Today I have an iPhone game for you that takes the classic cannon vs cannon gameplay and adds dynamic levels, character selection, instant replay, and much more!
Gorillas is the classic cannon vs cannon game mechanic but adds a slew of customizable settings. To begin, you can choose your character who will play as your “cannonâ€. You can choose a Gorilla, such as the game name, but you may also choose a Rabbit, a Banana or others.
The odd thing about the characters is when you begin playing, your character is barely visible except for a small green target arrow over your enemy. You can see what I mean in the images below. However, the game does make use of the iPhone pinch to zoom in/out finger gesture, so you can always zoom in to get a closer look.
The goal of the game is to eliminate your enemy by way of launching deadly projectiles. When your projectile makes contact with your enemy, you win and the stage is complete. However, the enemy does shoot back at you, so this game quickly becomes one of speed as much as it is one of skill. You can check out a gameplay video here.
The controls consist of using your finger to aim your shot. Moving your finger up along the screen indicates your arc and the farther out you move your finger away from your character indicates the speed of the shot. When you release your finger, the projectile launches and you can cancel the shot by placing a second finger on the screen, but this has to be done before you actually fire the shot. You also must be mindful of the wind direction. The controls take a little getting used to, but after a few minutes, you catch on. The game also offers a Boot Camp mode, otherwise known as a tutorial, that allows you some practice before you play the real thing.
The game includes various levels that you can choose as your background. All of the backgrounds are cityscapes but you can choose between different looks such as alien, metropolis, and many more. As your launch your projectile toward your enemy, any misses will damage the cityscape and begin small fires among the buildings. Gorillas also offers a variety of game play modes such as Last Man Standing, Team Game or Classic. These modes allow you to play against the AI or against a friend.
Overall, Gorillas offers familiar gameplay, fantastic background music, a really neat instant replay feature and an unprecedented amount of customization for this type of game. The only thing that bothers me is the tiny character models that are so small to the point that they are barely visible against the backgrounds! Other than that, the game provides a solid challenge with hours of replayability.
Gorillas is scored a 4.5 out of 5.
Gorillas is available in the iTunes App Store for $0.99.
You can also check out Gorillas Lite.
