BOOM BOOM POW!!

I think that I need to bone up on my Pop-music knowledge. I started this game up and said ‘hey, the Black Eyed Peas! I’ve heard of them! I wonder which songs are theirs?!’ And halfway through the game I felt dumb as hell because I knew all of these songs – I just didn’t know who sang them. But regardless of my musical shortcomings I found myself excited to pick this one up since the idea seemed so easy-going and fun. You have a little ball on a track, keep it on the ribbon. It reminds me of a needle on a turntable. Neat huh? But is it actually neat? Click on this link here to find out. Word.

It’s been said that you don’t need quantity as long as what you have is quality. That is the essential nature of Riddim Ribbon. A simple tilt-control scheme, the basic premise of ‘keep the ball on the track’, a great soundtrack and eye-catching backgrounds is apparently all you need for success. The Black Eyed Peas, Tiesto and Benny Benassi give us some of their hottest songs and you are charged with making sure the song goes along fluidly. Go off course and the music dulls, fades and goes wonky. A nice touch is the addition of various paths that arise – each with a different version of the song. Get good enough and you can make your own personal remix as you progress through a level. Suck badly enough and your energy meter drains out and you stop completely. This makes you feel like one of those kids who couldn’t color inside the lines until their fifteenth birthday – a great motivator I think. All in all simplicity at it’s best in a time where on-screen button layouts take up so much space on an iPhone you can barely see what’s going on. Well done.

Riddim Ribbon’s flaws are few and fairly inconsequential. The learning curve is easy enough, but sometimes when the game veers quickly from one side of the screen to the other you feel as if the tilt controls don’t quite move as fast as you need them to – nothing that will send you screaming out into the night thirsting for blood mind you, but still aggravating when you first set out. Secondly, of the original six songs only three are available to play, the other half need to be purchased. It’s a damn good thing this game only costs $2.99 or that would burn my ass quite a bit. You is lucky I am a gentle man Tapulous, very lucky.

This game turned out to be far more addicting than I thought it would be. With a perfect combination of simple controls and a great soundtrack Riddim Ribbon is exactly the application that the iPhone needs. Add to the mix a slew of downloadable songs and you have a solid game that has longer legs than many of it’s competitors. So saddle up, slap yourself on the ass, scream out ’sexy time!!’ and dive into iPhone-y goodness.

And don’t judge me for saying that.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]