Accelerometer controlled platformer titles are starting to make their mark on the iPhone App Store. One of the latest attempts is Rocky Artue, an original looking game that boasts some great production values, and a detailed story to draw you in. However, production values do not make a good game - this title is marred by some bad design decisions which completely wreck what could have been a fun addition to a platform gamer's library.

Rocky Artue is on a quest to find his father. The only way to do so is by mine cart - and by tilting your iPhone left and right, you can advance the cart through the perilous roller coaster ride of a mine track. Jumping gaps is handled by a swift tap of the touchscreen, and later on in the game you will gain double jump which is used to collect gems that are far away from the track, or to traverse extra wide holes. The controls are a little unforgiving - sometimes you can completely fly off the screen in a double jump and lose your cart in the progress - even though there are three lives per level, you have to restart the whole thing if you fall off. The aforementioned lives then, are basically a shield against the game's various enemies, of which there are bats, snakes, and skeletal birds to name a few.

What makes the game tedious is the extremely narrow view that you have of a level. Enemies will appear to jump out at you from nowhere, costing you a precious life. Even though the levels are short, you may have to try several times to actually finish one by committing the track to memory. We don't think that this is the way that this game should be played - which is inching tensely forward in case you missed a gem, cursing the steep drops that don't let you revisit a level's areas and passing enemies often by sheer fluke. These kinds of problems could be sorted out if the view was further away - sure, you'd sacrifice some detail, but it'd be a welcome change from what you get now.

Certainly, the game doesn't disappoint in the presentation department - you have three save slots, a lovely paper cut out graphical style, and some atmospheric, dramatic between level music. The sound effects for the actual levels are a little weird, but competent, and pretty funny. Rocky Artue looks great in screenshots, and it looks great when you're playing it, with all the paper enemies fully animated and flying/popping up around the screen.

But good looks aren't enough to save the game. At the end of the day, it's limited vision and awkward controls spoil Rocky Artue to the point of which we were done with the game in about 20 minutes. If the game mechanics were tweaked so that you could actually see upcoming threats and avoid them accordingly, it'd be a lot more pleasing. But as it is, we think that this is one roller coaster ride that you may just get sick of prematurely.

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