iPhone App Reviews

POV: Mr. Dumb – Go Down

Swain Valasek | Aug 30, 2009 Games, POV

User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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* “POV” (Point of View) is a new feature that we’re testing out *

Zenux Lab’s rating: 9.0
IAR’s rating: 7.0

Mr. Dumb – Go Down from Zenux Lab is actually Epsiode 1 of an ongoing series of games featuring the same characters (currently Ep. 2 called ‘Mr. Dumb – Toilet’ is in development with a preview posted here).  The developer is keying on the blatant silliness, apparent homage to Beavis & Butthead and pickup and play simplicity of these games to win over some fans.  The gameplay in Go Down is reminiscent of Papijump or Doodlejump but in the opposite direction so you’re trying to go down as far as you can.  Let’s first have a look at what the developer has to say then I’ll provide an IAR angle for comparison.

Zenux Lab’s summary:

What Mr. Dumb – Go Down is about:

It is simple & Funny game.

Mr. Dumb visits National Park with his friends to find something funny.
As he was greedy to take a beehive high up on the tree, he put himself in trouble.
Now, your mission is to get him down the tree avoiding the bees’ attack.
Watch out the thornbushes, the rotten branches and especially the beehives!

Tips for the Game:
This game is so simple. At first, you may find it too slow. However, as you keep falling off, it’ll be faster and faster. Eventually, you’ll find this game very thrilling and addictive!!

What this app does right:

Features
- Very funny, ugly dumb characters
- Realistic sounds and vivid graphics
- 3 kinds of control provided.

Where this app needs to improve:

We need more modes & options.
The graphic & sound impact should be improved.

Features and improvements planned for the future:

We plan to put more options and modes in the near future.
In addition, we plan to add more funny characters.

IAR’s take:

You play Mr. Dumb or 1 of his 2 dumb (and nameless) friends and start at the top of an infinitely tall tree (yes that’s a paradox but go with it).  You’ve disturbed a huge nest of honeybees and now need to hightail it down to escape their stingy wrath.  The way down consists of dropping from branch to branch while avoiding (or simply dealing with) obstacles.  Control couldn’t be simpler for this game, just touch the left side of the screen to move left and vice versa to move right.  Gravity is thwarted somewhat by each character humorously flapping their arms in freefall.  There’s no timer but even so you don’t have the luxury of planning a lengthy strategy as an impenetrable wall of angry bees is constantly marching down the screen, forcing you to descend or be stung repeatedly (in the face no less!).  There are only 2 ways to lose: run out of health or fall too far without landing on a branch.  In a nice touch, the game keeps a running tally of total meters descended and beehives destroyed across all games played.  The obstacles in the game are thus:

• branches - no penalty whatsoever
• branches with thorny vines - inflict 1-time damage
• branches with heavy vegetation – slow you to half-speed
• dead branches – snap after a couple seconds
• branches with beehives – not only will you fall right through these, you also release 2 bees that will attempt to sting you, avoid!

• The single music track is excellent and perfectly suited to this type of game but just isn’t long enough and I became all too aware when it ended and looped back to the beginning.  The game does support iTunes music but I personally prefer game-supplied tracks.  A couple extra songs and a more seamless transition from end to beginning would be welcome.
• The sound effects are very good but when playing with the music off I was surprised how ‘silent’ the game became.  What’s really missing to me is a simple (but not irritating!) ’buzz’ for the wall of bees and a ‘flap’ sound when your character is falling.  Further, the same male sounds are used for each character, even though 1 is female.  This is a huge opportunity missed as the only reason I would even want to play the other characters would be for the unique personality given to each.
• The controls could use a little fine-tuning for better usability.  As is, there’s a slightly translucent border at the bottom of the screen with score and other vitals but the area behind it represents playable real estate which is a bit confusing.  I’d much prefer this to be completely opaque and exclusive of the playfield.  I’d also really like to see the option of an onscreen control pad at the bottom as touching the playfield to move definitely obscures my view of the action.
• Where is the global high score table?  A game like this can certainly get old quickly without the world to compete against.
• Building on the prior, there’s no method to fast forward past the ‘easy part’ as once you get good at this game the first few hundred meters of descent can be quite droll.  Perhaps a system of checkpoints or levels, add a ‘hard’ mode or just ramp up the action a little faster overall.  For example, the game changes pace at specific levels of descent (when you hit 20m, 150m etc) so a hard mode would seem quite easy to add by simpling bumping these internal markers up a little.
• Powerups and unlockables – where are they?  This game would really shine with powerups to pick up along the way such as temporary invincibility, ‘light feet’ where dead branches don’t break and nuts or some other food item that quickly restores your health, just to name a few ideas.  Unlockables would be fun too (but secondary to powerups) such as new graphic backgrounds and new characters.
• More stats would be great.  I’d like to see stuff like how many branches I’ve broken, how many birds I’ve kicked and how may thorny branches I’ve landed on (can never have enough stats).  That reminds me, there’s a whole unique animation for kicking birds off branches but it serves no purpose to the gameplay.  This is a missed opportunity as well as the birds should have a function; maybe to possibly peck you off the branch if you aren’t careful or benevolently attack any bees you’ve stirred up.
• Finally just a few minor corrections and such.  In the stats section ‘total height’ should be ‘total descent’.  Every game ends with the statement ‘your record’ even if you didn’t actually beat your high score.  It should just say ‘your score’ unless you actually did beat your record.  The beehives in this game actually look far more like wasp nests.  I encountered a very minor bug which I couldn’t reproduce where during one game my onscreen portrait disappeared and didn’t return until I started a new game.

Version reviewed – 1.0.0
Reviewed on – iPhone 3GS OS 3.0.1
iTunes Link – Mr. Dumb – Go Down

* POV is sponsored by the developer

Tags: $0.99, casual, Swain Valasek