Shaky Summit - It's fun period.

Shaky Summit is an iPhone game in which you choose to be one of three mountain climbers: Ran Dan Dundy, Bobby Q, or Sharpi who each have different strengths and weaknesses in the areas of acceleration, top speed and Recovery times from obstacles. There is also a mystery character that is unavailable at the start of the game. Once you have chosen a character you choose the playing difficulty:  Tenderfoot or Experienced. There is a Master difficulty level that is unavailable at the beginning of the game.

There are different play areas to master, beginning with Landon’s Glean. In each play area you must earn a certain amount of points during game play to earn a bronze, silver or gold medal, however you can finish the area and advance to the next without earning enough points for any of the medals.

Once you tap the screen to enter the area you are given the choice of enabling the in-game tutorial that provides game play info and useful hints regarding how to defend against or trigger obstacles during the playing of that level.

You are matched against one of the other characters that you didn’t select at the player select screen. You then run and climb a course along grassy, muddy, or icy areas, through streams, and up cliff walls. During game play you receive points and bonuses for avoiding obstacles yourself and for causing your opponent to be negatively affected by those same obstacles.

To achieve this you tap the screen to cause an earthquake in order to shifts obstacles such as boulders or logs, either to clear your path of obstacles or to place obstacles in your opponents’ path. Your character will run around boulders so it is useful to keep you from running through mud pits (which slow you down) or into beehives (which will cause your character to run back the wrong way for a time before turning and once again progressing through the level toward the finish.

It is also useful to keep an eye on your opponent’s progress, as the earthquake you cause will also affect his play area. For example, you can cause an earthquake to move the boulders as he’s passing one to cause it to fall on him and stun him or as he’s wading through a mud puddle to trip him, slowing his progress through the area. As well, you can cause a quake while he’s climbing to cause him to have to stop climbing temporarily and hang on to prevent a fall.

Throughout the course there are flagged checkpoints. You earn bonus points for passing these flagged areas ahead of your opponent. You also earn extra bonus points for getting far ahead of your opponent. These extra points can really add thousands to your score and are necessary for earning the highest honor of the Silver and Gold Medals.

You also have a Stamina bar that you can tap for an energy boost, which will move your character along faster for a short period of time. As you tap the Stamina bar it will decrease, but will replenish itself over time.

The successful completion of each game play area will unlock the next area. The play areas and points necessary for bronze, silver, and gold medals are as follows:

AREA BRONZE SILVER GOLD


Landon’s Glean 6000 7500 9000

Paltry Peaks 10000 12000 14000

Oracle’s Alp 10000 12000 14000

Hitcher’s Heap 10000 12000 14000

The Stump 15000 17500 20000

Castletop Cove 12000 14000 16000

Rogue Monstair 17500 20000 22500

Pariah’s Precipice 17500 20000 22500

Bugbear’s Rise 17500 20000 22500

Mt. Yetisburg 30000 35000 40000

This game is fun …period … though it does take some time initially to be able to learn how to effectively control the environment to your gain, and ultimately your opponent’s detriment. How well, and how quickly, you progress through this game will depend highly on your ability to time your use of the seismograph to cause quakes at times that will effectively trigger the desired action to either enhance your own progress or hinder that of your opponent.

Another plus is that this game will be equally as enjoyable for my 9-yr-old son as it is for me, because it requires only simple timing of the quakes and use of the stamina bar to complete the levels. And any game I can enjoy with my children is a good one in my opinion.

I have played this game, and enjoyed every minute of it, for probably at least 8 – 10 hours over the last week or so and have thus far been unable to get to the master levels or to unlock the mystery character. But, I’m having a great time getting there.  In my opinion, any game you can master in just a few days probably isn’t worth my time.

I tend to enjoy games that take some time and strategy to complete. As they say, it’s not getting there that counts, but the journey you experience along the way that makes it worthwhile.  And this journey, so far, is a great one!!!

You can buy Shaky Summit HERE.