Sunburn! is a odd little game in which players, after being stranded in
space after their space ship is hit by a comet, must gather the
remaining crew and make sure that they all plummet into a star and die.
Although the subject matter is a bit depressing, the game play is tight
and interesting and the injection of dark humor makes this puzzler one
worth playing.
The Good
The
pixel graphics are well done and manage not to be derivative, with
bright interesting colors shaping cute characters. The music and sound
effects are great. They really frame the dire yet humorous experience
and really feel like an integral part of the game. The controls are
fluid with players utilizing tilting and touch to jump and jet around.
The control scheme is deceptively simple as later levels will require
players to master their utilization as the jumps and jets become more
frequent and difficult.
The Bad
The menus are a bit
complicated. Instead of a simple continue option, there is "Launch"
which starts the game at the first level, and "Sectors" which is a level
select of sorts but it lacks visual indicators to let you know which
level you left off on. Ironically, the pixel graphics can be considered a
negative as well as a positive as the trend of indie games utilizing
pixel styling is starting to feel cliched no matter how well done they
are.
The Verdict
Sunburn! is a nifty game that is a great
choice over the tired freemium fest that is the mainstay of the App
Store. The puzzles have a ton of variety and I never really felt like I
was slogging through the game just to beat it. It was fun to the end,
and the witty and darkly humorous story added an atmosphere that so many
other puzzle games lack.
