Author
Josh Cox
Price: $.99
Publisher: Atakama Labs
Freaking Inkies HD is probably the most colorfully fun, shooter-based iPad game I have ever played. The back story is that you have a library of books and these Inkies, those freaking Inkies, are trying to ruin and write all over the pages. To protect your books you have to eliminate those Inkies by shooting them with a color ball that matches their color, yellow for yellow, red for red and so on.
What’s so fun and challenging about this game is that you have two sets of colors, one on each side of the iPad. They go Red, Yellow, and Blue, top to bottom. Sometimes you might get a purple Inkie or an orange one, so you have to select different colors on each side to mix them and shoot the correctly colored color ball. To help you during levels you can see what color you are mixing by watching the crosshairs. They will change to whatever color you are about to shoot.
The controls are very simple and straightforward. At the beginning of each book or level you are asked to hold the iPad at a comfortable position and tap the screen. This locks the calibration in for aiming your color balls. To aim during a level just tilt the iPad and watch the crosshairs move. Aiming is a bit tricky as the crosshairs go a little haywire ever so often, but it doesn’t really affect the level. To shoot the color balls you must tap on the left and the right color controls at the same time, just tapping one side will not shoot.
The graphics are extremely well done. The Inkie characters are funny little looking guys that take on different personalities in the many different levels included. For example, in one level you have to protect three brains from zombie Inkies. In another level you have to protect a flag from Inkie soldiers. The backgrounds are always a cool looking black and white page from books that somehow always fit a level’s theme whether it is about soldiers, zombies, or something else entirely. The music throughout the game also changes to fit the theme for each level. For example, in one of the levels the Inkies are soldiers that are parachuting onto the pages of one of your books. The music is a perfect fit for the action and graphics; a sort of marching song with trumpets and trombones.
The Challenge portion of the game has 17 books; each book has multiple chapters and each chapter is like a mini-level. The Freeplay mode allows you to shoot as many Inkies as you can in a certain amount of time. Each successful shot adds additional time to that game.
This game is very easy to pick up and start playing. I can imagine that younger kids would love it. But hey, I’m 27 and really like it too. If this game couldn’t get any better, it’s only $0.99. That’s a lot of gameplay for a little money. Freaking Inkies HD is a must buy in my opinion. It has it all; great graphics, fun music, good controls, and an amazing price.
Overall Value for it’s $.99 price point
Overall: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars Graphics: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars Sound: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars Controls: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars