Squids for iPhone, iPad Review

Our rating:

By: The Game Bakers

Version #: 1.1

Date Released:

Developer: By The Game Bakers

Price: $0.99

User Rating:

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When I first heard about Squids for the iPhone, I wasn’t told anything about how it played. I simply knew two things: it had colorful cartoony graphics, and its had in-app purchases. Now my first instinct was to run the other way because I am not much of a fan of grinding social network games. So there was unfortunately a delay before I looked at this title in any depth at all. As the days rolled by I kept hearing people on twitter buzz about this game so I took a closer look. Is it a “Farmville underwater” game, or is it something else?

Squids takes place in a world where the crustaceans have been infected with some goo that has turned them evil. Your protagonist is a team of squids that go in search of an army to help fight back this threat. As squids your main method of attack is to physically slam into your enemies, hopefully knocking them off a cliff, or into spikes that will do extra damage. This is a turned based game with its roots in a sort of deathmatch shuffleboard. Don’t let the “turn-based” part of that scare you away. This game can e fast paced and while each level is isolated to itself, they are each designed to match the story’s scenario. Some levels are small arena, while others are sprawling bridges and pathways.

Squids gives you four characters to start and each one has their roles, from healer to scout. As you accomplish levels objective, like by killing everyone, or reaching the designated map point, etc, You gain pearls which you can use to buy hats and other upgrades for your squids. You also unlock new characters to choose from, and while you can only ever have four in a level, choosing from a larger pool adds another layer of strategy. This is where the IAPs come in. You may purchase pearls from the store for real money. A have found this totally unnecessary unless you are very impatient and are not willing to spend time playing the game. I haven’t found a need to grind, or replay, old levels in order to purchases items I needed.

The campaign is twenty-one levels long and there are also a couple of bonus levels that are set up with a halloween theme. Each level offers a three star rating for finding the secret star in each level, not losing a squid, and for the number of turns you took. Squids offers Openfeint with online game saving, and GameCenter support. This fun game is all wrapped up in a very high quality graphic and sound package. The production value reminds me of much high profile game developers like Glu or Chillingo.

Squids is currently on sale for $.99 so take a look at these screenshots and don’t make the same mistake I did by passing this gem up.

We rate this app 5 out of 5 stars.