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!)

iPad Accessibility Game Review: UNDEAD SLAYER

IPAD ACCESSIBILITY GAME REVIEW: UNDEAD SLAYER

Undead Slayer is an iPad hack n’slash game with an Ancient Chinese/anime style. This means lots of blood, too. After a while the zombies start coming in mobs and you have to take down armies! More than most iPad games, I found that with Undead Slayer I had a really difficult time distinguishing between taps and hold-and-tap techniques. This is super important because hold is to charge up your weapon…I only got a samurai sword, but you can buy more in-game. With the zombies coming in mobs and following your tracks, one little accidental second charging instead of attacking and your brains are zombie breakfast.

    Usually though, the charge attacks and special techniques are good at clear the screen. You’ve just gotta charge with no zombies around. Early on, you can buy a fireball ability with an area effect which is nice. Just make sure it’s charged before you meet a wave of zombies. With the tapping being so rapid, and the movement being so fickle (tap your destination, but if a zombie’s in the way, in turns into attack.) it’s a very intense game. I would say that alone would make it inaccessible to some. But, I love the intensity; what I hate is the tap sensitivity, which often had me charging my sword with a mound of zombies on my heels, so I’d run into a corner turn around and unleash the charge…and it still wouldn’t do the trick by then!
 
If you die, you can come back with all your stuff if you spent jade, which are thankfully collected in-game and not exclusively through in-app purchases. If you don’t have jade, you lose your equipment and skills. Overall, it’s a challenging game. It’s not particularly accessible if you don’t like getting mobbed or having to tap really fast. Like I said, this is a problem in this game specifically because of it’s tendency to mix-up commands. I’m afraid I only like it for the anime art style and action! I’m biased. But, there’s really not much in the ways of accessibility unless you count the screen-clearing charged attacks! And there’s lots of zombies and blood…so there’s that!

I thought it was fun, but it’s definitely got it’s own niche. It can be frustrating. Just remember to charge your attacks really, and you’ll do all right. Take on smaller mobs by regular attacks. If all else fails, run and use a charged attack. It can take time, but it can also be well worth it. The game itself, in terms of physical accessibility, is kind of at war with it’s own control system. But, on a slightly morbid upside, it also means when you die, you die quickly, and can re-enter the game without wasting time, if you have jade. You see, I really want to recommend this game, but if you’re not into over-the-top anime zombie hunting action, then why even download the game, right? Happy zombie hunting!

FINAL GRADE: E

ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: B+ (Visually, it is pretty simple, except for some complex shop and skill menus.)

FORGIVENESS FACTOR: D (No jade? Lose everything.)

TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL: F (Charge, run, and attack easily get mixed up, and you must move quickly before you get eaten by zombie mobs!)

SCREEN GETS CLUTTERED VERY EASILY

                                           HERE'S WHAT IT NORMALLY LOOKS LIKE.
                                                      (EXCEPT I DIDN'T PLAY A GIRL.)
                                     

                                            VARIOUS SHOPS LET YOU IMPROVE STATS!

IPAD ACCESSIBILITY REVIEW: MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION:

                  IPAD ACCESSIBILITY REVIEW: MINECRAFT: POCKET EDITION:

 
 The app store description of Minecraft: Pocket Edition says, “Imagine it. Build it. Create worlds on the go, with Minecraft: Pocket Edition!” I would add: (If you’re able-bodied.) Let me describe to you my first experience playing Minecraft on this device. Minecraft is like Legos, except you build and “craft” things from the environment around you, usually found underground (Hence, “Mining”+ “crafting” = Minecraft.)  or if you need wood, you chop down a tree, which gives you a block of wood, etc. First rule of Minecraft for me, (In the game’s Survival Mode.) is to build a shelter first, to protect myself from monsters.

   Ordinarily, this means chopping down a tree. Fair enough. But, here you have something worse than a virtual joystick or compass: A virtual keypad. I understand there’s always a learning curve with Minecraft, but the bottom line is the control of the keypad is just too sensitive, and not well-spaced. A jump button is in the middle. As if the keypad wasn’t bad enough, you have to swipe to move around the camera. Holding down the tap for just a second switches from using an item (Like an axe to chop wood.) to examining items. The end result was I was half dancing around this tree while trying to cut it down.

   Which is bad not just because I could barely control it, but because the monsters come out at nightfall. I wasted time dancing around a tree and getting my blocks. I had no shelter. Several zombies emerged, and I hastily dug a ditch in the dirt to protect myself, which meant swiping the camera down to look at the ground and several fast taps to dig, lazily shuffling into my ditch while looking at the ground. Yeah, the zombie knocked me out of the ditch.

   So, you’re thinking: “Well, you have an axe. Just turn around and whack him!” I was thinking the same; except I instead of you. This means I had to tap back to the axe, swipe to the right, swipe to look at the zombie and tap, no! don’t examine the zombie! Tap to attack it. Oh, and it was attacking me all the while, so I was being knocked around. I died. Re-spawned. I died again. Re-spawned. And again! From the same single zombie! So, when I re-spawned the fourth time I just ran far away into a nearby tundra. From there, I built a ruddy little log cabin with naught but two spaces to move around in over the course of two game days. Now, ordinarily, building in-game takes patience, I understand that. Sometimes, you click the wrong places; things get built wrong, whatever. But, the interface between: use item, build, and examine all done with taps really creates a problem. You’ll be destroying things you built, looking at them, and building where you want to destroy.

    Now, once I had my little ramshackle roof over my head (it had a door even!) I wanted to go hunting. As luck would have it, the tundra had plenty of sheep and pigs. Pigs can be hunted for meat, and sheep for wool. Maybe I’d make a bed! (Bed = 3 wood planks + 3 wool.) But, as usual, I found myself examining sheep, and even being pushed (not attacked, though.) around by pigs once I attacked. Only one sheep dropped 2 wool blocks. I ran back to my log cabin. Pushed around by pigs, for crying out loud! Seemed like I’d have to avoid every critter in the game on top of monsters!  

    I like the idea of Minecraft. I just think the iPad, with its tap formats (which you can’t change around at all.) are really ill-suited for those of us with mobility impairments. I have to say I did enjoy building things and crafting tools, when it went right! But, when it came down to I can’t even dig a ditch right (while staring at the ground!), or attack a zombie because my swipes and taps (upward or downward.) don’t register; that’s not a patience issue. That’s an accessibility issue. If I had a mouse and keyboard, I would’ve seen that zombie, and killed it in three clicks. I’d have had a bed from all the wool (maybe.) and I would’ve made those bully pigs into pork instead of dancing around them awkwardly.

    Now, there is a “Creative Mode” aside from “Survival Mode”. Creative Mode gets rid of the monsters, gives you infinite resources, and lets you fly around instead of jump. It basically just lets you build. This mode was slightly more enjoyable. Did it make the controls any less frustrating? No! But, no monsters to worry about. Building is still awkward. In Creative Mode, I just carved a dwelling out of a cave, and put a door on it. I wasn’t even in the mood to imagine! I just wanted the controls to work!
 
      Hunting was still as abysmal. Only this time, I had ducks that kept getting through my door. (Some kind of game glitch?) I will say Creative Mode is better for exploring, but then: Why build shelter? I know, I know. To exercise your imagination. But, with a control system this bad, and half the challenge gone, the only thing I could imagine was playing a better app!

  Creative Mode does offer more accessibility, but at expense of half of the game, and the controls are still the same; that horrible keypad! The terrible tap sensitivity! (And, no re-mapping is available.) It does feel a little less stressful, but the controls just try to do to much with the various taps and motions, and don‘t appear to have had the mobility impaired in mind. A sad thing for such a creativity-based game.

   In conclusion, if you’re mobility impaired, the touchscreen commands may be a bit much. I know Minecraft has a big world to offer, and it’s fun to look at, but I want to build things and hunt and to survive zombie attacks. The swiping for me to turn around then having to use the keypad to move separately means those pigs will just walk on by you, and the zombies will eat you before you have your first plank laid. It’s very confusing, and frustrating that I can’t build what’s in my mind. I would play this game to escape my physical limits, not to be constantly reminded of them. Because of running from monsters at night, I felt like I was playing a weird 3D version of Castlevania 2: WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE. ;-)


FINAL GRADE: F

ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: C (Creative Mode has no monsters.)

FORGIVENESS FACTOR: D (Can re-spawn; but not often helpful accessibility-wise.)

TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL: F (Virtual keypad; sensitive-command taps, swipe-based camera.)

                        (AHH!!! A ZOMBIE!!! AHH!!! GRAPHIC/INTERFACE OVERLAP!!! RUN!!!)

                                     


                                    
                                                       (MY NEMESIS MR. SHEEP.)

                                   
                                         

TURKEY DAY REVELATIONS

TURKEY DAY REVELATIONS:
Last week, I went to my mom’s place to be with my brothers in Athens, and celebrated my birthday (yesterday!). So much cool stuff happened. I rarely ever get to see my brothers these days, so time with family is nice. I particularly enjoyed the fact that I got to celebrate two Turkey Days. One while my older brother was in town, and one on actual Thanksgiving/my and my twin’s birthday. Yes, we’re a family of three men. In fact, just got back to Columbus, so I guess I can safely say vacation is over. Early effects of Turkey coma are still setting in.
    I’ll probably have turkey sandwiches for a while at least. However, I know I promised my audience a book review, and a review of dystopian themes. How about both? As a birthday present, which was totally unexpected, my brother got me a bound copy of a post-apocalyptic nuclear war comedy that I wrote in 2006. It’s called Treole Horka!, and it’s a book now. The title is nonsense. It came to me in a dream. My twin elegantly described it as: “like Mad Max written by Mel Brooks.” So, a report on that later, along with Terminator etc.
    In other news, I’m in love with my iPad. I finally stepped into the 21st century. As much as I enjoy being a technologically advanced alien, I have yet to master the touch screen, and my cell phone is a relative dinosaur. I probably prefer sci-fi tech to real tech. Starships and so forth. It seems about 6 years ago, I fell out of a technological loop, and getting back has been a glorious return. My favorite iPad game is Animal Legends.
    Perhaps as a disability culture review, I’ll critique the accessibility of the iPad in general. Some of the features are less than intuitive. But, after dystopia. I also enjoy how easy the iPad  makes reading books and watching movies. I must’ve read about 4 comics and 5 sci-fi short stories. All creatively stimulating. For a media nut, I’m a full-on iPad enthusiast. I’m no techie, but I am a media nut. The iPad puts it all at my fingertips.
    Of course, I got gifts for my twin as well. Aside from his ASTOUNDING gift of a bound copy of Treole Horka! (which I may publish soon…we‘ll see.) I also got to watch Freakazoid which was my birthday gift to him. It’ll be off to California soon with him. So, I had to watch it while he was with me. Having grown up watching it, I figured he would appreciate it.
   Speaking of growing up, my twin and I recovered some 2nd grade stories we’d written. Although our grammar has much improved (and basic language command.) we were surprised at how similar our stories were in tone to what we write today. I was surprised what a good young author I was. I wrote about heroes and imitated TV and videogames; even attempting to add what we later deciphered as infomercials into my journal entries! (“Only $0% you pay!”; I didn‘t understand money back then.) Shades of the young mythologist/media critic I was to become.
   It is appropriate then, that on our birthday, we in a sense rediscovered ourselves. The old saying is true: There’s nothing new under the sun. “There are no unknowns. Only things temporarily hidden.” As Captain Kirk says. New worlds of media are waiting to be explored. In the solitude of that house, I have more time to myself, and a supporting family.
   By far, nothing pleases me more than this self-discovery. That my life has been one between worlds able-bodied and disabled, and of critiquing (and enjoying) different media. First, it was an electric typewriter for me, where I wrote things. Then, laptop. Is this the age of the iPad for me? No longer tethered physically to the computer, I might carry the iPad and go places. And of course, watch Dr. Who, Star Trek, and read books!
    Birthdays for me always symbolize a sense of rebirth…if I may be a mythologist again. But, this time as the iPad opens up new territory for me, I feel it quite stronger than ever before. I am always grateful to see my brothers who always have new things to talk about, and are a welcoming warm sight. ( Also, on my iBooks I downloaded an ethnographic study on families raising children with disabilities; should be fun. Home is the beginning of any cultural analysis, I think. Cultural patterns are set there first.)
   In conclusion, I have a lot to write about. Expect a lot more posts. We’ll begin the thematic of dystopia not with T2: Judgment Day, but with my own comedy novella…
TH!: Treole Horka!. and maybe later I’ll discuss disability and media as always. I have a lot of new “ammo“, so to speak! Hope you all have had a good Turkey Day; but stay tuned for Armageddon on Through Alien Eyes!