The Night time’s the Right Time
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Publisher: Roberto Pelonara
Website: App Store
Platform/s: IOS
Price: Free
Introduction
I took either an ethics or logic class in college that I ended up dropping after like two days because it was so boring. I remember that first day. We all sat down at our desks, and the professor asked us to tell him something that all games had in common. Stop reading here, and I’ll give you a few minutes to think about the answer.
Don’t peek yet. Think about it.
Are you still thinking?
Come on. Give it some thought. What do all games have in common?
Okay. Do you give up?
The answer is. Nothing. There is no single piece of criteria that every game has in common. Stupid huh?
I bring this up as Dusk challenges us to think outside the box. It truly has nothing in common with any game we’ve seen so far in the audio gaming space. It’s a game that will make you consider new ways to play games. It strays from what we’d expect from a normal game.
Initial Thoughts
I saw this circulating around Twitter and was somewhat interested. The game claims to use your phone in various ways to play games. Haptic feedback, sound, and some other sensors. This sounded like a very neat concept. Very similar to 1-2-Switch.
Review
The app is simple to install and asks you for one or two players. Of course, since I have no friends I picked one player. You are then presented with the list of games. As of this writing Dusk has five games you can play. Brief summaries and my thoughts are below.
In Safe Opener, it’s your job to turn your phone like a handle. The goal is to turn the phone until you feel a stronger than normal tap. At this point you hold the phone still until the lock disengages. collect four locks and you win! I held the phone on its side with the screen away from me and rotated it around on its side. This seemed to work well, and this is probably my favorite game.
In Ping Pong you rally the ball back and forth by swinging your phone like a racket. The game claims you need to keep a steady rhythm. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that white boys have no rhythm. I do abysmal at this game.
In flag your job is to aim the phone in the direction spoken. This is fine until the game starts expecting you to point the phone in cardinal directions. Along with having no rhythm I also apparently have no sense of direction. This game is annoying but is a pretty neat concept all and all.
In Tap Tap you must tap the screen a given number of times. You also get more points the faster you tap. If you go over the number of taps, then you lose. Same with going under. I am horrible at this one, but it is a lot of fun. Apparently, I tap it too fast. Make of that what you will.
Finally, in Bubble you must find bubbles on the screen and tap them to pop them. You do this by sliding your finger around the screen until you feel one. This game probably has the worst written directions but was easy enough to figure out. I can never seem to get more than seven bubbles in any one game, but it is still a good time.
Overall this is a very good collection of games. The instructions need some work, but it was still an enjoyable experience.
Pros
- Fun gameplay that thinks out of the box.
- Ability to play with friends.
- Completely useable with Voiceover.
Cons
- Multiplayer is local only.
- Directions for games are vague or in some cases are missing all together.
Conclusion
Issues aside, Dusk will give you a lot of enjoyment if you like a game that is different from the norm. There is a lot of (pardon the pun) untapped potential here. I hope to see them add more games.
Liam’s Rating: 8/10