Reviewed: January 26, 2009
Reviewed by: Kyle Crow
Publisher
IUGO Mobile
Developer
IUGO Mobile
Released: November 9, 2008
Genre: Platformer
Players: 1
7
6
6
4
5.0
Game Info:
App Store Price: $3.99
Toy Bot Diaries 2 continues where the first one left off. You are Toy Bot, who crashed to Earth on his spaceship. After you find your way out of a vending machine and the sewers, you find that evil Toy Bots are attacking. You must continue finding the memory devices as you fight to the ship, to see more of the story. Armed with the memories you have so far, you find out you need to get a message to your King Bot in his ship.
You start off in the city with a tutorial. You learn how to walk, clip onto metal objects, swing on those objects, how to stick to metal walls and ceilings, and how to grab and drag moveable objects. These actions require sensitive motions and movements using the accelerometer, and the tapping functions of the screen. The gameplay is once again similar to that of Lemmings. You must get from the city streets, to the sky and into the ship. To go farther, you must use the enemy Toy Bots to travel. There are even more traps and enemies, just waiting to make Toy Bot meet his demise.
The difficulties and glitches found in the first game still exist. Sometimes, the screen looses a metal ceiling that you need to attach to. This is due to the small vertical size of the iPhone screen. However, if you know there is a metal ceiling above, tapping just right will still let you attach to it. Other times, I also can tap metal objects and ceilings and either the game will not register the action, or it will fling me off something prematurely.
The graphics of the game are a little better than the first. There are robust cityscapes and the complex interior of the ship. There is more color used than before due to the cityscapes and the ship. The memories that you recover are still in black and white, but you also get to see the other characters you will see more of in part three. The framerate drops a little because there are more enemies and objects that you must see and utilize before. But it’s a small price to pay to see more than before.
The sound has original music and great sound effects that can be on. Also, there is an option that lets you listen to your iPod library as you play the game. The latter option turns off the sound effects, though. Sound effects are crucial at times to alert you on traps or different things in the current environment. When you play with the normal music and sound effects on, the sound comes in crystal clear. Toy Bot even has his own cute little sound effects when he grabs a memory device, or falls. If you decide to play with your iPod library, make sure you are listening to a playlist you can easily go through. Once the game is running, you can only control your library with your stereo headset.
Simply put, the game is short. There are about 12 areas spread out upon 3 locations. At the end of the last area, you fight a boss. The only replay value of the game is going back through it, if you did not get all of the memory devices. If you read my first review, you can see that there is no multiplayer (none of the 3 versions have this feature). Although this chapter is more of an improvement from the first, the only real chapter worth the $3.99 price of admission is the next one. If you are a fan of the series though, you have bought both this and the previous version, which means to see the ending; you have to buy the third.
