The basic story of the game is that there are 2 tribes of jellies red & blue and you take the side of one of these, engaging in physics-based fights around various terrain and obstacles, shuffling yourself around and firing off various types of bombs (standard, sticky, cluster) to try and destroy the representative of the other tribe.
Jelly Wars is actually a turn-based game, i.e, you take a shot, then the opponent, but there is a real time element in that you have to assess what action or shot to take and then perform it before the 30s timer runs out.
When you start Jelly Wars, you're asked to pick an Internet access point from your valid connections - a little odd, since most Symbian applications just go online silently these days, but hey, it's only one tap. When opting to play for real, there's a wait of only a few seconds while a suitable opponent is found (there does seem to be an attempt at matching you with someone of equal experience), accompanied by a delightful Disney-esque animation:
Jelly Wars is actually a turn-based game, i.e, you take a shot, then the opponent, but there is a real time element in that you have to assess what action or shot to take and then perform it before the 30s timer runs out.
When you start Jelly Wars, you're asked to pick an Internet access point from your valid connections - a little odd, since most Symbian applications just go online silently these days, but hey, it's only one tap. When opting to play for real, there's a wait of only a few seconds while a suitable opponent is found (there does seem to be an attempt at matching you with someone of equal experience), accompanied by a delightful Disney-esque animation:
And here's another mid-game shot, here zoomed halfway in - looks like I've got to fire over some rather cuboid trees to reach my red opponent. Note also the timer, top-right, counting down the time allotted for me to take my move. If either player runs out of time then play reverts to the opponent. Gameplay is nicely centred around trial and error, just as with Angry Birds, as you learn by experiment just how hard to 'pull back', and at what angle, in order to hit each target, depending on distance, elevation and obstacles that have to be cleared.
Rather artily, the main menu offers a cinematic storyboard - all very beautiful and it kind of tells the back story of the two jelly tribes - I think - but you probably won't want to watch it more than once(!):
While in a game, there's an integrated chat facility - all very handy if you're that way inclined and if you get seriously involved with the Jelly Wars game community:
Star Arcade has also implemented elements of social networking - you can even 'follow' an opponent, to better find them again in the future for a rematch:
Here's the built-in player hub - all very clearly implemented with plenty of subtle links to more Star Arcade fare and its social acccounts:
So far so good then. However, it's not all sweetness and light. Firstly, the help screens are lazily implemented as online resources. Resources which I failed to ever access at all. Either something's horribly wrong with Star Arcade's servers or the Jelly Wars help system isn't properly Symbian-compatible. Moreover, the frozen help page load, shown below, was enough to warrant an emergency close of Symbian Web from the multitasking carousel - and that doesn't often get needed. Black marks all round, I'm afraid!
A second black mark is awarded for Jelly Wars implementation within the Symbian multitasking OS generally. When in the background (i.e. you've got the game menu up but switch away to another application), Jelly Wars doesn't go to sleep happily - there's a noticeable processor/battery drain. My Nokia 808 was at 50% battery charge and I switched away to do something else, then forgot I had the game still running. Next thing I knew, two hours later, my 808 power down with no battery charge left.
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