We’ve played quite a few platform titles, and it’s clear that after a little time spent with the game, T Raiders comes up short. Its design replicates much of what we’ve experienced before; plus the rotation mechanic while fairly novel doesn’t add to the game in a way that would differentiate it from its competition. Moving platforms, jumping on enemies, spike and flame traps and collectable keys and coins are all things that have been done and to make matters worse, sounds and enemy sprites are recycled straight from Devil Invasion.

To make matters worse, the rotation ability is hard to control with a gesture that requires you to press the jump button and then slide your thumb upwards. You will rotate depending on the direction you’re facing but will not be able to steer yourself mid-air; this means that switching at the wrong time will lead to a painful death as you can only rotate 90 degrees at once. Effectively this means that you are limited to only a few places in each map that you can switch the field to your advantage so it plays out more like a puzzle than anything else. Additionally, you have a few abilities that include stomping on enemies, Mario style, wall jumping and an air walk that happens when you hold down the jump button. This last ability can be combined with the wall jump for some insane trekking across levels and is easily one of the best things about the game.

You can choose between three different characters to complete a level but they don’t really make much difference so you can just find a character you like and play through with that one. There isn’t really a compelling reason to use a particular one, we just used the bear character because he has the most health. Whichever you pick doesn’t change the level designs either, suggesting that they are simple variable tweaks.

The major problem we have with the game is that it just isn’t something that you want to play in 2010 when platform games have come so far. There’s not a whole lot on the developer’s website for the game, merely two images as of this writing which would seem to suggest that the developers aren’t as committed to this game as they are to Devil Invasion. The result is that T Raiders feels rushed out of the door and into the wild; remove the imaginative backgrounds and it looks crummy. The characters don’t even have a sprite for when they are stood still, instead they keep running the same walking animation!

There is one good thing in the game that isn’t really utilised to its full potential and that is the shadow character in one of the levels that duplicates your actions slightly after you made them, almost like Braid. It disappears after its countdown ticks down to zero and to complete the level you must jump on it to reach the exit. Clever; shame it is not explored in more depth. But when all is said and done this is just another average platform game that is just not exciting to play. We recommend you take a look at a game like Soosiz for an example of a great platform game and iPhone original.

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Touch123!, D

Review by Ben Briggs, September 07, 2010

Devil Invasion, C

Review by Ben Briggs, April 27, 2010

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