Review: SQUIDS (iPhone)

24 Oct, 2011

Title: SQUIDS
Platform: iPhone 4
Developer: The Game Bakers
Publisher: The Game Bakers
Tagline: Stretchy action tied together in a turn based package
Family Friendly: While you do have good Squids battling evil grey shrimp and crabs, it is all done in a humorous manner with funny visuals attached to every facet of the game. Easily recommended to gamers of all ages.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I jumped in to review SQUIDS from The Game Bakers. I mean, how much fun could a game be about SQUIDS? Well, I don’t know about Squids in the real world, but SQUIDS the game is a charming experience, that mixes together tactics, turn-based battles and a lot of action. But beyond the addictive gameplay, SQUIDS provides players with good story, a lot of funny moments and great animation. It is an impressive package for your iPhone device.

SQUIDS starts you off simple, with a handful of little squids that have to fight an encroaching evil that looks to terrorize their underwater lair. The beginning level or two take you along slowly, showing you the controls and how to get around the maps, but after that, SQUIDS slowly starts to challenge you at every turn. Early in the game, I found myself dominating the first levels, but by the fifth or sixth level, I was happy just to finish a mission with at least one of my Squids making it through.

Gameplay is focused around holding down on one of your little Squids and then pulling in the opposite direction of the way you want to move your Squid. Think like a slingshot and you have an idea of how you move. You also have a set of action points that run out based on how much you stretch and move your little Squid. The goal of all that stretching is to send your little Squids careening into the enemy to do damage. After you have used all your attacks for that round, the enemy then takes it turn to attack and so on until the battle is won.

SQUIDS continues to impress with its depth beyond the actual gameplay. As you play through the 20+ levels, you will meet new Squids that you can recruit to your team. You can level up your Squids to enhance their skills, like attacking or health. You also earn pearls that can be used for buying new hats and equipment to buff up your stats as well.

There are a few blemishes on the veneer of SQUIDS. You will need an iPhone 4, as our initial reviewer found out, as her 3GS would not accept the download for the game. This is becoming a more common issue as some of the feature rich titles are looking for the bigger processors in the iPhone/iPod Touch 4 series. Also, while the game is not stingy with pearls, towards the end, you have to scrounge for every last one, and of course, SQUIDS just happens to have a real world monetary solution to this shortage with micro-transactions. The game does not gouge you for money, but I did start to wonder if the difficulty of acquiring pearls was artificially set to influence people to spend a few bucks more on the title.

But these flaws are minor when you look at the entire package that SQUIDS offers iPhone gamers. It is packed full of gameplay, strategy and even replayability as you can go back to try and get some of the bonus items that you have missed. For $0.99, SQUIDS is an absolute no-brainer for anyone looking for a fun, engaging game that will keep you busy for many hours.