Gamertell

Title: Touchmaster Vol. 1
Price: $3.99
System(s): iPhone, iPod Touch
Release Date: January, 20, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Midway Amusement Games, LLC.
ESRB Rating: Rated 4+
Pros: Better portability than its DS counterpart, entertaining games, perfect for on-the-go
Cons: Not as many games for the price compared to its DS counterpart, not as much flash as other similar games
Overall Score: One thumb up and one thumb sideways, 80 out of 100, B-, ***

Touchmaster Vol. 1 is a collection of five games from the already available Touchmaster and Touchmaster 2 titles for the Nintendo DS. This volume includes: Combo 11, Carpet, Dice King, Prismatix and Spellwinder.

If you aren’t looking for bells and whistles and want functional casual games that you can play at a doctor’s office or small road trip, then Touchmaster Vol. 1 may very well be what you are looking for.

Quick and Easy

Each of the games in this Touchmaster volume takes little time to learn and, chances are, you can master each in only a very short time. Playing Spellwinder, a game where you try to beat the clock finding inter-connecting letters in a pile of jumbled up letters to form the words on your list, only took me around 20 minutes to get all of the platinum trophies.

Not every game is as easy to master, though. Two of the more difficult games are Combo 11 (where you have to match two cards that equal 11) and the Solitaire-like game called Carpet (where you have to build up the suites from Aces to Kings without exhausting your moves).

There’s also the gem busting Prismatix where your goal is to skillfully break a certain combination of gems before running out moves. Finally, there’s Dice King where you have to match dice into combinations similar to Poker combos (full house, three-of-a-kind, etc.).

I have yet to master these four games in several attempts, but with a little more practice I know I could do it. In fact, that’s one of the things about this game that makes it worth playing: the fact that no matter how much I lost, I never felt cheated and that any errors were my own.

Gimme Trophies!

That feeling of, “Oh, I know I can do it this time”, also adds to the fun and enjoyability of this set of games. The fact that it neither crashed nor did it have a problem recognizing my finger presses also helped.

The added incentive to keep playing the games comes in the form of trophies. Each trophy is game-specific, such as creating chain reactions in Dice King or making “runs” in Carpet. Unfortunately, the trophies don’t unlock anything and are merely for celebrating small achievements.

Worth the Pennies

Now, I know I mentioned that Touchmaster Vol. 1 was a much smaller collection of games than its Nintendo DS counterparts, so you are probably wondering whether or not this volume is worth your money.

I would say yes, strictly on the note of portability and convenience. You are going to be carrying around your iPhone/iPod Touch a lot more than you are going to be carrying your Nintendo DS, plus, chances are you only going to pull out these games somewhere where you are looking to kill a little time so you probably don’t want to spend that time cycling through 23 different games and only focus on the one you want to play at that time.

Picking up and playing, that’s what these games are good for.

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