We demand more depth all the time from our games. We expect alternate endings, skill trees, side quests, and endless hours of gameplay. For once, though, we appreciated a game that takes the opposite approach: creating an extremely compact, thoroughly memorable minute or so of intensity.
According to the developer, Canabalt was developed in the space of about five days as part of a micro-game experiment. This game's impact is sure to be felt much longer than five days, though. Like a colony in a petri dish, or a one-act play, Canabalt offers just a self-contained glimpse of a larger world outside.
To John Woo, thanks for everything.
You control a tiny, pixels-high running man, who crazily sprints across the tops of buildings while the world apparently ends around him. War of the Worlds walkers and whizzing spaceships adorn the backgrounds, while in the foreground buildings are slammed with missiles or crumble beneath your feet. Extra-snazzy particle effects, like breaking glass or flying doves, provide even more incredible window-dressing. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to this world.
Once you're off running, you have to time your jumps to move between buildings and over obstacles that appear in your way. Every time you play it, the environment is randomly generated, so you can't simply memorize what obstacles come next. It's a pure exercise in reaction time, with a beautiful presentation that you won't forget anytime soon.
What a way to go.
After you face your inevitable death, your options are limited. You can post your score on Twitter through the game (which has become a bit of a trend lately) or tap the replay button and try again. Canabalt is simply irresistible to replay.
The nearly-flawless execution of one simple idea makes the lack of a story or any other depth inconsequential, but we still require global high scores before giving this game our full recommendation. Also, we think this game would be better priced at a dollar, especially since the original Flash game is still free to play as well.
Canabalt is an interesting experiment, and it's one we enjoyed. It's a game that measures your involvement in minutes, not hours, but we're confident you'll still be thinking about it for weeks or months to come.
10 Comments
Great! Next to Space Invaders Infinity Gene my top pick if I ever had to be on a deserted island for a long time.
This game is so short, though, that if it was the only thing I had on a desert island I'd be praying for a volleyball named Wilson to keep me company.
Twitter score posting is a pro in one review and a con on the next here at slidetoplay. Make up your mind.
I take it you're referring to Moon Drop? What can I say, Canabalt is the only game I've played where posting your score to Twitter is worthwhile, mostly because it's caught on so much. BTW, can anyone claim they've beaten my record?
What is it? I can always try...
i think its much too expensive, u can play it for free on your mac here: http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/ its addicting ok but 2,40 for such a small game?
I can't believe you guys are calling Canabalt out for being too expensive. If you don't feel it's worth £1.79 to have it on mobile, then don't buy it. Play it and enjoy online for no charge. But saying it should be 59p is highly arrogant.
£1.79 is not expensive. I paid more than that for the coffee I just bought. Why slam a developer for charging a reasonable price for their game? And clearly they don't need to price it at 59p because it's selling like hot cakes anyway. It's a great game and you can be sure that your money is helping fund quality development. What do we want... more throwaway puzzlers or rich gaming experiences like Canabalt?
This 'drive to 59p content' is sickening me.
Frankly the price is fine. Short or long, fat or skinny, its about about fun. This game is a lot of fun and I think the developer has the right to ask a decent price.
The price is more than OK for simply the most intense casual gaming experience on the iPhone.
This game is - besides the online leaderboard - pretty perfect! Every detail is just right.
If you could play flash content on the iPhone, this app would be obsolete as they didnt add anything between the flash version and this. Is it just me or shouldn't they have treated their web build almost as the 'lite' version with slightly more in the iPhone version? It's not about the price. I don't care about the price hike from 0 to 3 bucks but more about the fact that its a separate followup that adds nothing other than the ability to be on another device. Am I wrong here?
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