Out Of Circle - 3.5 Stars

What is it?

Out of Circle is a tap style game with the aim to escape a rotating circles. I was contacted on Twitter to review this game so was pretty excited to get started. I think this is a love or hate  app game as it can be very frustrating. 

The game is a white circle  outline with a gap rotating around a dot, you tap the screen to release the dot but if you hit the edge you die. Once out of the first circle you move to another and so on an so forth. The style, speed and direction of the circle change between moves and the longer you stay alive the more complex it appears. 

One frustration that I did have is that you can't tap anywhere on the screen as you are restricted to a circle at the bottom of the screen. This was particularly annoying when you were into the game, missed and lost the flow. 

There are three modes to the game: Arcade, Time Trail and Chirstmas (which I assume means Christmas with an unfortunate typo!). As it is Christmas I mainly played the Chirstmas version. The screen has a few colours that it changes to between plays, with stockings hanging from the header and festive snowfall. 

The normal version is the same as the Chirstmas game but is a  full colour screen, which I feel is a little plain and would benefit from having anything on there to liven it up a bit. 

If you have played DashUp then this is very similar to it. The colours and set up are the same but the format of the game play is different through the use of circles and not sliding white bars. 

Thus far my highest score is a mere 11 but my partner has scored 13 and is forth overall in the world with the highest being a mere 16. This is a bit of an indication to how difficult the game is to master and that there are some frustrating adverts, that I must admit has made me kill the game a few times. 

Now for some ratings.....

Ease of use - 4 

This is a pretty simple game to get a grasp off but it is difficult. If you have poor reaction speeds you will quickly get angry with it but it is interesting for in home challenges. The main frustration is that you can't tap anywhere on the screen to play and if you miss the tap circle you lose your flow. 


Price - 5

This is a free game with no in app purchases. 

Adverts - 2
This game is riddled with adverts. There is a constant banner at the bottom of the screen, but it doesn't interrupt game play. After three plays there are full screen ads, these start off as manageable but after about 8 plays they turn into 5 second screen invaders. After 4 of these in a row the game got switched off. As this game is difficult you don't want to break your concentration but the ads do it for you!

Overall Rating - 1

I have struggled with rating this app but I am going for 3.5 stars. The adverts are annoying and the game is a little difficult to play. The inability to tap anywhere on the nearly blank screen is also frustrating. With that said it has remained on my phone and from starting the review to now i have upped my score...but will I get the highest in the world. 

Keep, jury is out or delete - Keep

I will be keeping this for a little while longer as I enjoy the competition, but if the adverts get any more annoying it will have to go :(

Where to find it:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/out-of-circle/id943841480?ls=1&mt=8

Space Mousy - 2.5 stars

What is it?

As the title say's it is a mouse in space! The aim of the game is move the mouse to avoid the comets that fire across the screen in different directions.

When you launch the app you are greeted by the Mouse in the centre of the screen with several other shaded versions with numbers. These are additional characters that are unlocked if you reach that distance. The menu screen also has a sound button to turn off the repetitive music and a link to the Game Centre. Your 'Best Distance' is displayed near the top of the screen below an odd white bar (I assume this is for banner ads that aren't being displayed). At the bottom of the screen is 'Tap to Play'... literally you have to tap those words to start the game!

Throughout the game and the menu bar there are graphics of white dots falling diagonally across the screen. Although these are stars (clue in the title ;) ) it actually looks like a snow storm, and at this time of year I liked the effect :).

When I eventually tapped to play I immediately died! In actual fact this happened three times! I eventually figured out that you don't tap the mouse to move it around you tap where you want it to go.

As I said the aim of the game is avoid the comets that fly across the screen in quite cute graphics. It is a bit of a game of pot luck if you move the mouse to the right place and even when you think you have just cleared the comets path it sometime gets you (bit like those stupid pipes in Flappy stupid Bird).

Once I figured out how to control the game I was looking forward to getting into game play...but then I found a bug :(. After four attempts at saving the mouse a full screen animated ad was displayed. I hate ads that you are forced to watch but this did allow you to close it but the cheeky thing moves where the cross is during the ad so I ended up in the App Store... but that isn't the bug. Once the advert has played and you have closed it, you return to the main menu but when you Tap to Play, nothing appears to happen. I had the sound on while playing the app and quickly realised that the game was in fact playing as I could hear the sound of the comet hitting the mouse. The only way to get back to game play was to force close the app to and reload, which does take several seconds to get back into the action. After 10 times of doing this, with regret I put the phone down. 

This app has potential to be very addictive, especially in my competitive household but the bug is just too frustrating :(

Now for some ratings.....

Ease of use - 3 

Once you figure out the controls this is ok to play but this game could really benefit from a tutorial or some instructions. I imagine as the game gets further your thumb will get in the way of play if comets are darting everywhere but I think this will add to the skill and frustration that will make it super competitive. 
Price - 5

This is a free app, but there is a paid version on the store too that I didn't review. 

Adverts - 1

There are ads in this game and I believe the inclusion of them has introduced a bug to the game. The ads are animated and can be difficult to switch off :( Unfortunately even if you do switch them off it kills game play :(

Keep, jury is out or delete - Jury is Out

Overall Score - 2.5
I feel terrible for having to give this score but the bug killed it for me. This game has potential and if it was fixed I am sure I would be playing it to the point that the phone gets thrown across the sofa in frustration then quickly retrieved to try again. I don't often do this but if the game was updated I would happily re-review to see if my suspicions about its potential are true. 

Where to find it:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id936540390?mt=8