UPDATE: August 3rd, 2010
Tilt To Live, an excellent tilt-based high score game, just received a significant new update. The game now contains a new mode, Frostbite, and a powerup called the Burnicade.
In Frostbite, frozen dots will fall from the top of the screen to a pool of water at the bottom. You have to break up the ice before they land, otherwise they'll turn into red dots and chase you around the screen. You can also fill up a power meter, which when filled gives you access to the Burnicade.
The Burnicade makes you invincible for a few seconds, and leaves a temporary trail of fire behind your arrow. In Frostbite mode, this is especially useful, as frozen dots will fall right into your burning pathway. The Burnicade is also unlockable in the regular game mode, if you earn enough achievement points.
Both of the new additions are a lot of fun, and it had the effect of bringing us back into this great game. Now with a total of four modes and six unlockable powerups, Tilt To Live keeps getting better and better.
UPDATE: April 30th, 2010
Tilt To Live has been updated with two new gameplay modes, and each retains the spark of genius we detected in the original game. As a result, we're bumping our score up to a Must Have.
In addition to the Classic survival mode, you can now play Code Red, which is like the hard or insane version of Classic mode. Or, as the developer puts it, "Classic mode on crack."
In this mode, the screen instantly fills with a few dozen red dots, throwing experienced players right into the deep end of the pool. It's perfect if you've already mastered Classic mode and want to skip the slow build-up we complained about previously.
The other new mode is Gauntlet, where shapes will fly by from right to left and you have to tilt your little arrow out of the way. At the same time, you have to dive in to pick up time-extending orbs. It's all about precise movement instead of screen-destroying powerups, but it's a welcome change of pace.
The Tilt To Live concept has proven itself to work well in unique situations, and we hope to see even more great ideas developed in future updates. With these new options, we can't see any reason not to give this game our highest recommendation.
Are you a master of avoidance? If someone asks you to do some household chores, do you run and hide on the roof? While you’re up there, you can work on your avoidance skills even more by playing Tilt To Live, a game where you use the iPhone or iPod Touch’s tilt controls to keep an arrow-shaped cursor away from deadly red dots for as long as possible.
While a survival-type game without a shooting button may sound boring, the developers of Tilt to Live have stuffed it with humor and personality nearly to the point of bursting. From the second you turn it on, Tilt to Live lives to entertain with quirky loading screens, control menus, and online achievements.
You have pleased the Khan.
There’s only one stage in Tilt to Live, so every time you start the game, the experience will be pretty similar at first. Some jazzy music plays as the first few aggressive red dots appear. You must avoid them and make your way to nearby powerups, detonating bombs or activating homing missiles to do the killing for you. The best powerup is a laser shot that fires just a second after you run into it, killing all red dots directly in front of you.
Tilt to Live would fail if it weren’t for the tight tilt controls, and fortunately even aiming your giant death laser with precision is a cinch. We did run into a few control snafus when holding the device upside down (sleepy mode) or at a custom angle that was also facing downward. Otherwise, the regular top-down views of the action worked perfectly, letting us guide our arrow through swarms of red dots with ease.
Purple rain.
Extremely funny achievements for killing certain numbers of enemies, and new weapons that are very challenging to unlock are the two biggest reasons to keep playing Tilt to Live in the long term. Also, the further you get, the more bizarre the behavior of the red dots becomes. At one point, they’ll turn into a Pong ball and paddles, or they’ll form tight rows and sweep across the screen in lockstep.
This game does have room for improvement. A few extra levels with different dot behaviors would be a natural fit for free or paid expansions, and we wish there was a way to skip straight to the action when you first start instead of waiting for it to ramp up each time. Otherwise, this is a completely charming non-shooter that delivers a lot of challenge for experienced and highly-coordinated gamers. Don’t avoid it-- seek it out on the App Store.
7 Comments
Interesting, sounds like Geometry Wars without the shooting! I'll have to check it out, great review.
Awesome game, too bad I'm terrible at it
this is one of those games that you might just glimpse and pass on...
DONT.
its one of the most polished and addictive games out there. PLAY IT.
tilt is just fine.
you can calibrate it with what you want.
oh and the environment is just fine. simple as it is. no complaints.
hope for more updates though.
It's exactly like Geometry Wars, at least in it's setup and core gameplay. The graphics look nicer and there's more upgrades for your ship in Tilt to Live. Unfortunately I hit critical mass around level 6 or 7 and can't seem to progress much beyond that. Fun though!
oops, I meant to post this comment on the "Critical Wave" review, my bad!
I suck at this game, but it's absolutely great. 4/4.
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