iPad Game Accessibility Review: Punch Quest (2012)

iPad Game Accessibility Review: Punch Quest 

Hi there, gamers! Do you want a fun game on the iPad that isn’t a huge, ad-ridden money trap? Try Punch Quest. Punch Quest is a fun combination of endless runner/beat-em-up. So, it’s all about how far you can get punching through zombies, skeletons, monsters, and demons! Tapping the right side of the screen keeps your player punching and running. But, also, tapping the left side of the screen does a little flying uppercut move. Another tap pounds the ground in a sort of combo.

Those aren’t the only moves in your arsenal! Along the way in your punching frenzy, you’ll get power-ups like grillin’ fists,(They shoot fireballs!) and iron fists that protect you from harm for a bit, and make you stronger! And finally, there’s a raptor that shoots lasers out of it’s mouth. You read that right. If that doesn’t make you excited to play this game, you must be dead inside. A laser-shooting dinosaur!

Yes, Punch Quest sounds like something a hyperactive five-year-old dreamed up. But, that’s fine by me. It’s fast-paced, fun, and unapologetically wacky. As far as I know, the only thing that would make this game inaccessible is the speed. But, the speed is also good for racking up points. If you punch out two or more guys, it leads to a combo. Combos multiply your points.

Points can unlock new techniques and armor. Luckily, this uses app in-game points only to buy things. Not real money! So, if you’re looking for a quick bit of fun, download it. And enjoy! There are boss fights, but since it’s an endless runner, the only thing that really counts is how long you hold out, and the points you score. It’s very replayable. Radical! With its simplicity, speed, breezy controls, and fun, it’s certainly worth a download.

And it’s cheap! There are so few good accessible games that Punch Quest certainly punches its way to the top of my list. Oh, and I haven’t even unlocked new techniques yet. But, I have beaten one boss…a flying skull! How cool is that? Go download it for all of $0.99! (When I got it, it was free. But, the price seems to have gone up!) Punch your way to greater and greater glory! All in all, this is one gnarly iPad game. 5/5 stars!

FINAL GRADE: A

ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: A+ (You control the entire game just by tapping sides.)

FORGIVENESS FACTOR: A (It‘s very fun, and replayable. See how long you can hold out!)

TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL: A- (Kind of fast, but still incredibly easy to play, and fun!)

Stranded II (PC+Mac 2007): Game Accessibility Review:

Stranded II (PC+Mac 2007): Game Accessibility Review:

Stranded II is a bit like Minecraft. Except Minecraft lets you build whatever world you want piece by piece. Stranded II appears to be the opposite philosophy. Namely, you have to build what it tells you you can build, and you have no idea what you’re getting as you randomly hit trees or the ground. Every tree you hit, you could get leaves, vines, or branches. There’s no telling what you’ll get whenever you hit a resource…it’s all chance!

    Also, the inventory is ridiculously small. I’ve played this game many times over to see if I could get the hang of it. I eventually did, but I don’t think it made it any more fun to play. The key strategy is to set up structures bit by bit. First, make a hammer by combining 1 branch + 1 stone. Then, click on the hammer and put it in your hand. Right click to build an available structure. Putting the hammer in your hand and clicking repeatedly? You have to do it EVERY time you build something.

Okay, let’s build a shelter: 20 branches, 30 leaves. Since the inventory is ridiculously small, you’re going to hear your character complain: “It’s too heavy!” a lot. So, basically, build the structure piece by piece, meaning once you have the materials, click 50 times (20+30) on the structure, and then, you’ll have it. And that’s the easiest structure to get in the game. Food, water, and fatigue are all measured separately too, rather than Minecraft’s unified hunger meter, so you always have to keep an eye on that.

I respect that the game is based on survival, but does: “Click on this graphically pre-determined structure, while clicking wildly on this tree to see if you can get materials to build the graphically pre-determined structure” sound fun? No, not to me; it’s tedious, and just reminds me I could be playing Minecraft. Minecraft at least let’s me take pride in what I build, because the buildings’ designs are up to me.

And before any Stranded II fans chime in, yes, I built the wood and stone storage. But, I found that, again, the inventory is so small, that I kept having to sacrifice food to carry back logs for the all purpose storage hut. Otherwise, “It’s too heavy!” And I would find that my dropped food would perish after a while, or else I’d just lose track of where I put it.

Now, to make matters worse for non-German speakers, I kept finding bits of the game that were untranslated even in the English version. These were mostly ok. “Alle” means “all” for taking all the materials in front of you. “Eingeborener” means native, as you will sometimes encounter natives. But, there was one German message where, if I didn’t speak German, I’d be toast: “Feuer! Feuer! Ein Gebäude brennt!” In English: “Fire! Fire! A building is burning!” I’d built my shelter too close to my campfire (10 branches+50 stones) and it burnt down.

 Overall, I had some fun with this game. Hunting animals, seeing how long I could survive. But, there are too many random elements in Stranded II, and the building process is way too tedious for my taste when gathering is so difficult to measure and at the same time I have to maintain supplies, and even sometimes avoid lions. Yes, lions. Now, click faster, before they kill you!

I’m posting this to prove a point about disability in gaming. Previously, I lambasted Minecraft for having nearly impossible controls. But, it was still kind of fun to build with, truth be told. But, Stranded II is proof that a game can be perfectly accessible control-wise, and still be bad. Even though most of Stranded II is controlled by simple point-and-click, other problems make the game pointlessly tedious, and the fun dies quickly. Sometimes fun transcends disability issues: If a game’s bad, a game’s bad.

FINAL GRADE: C

ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: B+ (Point-and-click for nearly all actions; some untranslated words, clicking to build gets tiresome.)

FORGIVENESS FACTOR: E (Resource management is incredibly critical; limited inventory space makes survival difficult.)

 CONTROL A-:  (Nearly all interactions are point-and-click; controls can be changed in the main menu.)

IPAD ACCESSIBILITY REVIEW: SCI-FI HEROES

                             IPAD ACCESSIBILITY REVIEW: SCI-FI HEROES

 
 I got a request to do another accessible iPad game review! Well, I didn’t think I’d be able to find another iPad game as fun as X-men Arcade (which wasn’t designed for iPad in 1992 anyway.) But, I found a “team-up shooter” called Sci-Fi Heroes! Naturally, I like it! But, here’s why: the format is in almost a Secret of Mana-type, role-playing game style that I like; it seems naturally suited to the touchscreen with a minimum of hassle. Though hassle there is!

The characters are pretty limited to RPG stereotypes, or if you‘ve never played Secret of Mana-type RPGs, the intros will familiarize you. (My apologies if you didn’t grow up with any Square Enix RPGs.) You start off with only a space marine named Sarge, and a Healbot, Nightingale. Really my only complaint about this game is that the characters are limited, and don’t appear to me to have much difference other than what you’d expect from a game with limited sci-fi character classes: marines, techno wizard, healers, sneaky types.

    Usually if I’m feeling cheap (Because, why not? Accessibility!), I group the classes (rogue-to-wizard-healer-to-fighter; not so good in boss fights though.) together back to back on the screen so that they can shoot whatever’s coming in whatever direction. So, you just tap for one character to face the back of another character. Though that can be bad for enemies with mind control powers, in which case you’re just asking for one of those guys to turn around and get shot. Or mind controlled, or stabbed, whatever those nasty aliens can cook up.  

   The main controls are fairly common sense, which is why I like it.You control 4 heroes at a time until you either win a battle or lose it. Since this game is an iPad game, you move by dragging a finger (Not swiping, thank goodness!) from the hero to the destination. Response time is a factor, so it might be a little shaky for some, but to me, there is no “Virtual joystick” so that’s the most common sense use of the iPad format, in terms of accessibility. No pause button, I’m afraid though! And no known way to speed the game down. Also, before you land heroes on a planet, there’s a large amount of menus to go through, which can be perplexing. Equipping the crew, spending money on equipment etc. Each character has skills to use in combat, but the skills are in the upper left, which can distract from the flow of combat; particularly for those with impairments like me.

   The game has a sarcastic brand of humor. The character biographies are narrated by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, English/Australian game developer and reviewer of  the “Zero Punctuation” game review series. So, Sarge has never been in a war, but is eager to kill things, the Healbot is a depressed maniac: Sarge will say: “Let’s go kill something!” and the Healbot will respond: “Oh, great. I hate you all.” and the rogue is a self-interested Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds type: “Why does the Horde want this planet anyway? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s nice and all, but couldn’t they just move somewhere else?” The banter between the characters really holds the story together, and is another major reason I play it: Click here for Yahtzee’s merciless reviews, which I must warn you, are graphic and contain adult language, but all in wicked fun! http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation

    As with most iPad games it seems, one half is the game, and the other half is unlockable content and things the creators want you to buy with real money. For example, more in-game money, or equipment. Some heroes are unlockable if you have the right amount of in-game money. Spending actual money isn’t really required, but it can speed up the game a little if you’re sick of going through levels again to beef up your heroes, which happens a lot, especially in boss fights where you have to move quickly!
 
Overall, I like the gameplay once you get past all the menus. This finger-drag control mechanism looks to me like how an iPad game should actually play. It is real-time though, so dexterity is once again a minor issue. I have to admit though; were it not for my love of sci-fi, wacky humor, and hero stories, I probably wouldn’t play. I just love blasting away alien Hordes, and the witty banter between the heroes. Any game that lets me shoot aliens seamlessly is a keeper!
 
  Lastly, it’s come to my attention that there accessibility guidelines for videogame developers. I’ll be using these guidelines in the future. The guidelines are quite comprehensive, covering just about every disability from physical  impairments to cognitive. So, it should be quite helpful for all disabled gamers. You can see them here: http://www.gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ Special thanks to Ian for pointing it out to me! Also, for reviews of games, game systems, control layouts, message boards and disability issues in gaming, check out Ablegamers: http://www.ablegamers.com/forums, thanks again to Ian for the info.

  For my ratings, I’ll still just use my own observation of the games. Next, since I’ve reviewed mainly games I like, I’m going to review a game which I think is totally inaccessible…Minecraft! The sad thing is I love Minecraft. But, not on the iPad. Minecraft on the iPad is about as accessible as a staircase. It really showcases the worst of the touchscreen! To my ratings then, for this wacky alien-blaster RPG!

FINAL GRADE: B+

ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: B+ (Complex menus, character stats screens.)

FORGIVENESS FACTOR: B (Can’t always move heroes quickly; see: real-time. Fixed difficulty.)

TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL: A (Drag or tap, not swipe, yes! For most in-game motions.)

                                                     (Battle screen gets cluttered easily!)
                                             
                               

                                                             (Character screen.)

                                                                  (Team screen.)

                                                              (Playin' "cheap!")