Topple is not just another stacking or puzzle game ported to the iPhone/iPod touch. I just want to make sure this is clear so folks don’t just look at the screenshots and pass this title up. Topple is way more than what meets the eye. Publisher and developer ngmoco has opened its doors solely to create unique games for the iPhone/iPod touch. This is one of their first titles and coming in at the low price of $0.99, I just had to give it a try.
Topple seems fairly straight forward when it comes to gameplay. The idea is to stack the randomly generated pieces as high as you can, as fast as you possibly can. Lines are located at the top of the level indicating how high you have to get without the whole thing toppling over, hence the name. The first stages of the game give you large, flat surfaces to start stacking your pieces on. As long as you keep your surface level, everything goes fairly smooth. In the later stages of the game, the base that you begin with is uneven so you must create a flat surface for yourself just to get started, thankfully the gameplay has more variables to assist you in reaching the top.
The touch gameplay works fairly well for Topple. You are given one piece at a time to drag and drop as you please to create your tower. To spin the pieces all that is required of you is to touch and drag with a second finger. This works fairly well, the only problem I ran into is at times by having two fingers on the screen you are unable to see and maneuver in tight spots where specific placement of the piece is necessary.
Another addition to the seemingly regular gameplay is the use of the accelerometer. In the later stages of the game, the height goal you must reach is extremely high and the pieces you are given to work with do not fit together well with each other, as you can imagine the tower gets quite unsteady. If you tower of pieces is about to topple you can tilt your iPhone/iPod touch left or right which will lean the pieces back to an upright position. This isn’t going to remedy your problems completely, if your tower is built poorly no amount of tilting is going to save you.
The art style that’s used works perfectly. Each piece has a face that not only adds a bit of humor but also is a visual indicator of what is happening in game. If your tower is leaning too far to one side or the specific piece that you are placing isn’t set correctly, the pieces will make a goofy face indicating you need to fix whatever the problem is. The colors are bright, graphics are crisp and I personally love the backgrounds they have crafted. The audio is pretty straight forward with simple tunes in the background and indicating sounds as to what is happening, it is nothing special but it definitely doesn’t detract from the gameplay at all.
Besides all of the unique gameplay elements, there is one last thing that ngmoco has done that is fairly new to mobile gaming, the inclusion of achievements. Yes, just like your Xbox achievements or PS3 trophies we have Topple achievements. Some are pretty straight forward like reaching certain heights or defeating a stage in a set amount of time, others are secret which requires you to keep on playing until your hand cramps into a misshapen claw. This creates quite a bit of replay value to the game, even when you have defeated all of the set stages, that gamer inside you just wants to keep going back for more to get every achievement within the game. That being said, there are only nine stages so without downloadable content, you will eventually run out of things to do.
Topple isn’t perfect by any means. If you don’t enjoy stacking or puzzle games in general you probably will not be entertained for long with this one. A freeplay mode does exist but without a high score system (you can send an email from the game to challenge a friend) or a valid reason to play the mode accept for practice, you probably won’t spend a lot of time with it. The menus can also bog down at times and be fairly unresponsive.
Topple has such unique gameplay and tight controls that you must at least give it a try, especially at such a low price. Topple is a good example of the direction developers need to go to sustain the success of the App Store and the iPhone/iPod touch as a gaming device.
Overall: 8 out of 10
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