Kometen is a game that was initially available natively for iPhone; but the 1.1 update brings in full iPad support. A smart move from the developer—we believe that the game is a natural fit for the sleek large display.

You are a newly born comet that’s quite a curious little fellow; finding scraps of food generously scattered around the universe and orbiting many different planets in order to find your next meal. Once filled up, you can take a trek across space using your super boost power. Your mission? To boldy go where no comet has gone before; to seek out larger planets that have a story to tell on their surfaces.

The game’s world is vastly expansive; even travelling with the super boost only covers a small portion of the game’s environment, and to start off you may find yourself lost in it all. We ended up getting rather frustrated with the game’s complete lack of UI until we stumbled upon the menu system; it turns out that you have to tap the comet itself which in turn brings up a map, help screen and some settings. Neither the game’s website, app description or in the game itself does this feature get mentioned! We would have loved to have seen an option to have some of these options displayed on the screen instead of having to pause the game—having your boost meter and a mini-map displayed would help immensely.

Once you do learn how to navigate around the universe you’ll find Kometen a real pleasure to explore. In addition to all of the food orbiting around planets, various space debris is scattered about everywhere, much of which is fairly amusing first time around. Some areas even come with a different background and music when you start exploring them; one of these is a red tinged environment where there are many large skull shaped planets and all the food is monochrome.

The highlight of the game has to be the superlative graphics and audio; as the goal of the game is just to explore the vast environment and discover each of the planets, you can really just sit back and take in the artistic rendering of space. Everything from the painterly surfaces of the large planets to the colourful star-trails and even your comet itself are top drawer stuff; it’s safe to say that this is a game not just worth experiencing but also to show off your iPad or iPhone to your friends.

Kometen is certainly a game that you should buy; it’s superb looking yes; but also has a brilliant exploratory theme to it once you find your bearings. Combine that with iPad and iPhone support in the same download and a great price and you can’t really go wrong.

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