Let me not waste your time. Axle is a promising platform game with puzzle elements. Their Kickstarter has already reached the initial $15,000 goal, but that release is on Android. If the Fallstreak Studios team hits their $22,000 stretch goal, Axle will be ported to iPhone, iPad, and Windows phones.
I’d like to see Axle on iOS. We’ve got a week to make this happen, iOS gamers. Let’s go to work.
Judging from the videos, I’d say there’s a lot to love about this little game. Axle has a nice blend of steampunk and cutesy elements with some apparent puzzle elements thrown in for good measure. Though I’m hoping to see a few more hazards pop up to help differentiate things, Axle is shaping up to be something pretty special.
Fallstreak Studios is aiming at a “Donkey Kong Country Returns” level of difficulty. For those unfamiliar with DKCR, this means you’re either going to love it or hate it. I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment, as my fond memories of Battletoads, Earthworm Jim, and Viewtiful Joe over the years can attest, so this is music to my ears.
Each level features a different broken item that Axle must fix. For instance, that slumped over Nutcracker from the opening cinematic could be a level found in the Toy Shop. The team currently has five different stages planned: the Toy Shop, the Estate, the Factory, the Adventure, and the Military. Looks like Axle’s going to be getting a high-and-tight, hooah!
There are already a handful of gear-based games in the App Store, be it the puzzle elements of Geared and Geared 2 or the “Marble Madness” goodness of Gears, but this brings something else to the table. Plus, you know, cute little anthropomorphic gears are hard to pass up, right?
One of the more interesting elements is the jumping mechanics. Axle always jumps the same height. At the peak of his jump, the game then checks for the nearest gear. If no other gears are found, Axle goes back whence he came. It gives the game an appearance of a gravity field without all the fuss of physics that could mess things up.
The tentative release date is April 2013. We’ll be keeping an eye on it until then.
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| Fade to Slack is a founding member of Delta Attack, an American expatriate in South Korea, and a true believer in the legitimacy of mobile gaming.
Keep up with him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Fade2Slack so he can justify having a Twitter account. Fade to Slack has written 308 posts on Delta Attack. |
