(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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If you feel conflicted about tormenting little island folk, how about burning and squashing ants instead?!
Ant Hill is no Pocket God… yet… but there’s potential in this insect-control app from Concrete Software, Inc. Much like Pocket God, Ant Hill allows you to play friend or foe (but mostly foe) to the tiny lifeforms you hold dominion over. You can drop rocks on them, throw them strawberries to devour, hold contests to see which team of ants is badder, and of course there’s the classic move where you burn the crap out of them with a magnifying glass! Ahhh… it’s like I’m 10 years old all over again.
And just like when I was 10, messing with ants is fun but only for so long. Setting the little critters on fire with the magnifying glass is probably the most comical part of this app, what with the flaming ants and screaming noises and all.
Dropping rocks and strawberries on the colony is also mildly amusing in the way the ants will band together to push rocks off their hill and munch on the newly found fruit. Outside of that, the only other feature that holds any entertainment value is the “racing”. Two teams of ants, one red and one black, will race to push a rock off the screen or, if you drop a strawberry, they’ll race to see who can wolf it down first.
Ant Hill also has an accelerometer option that will make the ants (and rocks and fruit) slide around the screen as you tilt, plus there’s a little drama in the way red ants will victimize poor unsuspecting black ants who are just hangin’ out, minding their own business.
I really like the execution of this app… I mean, if you’re gonna create an iPhone ant hill, this would totally be it! The graphics are great and just cartoony enough, the sound effects are pretty good, and overall the whole thing is nicely done… but remember, these are insects. They’re too small to make goofy facial expressions and ant colonies in general don’t come with a lot of personality.
Earlier though, I did say that this app has potential. If you go back in time and read what Chris J. thought of Pocket God, you’ll see that he wasn’t crazy about it because there wasn’t enough going on to hold his attention. Since then, Bolt Creative has released regular updates to their app and that convinced Chris (and me) that it was worth paying a buck to play with.
Concrete Software IS promising frequent updates to expand Ant Hill into a more complete experience, and if they follow through I think it could eventually reach comparable heights in App Store popularity. For just $1 it’s still a decent value but, for right now, be prepared for a well-made app with limited shelf-life and room for improvement.
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- Burn, you little bastards!
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- Ants like fruit, but what they really want is a Big Mac
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- Civilizations hate it when rocks fall from the sky
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- Always bet on black!!
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- Ants will follow a path if you create one
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- Hint hint, wink wink
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on May 27th, 2009 at 5:41 am
Concrete Software has been nice enough to provide some promo codes to hand out!
First come, first served.
RMMANKY6XNPM
MY4HRMXMXEHN
3EY99FP7EJ7F
P3JJ979JRT9X
KT9AAHF6HRK4
LNEYEP7MMHP4
9JHPYRN6NFAM
KXA6WT4WJLNF
If you use one, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT so that everyone knows which code you took! Your thoughts on the app (after you try it) are also welcome. Enjoy!
Instructions on how to redeem promo codes can be found here:
http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/how-to-get-free-apps/
(You must have a U.S. iTunes account to use promo codes)
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on May 27th, 2009 at 5:51 am
I took the first code. RMMANKY6XNPM
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on May 27th, 2009 at 5:53 am
took LNEYEP7MMHP4
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on May 27th, 2009 at 6:06 am
took P3JJ979JRT9X.
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on May 27th, 2009 at 6:38 am
I’ll get a code one of these days!!
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Michael (Admin) reply on May 27th, 2009 6:41 am:
Are all of the codes gone already? Ehhhh… come on folks, do everyone a solid and tell us when you grab one! Please?
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on May 27th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Just took: KT9AAHF6HRK4
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on May 27th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Got the third one…it was the last one I think
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on May 27th, 2009 at 7:47 am
O yeah…Thanks =)
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on May 27th, 2009 at 10:39 am
aarrghhhh!!! Even with 8 promo codes, I can’t get one. Should I be visiting the site every 5 minutes or so to get one of these codes?
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Michael (Admin) reply on May 27th, 2009 12:34 pm:
Well… if that’s what it takes!
Someday a better method for distributing promo codes will be in place, but until then you’ve just gotta be in the right place at the right time.
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Rave reply on May 27th, 2009 4:07 pm:
by the right time u mean about 2min after u post them? lol i can nvr get one either
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on Jun 1st, 2009 at 9:34 am
Hey guys, we are definitely planning like Michael mentioned several updates! We just released a new version that allows you to create a red ant hill, set percentage of ants red/black, and the aggressiveness of each!
It looks like the next update will be “Ant Mines”….
If anyone has any more ideas, we’d love to hear them!
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on Jun 15th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Just took : KXA6WT4WJLNF
give this game a test run looks like fun
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gary reply on June 15th, 2009 8:19 am:
Damn someone used the code and never posted they used it
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on Jul 2nd, 2009 at 10:52 am
The new Ant Mines version is now live! Next up the Ant Magnet.
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on Jul 9th, 2009 at 11:10 am
The Ant Magnet is now live as well! We also included some major performance updates!
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on Oct 22nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
They all vote Democrat so they can get "free" stuff – socialism – that is the point. ,
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