Dale North

8 comments

The iPhone has the potential to be the ultimate portable puzzle game machine. Its touchscreen, storage space, and easily accessible App Store have set it up for a win, but it seems that the puzzle game offerings are few even still.

We were excited to hear about PlayScreen's new puzzle title BounceTrap, especially when we heard it described as a cross between Peggle (or pinball) and pachinko. You see, Peggle is an inner-office favorite time waster here at Destructoid. It's a shame that PopCap is taking their sweet-ass time in bringing the title to iPhone. They may have messed up with letting BounceTrap beat them to the device.

This game is pretty good.

The game play is very simple in BounceTrap. In fact, it's so simple that it sounds almost mindless. It's not totally mindless, mind you.

Most of the screen is filled with strategically placed holes. The very top of the screen has a horizontal bar where balls roll along from right to left, one at a time from a reserve. You'll tap the screen (just about anywhere is fine) to make a break in this bar, letting the ball fall into one of these holes, thus making it a peg of sorts (think pinball). You'll need to make this peg disappear so that you'll have access to the holes below it. You can do this by making sure another ball of the same color hits the peg, or three balls of any color. Your goal is to fill every hole with the allotted balls for each level, which is 50 by default, but can be more if you have some left over from the previous level.

The strategy comes in when as far as timing and ball drop placement goes. You'll be banking shots off other pegs or sidewalls, just like in pinball, hoping to take out a few more holes before gravity pulls the ball all the way down. Of course, you can't really know where the ball is going to go, but it feels like you have some control over where it falls. Just for kicks, I tried just mindlessly tapping the screen at random times, hoping that bouncing balls would just take care of the unfilled holes. I lost.

There's nothing here that's too intensive or difficult. I was able to blow through several levels in one sitting. There's always one or two holes that are a bit difficult to fill, but nothing serious. The difficultly does seem to ramp up, and I noticed that the enjoyment ramps up with that. Thankfully, you can exit and save at any time. 

The presentation is pretty nice, and definitely better looking than a lot of the other puzzlers on the App Store. I've seen better, like MotionX's Poker dice game, but this one holds up nicely. The sound, while optional, is pretty good. There's Electronica-styled backing set to some good sound effects, and they're both pretty loud.

This is no Peggle substitute, though. It's definitely got similar vibes, but Peggle's charm lies in the careful planning of what angle your ball launches. BounceTrap gives you nothing but the horizontal drop point -- its start point only. Chance probably plays a bigger role than you'd want it to. Even with that, this iPhone puzzle game is fun. It's got the addictiveness part down pat. This is one of the first iPhone games that I'd deem worthy for an actual gamer.

Ed's Note: If you're on the fence about this one, know that new Holiday pricing was just announced. For a limited time, nab this title for only $.99 on the iTunes App Store, down from its default $4.99. I think it's totally worth $4.99, but it's a no brainer at just a dollar.