Colossatron: Massive World Threat
Developer: Halfbrick
Publisher:Â Halfbrick
Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iPad
Release Date: December 19, 2013
Price: $0.99 – Available Here
Overview
Every once and a while a game comes along with such a colossal amount of hype that it comes into question, can it live up to the hype or does it result in a colossal failure? Such was the situation that Colossatron: Massive World Threat finds itself in. Coming from Halfbrick, the studio behind some of the greatest mobile games to ever grace the platform, all eyes have been on Colossatron to be the next big thing. Unfortunately that is not to be, Colossatron: Massive World Threat turns out to be nothing more than a massive disappointment.
Gameplay
What made Halfbrick’s other games so very good was the addictive gameplay that could be played by anyone. Halfbrick was generally light-handed when it came to in-app purchases making them an option rather than a necessity to enjoy the game. The reason why Colossatron is so disappointing is because it is the complete opposite of those things.
As far as gameplay goes, it is incredible difficult to find some sense of enjoyment in this game. It is a truly passive experience that gives you next to no control over what plays out on screen. All you are tasked with doing is moving coloured blocks onto Colossatron to make him bigger. You don’t control Colossatron at all, instead taking a deciding inactive role in what happens on screen. The player effectively moves coloured blocks onto him until he eventually destroys everything on screen. It is far from fun and barely feels like an actual game at times.
The fact that you cannot control Colossatron is a major misstep by Halfbrick. If the game allowed you to control the monster snake it would’ve proved to be a much more enjoyable experience, unfortunately you are nothing more than a bystander helping Colossatron occasionally.
To make matters worse, the game is very heavy-handed with its in-app purchases. It pushes the purchases at every turn and forces you to either pay to revive Colossatron upon death or start over from the very beginning of the game, almost forcing you to actually pay to maintain your progression in the game. It is just bad and completely disappointing from Halfbrick.
Not only that but during my time playing Colossatron I was subject to several crashes and freezes, with the game being barely stable at times. God forbid you did an in-app purchase at the time of a crash as you would’ve lost all progress, something that happened to me multiple times.
This is clearly not a game that Halfbrick thought through very well. It is half baked at best and flat out terrible at worst. This is a disappointing effort by Halfbrick and one that is ultimately best to avoid.
Visuals and Audio
Cluttered is the best way to describe the visuals for Colossatron: Massive World Threat. At times there is simply too much happening on screen that its near impossible to tell what is even going on. The only highlight in the visual experience is the anime styled cutscenes telling the ‘story’ of Colossatron.
The soundtrack however is actually quite a decent foray of tunes that stands out as a highlight in this overall weak gameplay experience. There is also some solid voice work here for the news reporter characters that is impressive for an iOS game to say the least.
Overall
This is about as half baked as mobile games get and the fact that it shoves in-app purchases down player’s throats does it no favours. Halfbrick made a colossal mistake with this game. It just isn’t fun, it is plagued with bugs and it pushes micro-transactions with heavy hands. Basically it is everything you’d expect not to see in a Halfbrick game and that is a damn shame. Colossatron: Massive World Threat is a massive disaster.
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