Ion Charge – It’s “pull your hair out” good! | TapCritic - Honest iPhone and iPod Touch App Reviews

Ion Charge – It’s “pull your hair out” good!

ION_HDR Generally I like to think that I have a lot of patience. But this game almost bought me a one-way ticket to the nearest funny farm. Ok, not really. But I did get pretty frustrated with it at first. Ion Charge is a neat little game for the iPhone from developer Calvin Rien that involves a rolling ball, dueling polarities, and angles. Wanna try it out out for free before paying for the full version? Download Ion Charge Lite through the iTunes App Store. Rien, developer of another iPhone App, Artifishal Aquarium, is responsible for the game design and scripting, while credit for models and artwork are attributed to Matthew Nolan.

The only control you have to utilize during game play is a slider bar at the bottom of the screen. You slide it right or left to control the negative or positive polarity of the ball in relation to one or more towers that are situated around the board, which sends it rolling. Once you get used to the controls it’s not that hard to manipulate the ball around the board. The object is to use the rolling ball to collect all the chips, which triggers the opening of the exit. Then the fun really begins. More than once, I’ve collected all the chips without too much trouble, only to spend as much time, or more, trying to exit the level. Getting that little ion ball through the exit … well, let’s just say that my brand new iPhone 3GS narrowly avoided a violent death over the difficulty that I had getting the ball through the exits on a few occasions. Thank goodness for other, simpler apps that I could use to diffuse my homicidal tendencies toward Ion Charge!!! Just kidding. Really. No need for the Geek Police to be informed… Heh heh…. Heh…(phew)

Ok, well, one good thing that saved my sanity is that there are no enemies to avoid. But thus there were also no dwindling energy or power-ups or extra special bonus points to collect, either — at least in the beginning levels. Out of 20 possible levels, I am only on level 5 or so but none of the other reviews I have read regarding this game have mentioned any such extras to look forward to in the higher levels of game play. Perhaps in later updates, developer Calvin Rein might add some extras into the game code. There are some challenges, that make game play interesting such as narrow corridors, walls that open and close, and oppositely charged towers that can affect how a ball rolls.

Ion Charge is played in portrait mode and is featured in 3D. On the top of the game screen you can see a timer to let you know how long you’ve been suffering … err, I mean, immensely enjoying game play, along with a counter to let you know how many chips you’ve left to collect on the level. In between the timer and chip counter is a Pause button that brings up the game menu where you can find instructions, restart the level, options (which currently only consists of volume control), or to quit.

The game screen looks really nice with a very clear view of the board immediately surrounding the ion ball. However there is no zoom option, so you can’t see much of the board except right around the ball. Personally, in a future update, I would like to see a zoom option that would allow you to see the whole board during game play because sometimes it’s difficult to see where all the chips are. And if you’re playing to beat a certain time, then I think it would be helpful to be able to see the whole board to save time blindly tossing the ball around hoping to see the next chip you must collect.

Personally, though this game has caused me to want to throw a tantrum worthy of my 6-yr-old’s approval, it also holds my attention in a weirdly fascinating way that leads me to believe that I won’t be able to let it go until I get through all 20 levels. Well done, Calvin Rien, I’m hooked. This game is “pull your hair out” good!!!