Reviewed: January 26, 2009
Reviewed by: Kyle Crow
Publisher
IUGO Mobile
Developer
IUGO Mobile
Released: December 11, 2008
Genre: Platformer
Players: 1
7
5
6
3
4.0
Game Info:
App Store Price: $3.99
Toy Bot Diaries 3 continues where the second one left off. This is the end of the line however. After finding out that King Bot has been held hostage and taken away, you blast off into space to chase them. This game has even more challenge and depth than the first, as you must conquer the cold depths of outer space to continue on to the Evil Toy Bot’s ship. This game also introduces you to the Spy Bot and the Toy Bot Sherriff. You get to play as the Spy Bot as you get deeper into the game. Spy Bot is also an important part of the final boss fight.
You start off in the space 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. You must take care though. There is no gravity in space, and there are black holes waiting to trap Toy Bot. The gameplay is once again similar to that of Lemmings. You must get from the space to Evil Toy Bot’s ship. To go farther, you must use the satellites and space junk to travel. During the last part of the game, you take the control of Spy Bot.
To move you still tilt the iPhone. However, you use buttons on a security monitor to go from the ceiling to the floor, and to control platforms. The difficulties and glitches found in the first and second 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 about the same as the first and second. Space is nothing but black and gray, except for the black holes, and there is still a complex interior of the ship. When you take control of Spy Bot, there is a green security cam, with a little color to represent platforms and buttons that are in the room. The memories that you recover are still in black and white, but you see the true story for what it is. The framerate drops significantly because there are even more enemies and objects that you must see and utilize before. It seems that with the increase of plot and challenge, there is a drop in the graphics quality.
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, once again, the game is short. The final boss is the most difficult thing in this chapter. By this point, (if you have played the other two chapters) not grabbing all of the memory chips is not necessary. My other suggestion, if you want to shell out $3.99 for only one of these three games, would be to shell out for this chapter. It has more plot and challenge to make this more like a stand alone game. But Overall, Toy Bot Diaries is a fun little series. I would just hope they would drop the price on each or have a package deal for the series.
