Silvertree Media
£Free (try before you buy) then £2.99
Google Android, Apple iOS (reviewed on iPad and iPhone)
It’s hard to believe, but the smartphone/tablet gaming world is rapidly approaching maturity. How can we tell? It is developing its own gaming sequels and franchises. Cordy 2 (the third in the series) is a great case in point, the original launched a year or so ago and this new version has a level of polished spit shine that can compete with the portable consoles.
Cordy 2 is basically a platformer, borrowing all its mechanics from Super Mario Bros. and – much more obviously – Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a reason those two Nintendo and Sega franchises are legendary – they are excellent. Cordy 2 does a fantastic job of knocking the two of them off, with some nice tight touch screen controls excellent pacing and – most importantly – a quick, agile flow to the game.
Much like Mario and Sonic, the story is nonsense – don’t bother. Cordy is some kind of television set, cyber creature who needs to save the inhabitants of a planet from some meanie.
More importantly, you will spend your time speeding through levels as quickly as possible collecting gears (read: Sonic’s rings) and ‘Zaps’ (read: Sonic’s Big Rings) before a time limit. Various creatures can be jumped on, zapped and smashed with a variety of power ups.
Cordy 2 is free for the first four levels, so you can try before you buy, and then £2.99, which isn’t too unreasonable.
Seasoned platform players will probably whizz through it quite easily (it isn’t a tough game), but could be perfect for kids. It also looks great, with some nifty 3D cartoon graphics.
The controls are nice and reponsive – all things considered. I struggle with touch screen based controllers for these kind of high speed, twitch and reflex style games – but this is the best I’ve seen on iPad so far. Cordy 2 doesn’t work nearly as well on a smartphone unfortunately. Your thumbs cover too much of the screen and you can’t see what’s happening.
So stick to a tablet, and you’re on to a winner.
Tablets
Phones
