Credit Chillingo, an app-making factory that churns out hits, for not resting on its piles of Angry Birds money. The app developer has continued to create simple, addicting games that are always different enough from their bigger cash cow to feel fresh each time. Roll in the Hole probably won’t be its next huge hit, but it’s altogether a decent gaming experience.
True to its title, Roll in the Hole finds you rolling a very concerned panda over some hilly territory into a vortex of sorts that brings your black-and-white friend to his next level. Along the way you can earn extra points by collecting the popsicles that are strewn about each level.
The deviation in the game’s formula is mostly in the controls. The player taps to the left or right side of the screen to get the panda rolling in that direction. It sounds simple enough, but your nervous furry friend picks up steam like a freight train. Once he’s rolling too vigorously in one direction he’s a goner for sure.
This makes playing Roll in the Hole about a careful series of back and forth taps to the left and right of the screen. You have to tap on one side enough so he gets moving, but then correct for too much force by tapping on the other. While not a bad mechanic, it’s not entirely exhilarating to play out that scenario over and over in a game.
There are elements that make the game trickier or more challenging, like ice on the ground affecting the speed of the rolling panda, but Roll in the Hole feels more like a very well-made game with good intentions than a game that’s extremely fun to play. It’s certainly not a bad game, but it failed to capture my attention the way a lot of the developer’s previous hits did.
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