Lumiappaday #11: Penguin demoed on the Nokia Lumia 800

Sunday’s Lumiappaday is an game called Penguin. It’s really simple but it’s really addictive. I’ve you’ve ever played Tiny Wings, the game play is pretty much like that. Press down to dive and release to flap the penguin’s wings. Time it just right so that you dive on a downward slope that helps gain momentum and speed as you launch your penguin back up.

 #11) Penguin

Price: Free

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/78681258-ec97-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWZeT98-O-I

Developer blurb:

Who says penguins can’t fly? With your help, this Penguin can and does fly through a colorful, fun landscape. Easy to start with simple, one-touch controls to dive or fly. Keep practicing your timing to build momentum, taking Penguin to new heights and lands.

Rating: 9.00

Design: 7 The premise of this game is to make a flightless bird, fly. Here we have a penguin and it is in expected chilly, icy surroundings. When the penguin is flying, you can see him flap his wings. The faster he goes, the game zooms out slightly so you can see more of the surroundings. The hills change colour with different levels.

It’s not pushing the graphics, but it still looks great though having seen Tiny Wings, my expectations are slightly raised. You’ve got music playing in the background and sound effects when your penguin crashes or picks up fish.

The ads are intermittent, although they do sometimes detract. Hey, it makes the game free.

It could push itself a little further in terms of animations, perhaps with a video intro, improve backgrounds.

Usability: 9. I couldn’t understand how to work this the very first time I played it. But once I did it got really addictive. It’s simple – just press the screen to dive and release to let your penguin flap its wings. It’s just a case then of coordinating when to dive so that you slide down the slope and not crash on an upward one.

It helps if you’re having problems by having green highlighted on the downward slope and red on the upward ones. These disappear when you’re moving quite well, and the game assumes you’ve understood the controls.

Performance: 10 Much better than before (on my Omnia7). As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, these developers are constantly updating their apps. Fast start, stable, resumes instantly (though you just have to press resume afterwards and continue precisely where you left off). It’s instances like that where you’d prefer the game not to run in the background when multitasking.

The visuals are fast and fluid.

Price: 10. It’s free, add supported. The ads appear in game though so you do have something blocking the game screen. It intermittently disappears but it’s there more times than it’s not.

Conclusion: Great, simple addictive free game. Perfect casual game to pick up anywhere and kill some time.

p.s. I’ve got some more visually appealing games to show, but it’s just a case of finding the time next week to record them. I think that whilst I have too many apps to show to limit to just one app a day, I think I’m going to have to based on the demands of Uni Work. These videos are a little more time consuming than I expected them to be what with filming and editing and processing then working out the screenshots and then the written review. I love doing them though. It makes a great contrast to everything else that I’m doing but I just have to limit the time I spend to make sure none of the other stuff (esp Uni) suffers. Hope there are people out there finding Lumiappaday useful. The apps themselves might not be to everyone’s taste but hopefully you can see there’s always new content to put on your Lumias.

Category: Applications, Games, Lumiappaday, Nokia