Catapult Madness

Catapult Madness – How far can you go?

There’s quite a story to this title, but in short the kingdom has been surrounded by monsters and with no real way out the besieged castle’s carpenter builds a catapult with the aim to fire the poor villagers to the safety of the nearest ally’s castle and to raise the alarm to get help. Not quite like a heroic quest you may have been accustomed to but nonetheless it’s a challenge.

If you are expecting a game where you get to wade your way through hundreds or thousands of monsters and beating them into a pulp then you will need to look elsewhere. Instead this is a game of a similar vein to the cult classic Inanaka Crash. What you must do is firstly pick the unfortunate ‘hero’ then work out the angle and the power of your catapult shot. To do this, simply tap the screen at the desired time when the gauge is in the right place. As soon as you release the villager, you get to watch them tumble with little grace through the air. Along the way there is little for you to do other than observe the villager bounce and fall as they come into contact with the floor, monster, birds and explosives. Whenever your character hits one of these objects, your catapulted character will react differently, ranging from; bouncing higher to gaining speed.

After each attempt, your distance is recorded and you are rewarded with gold which you can then use to buy improvements from the store. These improvements increase in cost as you upgrade, but each one of these upgrades have a different impact on your progress. These power-ups are activated whenever you tap on the associated icon. Some can only be used once, others can be used more often, should you have purchased more than one. You will also need to get a bit of a knack from using some of the upgrades in conjunction with one another and get the timing just right.

As an additional reward for your efforts, you’re able to unlock more villagers to launch in your next attempt. Each of these characters have different looks for you to be amused by as they bounce around like a bizarre human tumbleweed.

Although the game is pretty repetitive and as far as interaction goes, there’s virtually none, this is a really funny game which will keep you tickled pink for quite a while. Unlike Inanaca Crash where you get rewards and combos or instantly captured, this game leaves you feeling much more like a spectator and this is the only grumble I have with it. Let’s hope the upgrade or second version of this game has more similarities with the original ‘master’.

Positives

Amusing graphics

Good sound effects

Quite challenging initially

Negatives

Once you’ve upgraded enough times, you will win almost every time (but you can reset the game)

You feel more like a spectator than a player once used all the power-ups

Quite repetitive

3 stars