Catch the Face Review – A frantic face/shape recognition game

Our rating:

By: LL Technologies

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2012-08-17

Developer:

Price: .99

User Rating:

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When reviewing apps I usually read the description of the game on iTunes in order to know what the developer’s intent was for the app. With Catch the Face, I was expecting a game similar to music timing games like Guitar Hero or Tap Tap Revenge. Once I actually started playing Catch the Face, I found that my initial expectations were a bit off. It seems it has more in common with shape recognition than music. So the question is, what is Catch the Face, and should it catch your attention?

The gameplay is explained through three instruction panels. As faces move up the road they reach a lit area of the road. Once there, you must tap on the Face that corresponds with them. Faces move at different rates and its not important when you tap as long as you do so before they reach the finish line. Secondly, there are bonuses that fall from the top of the scene. You may tap them to get things like, a longer finish area, fewer possible faces, slower speed, or even bonus coins. Thirdly, there are penalties that fall from the top, that if you don’t tap them, will scramble buttons, stop bonuses, or even stop you from earning points. Luckily these, like the bonuses are only temporary.

During the game it occurred to me that you aren’t matching faces so much, (the faces running up the screen are facing away from you) as you are matching shapes. Each face has a unique hair and body shape that sets it apart. The game starts off slow with four face possibilities and increases up to eight as you earn points. This slow ramping up of difficulty make this game seem quite pedestrian until you are bombarded with dozens of different faces that all need to be tapped while inside that tiny zone. Compound this challenge with trying to tap bonuses/penalties that are falling down the center. Do you tap the penalty or take the hit to avoid missing a face?

In Catch the Face there are four game types to choose from. The standard game is endless until you miss three faces. Then there is a timed mode where you see how many faces you can get within a minute and a half. These two modes are repeated in challenge modes where the game is the same except the faces are all the same color. Your scores for each mode are recorded in GameCenter and there is a refreshingly non-IAP bonus store where you can upgrade your bonuses using coins you earn during play.

Catch the Face is a simple and frantic tapping casual game with fair amount of challenge. While the gameplay isn’t anything groundbreaking, and I found some interface elements were a bit unresponsive, I found the game to be quite fun to play overall, and it had plenty of room to grow. If you need a new game to pass the time, catch this app and give it a try.

NOTE: Catch the Face now has a lite version, available for free. Get it here.