iGuyReviews

Cops and Robbers by Glu (App Store, $2.99) is finally out; after playing for a while this evening, here are some first impressions.

The premise of the game is that you and your roommate are forced to turn to a life of crime after falling behind on rent. Your landlord demands payment in diamonds, and fortunately for you there is a diamond somewhere in each of the nine levels. There are three main goals for each level: 1) collect the diamond, 2) complete the level in a pre-defined time, and 3) pick up all of the money power-ups scattered throughout each level. The first time you play a level, you do so as one of the robbers (you can select your character, male or female) after which you can play again as a cop, chasing your ‘ghost’ in an effort to beat your own time.

The idea of playing as both cop and robber, chasing your own ghost through each level is a clever way to extend playing time in what seems to be a somewhat short game. I’ve only played through the first of nine levels and I’m assuming (hoping!) the difficulty increases soon, because it’s possible to pass the first level in less than two and a half minutes.

As for gameplay mechanics, it’s basically left/right + tap to jump. There’s also a speed boost which can be charged by picking up power-ups in each level. The game supports both tilt and touch controls, and portrait + landscape orientation (although the iDevice needs to be held nearly vertical to get the orientation toggle to ‘take’) … Since there’s no way to slow down or stop - short of running into obstacles - the game really feels like it’s “on rails.” It wouldn’t be so noticeable if there was a better sense of speed, but sadly it never quite feels as fast as it should. It’s hard to explain, but perhaps you can get a sense of what I’m talking about in the video review below.

Hopefully the developers can address the speed issue in a future update. Actually, one of the first things that caught my eye was the ever-present FPS counter displayed in the top right. There’s no way to disable it, and it seems to have simply been an oversight on the developer’s part. So hopefully we’ll see an update soon!