New Beginnings

Hey everybody,

This post marks day one of my new blogging site. For those of you who visited my previous site, Pro-games review.blogspot.com, I was forced to discontinue posts because I lost my password. In any case, this will be my new base of operations, and I wanted to kick off my first post with a quick post on one of my favorite on-the-go phone apps; Paper toss.

Overview:


A game out of Backflip studio, Paper toss has a simple enough concept. Where ever you are, be it your office a back alley in Manhattan, you fill your idle moments tossing crumpled sheets of paper in whatever trash can you can find. As for the actual game mechanics, you have to throw your boss's memo or whatever other piece of paper you can crumple against the wind coming from your own personal fan, forcing you to angle your throws to sink your shot. After each toss, the strength and direction of the wind change to keep you on your toes. And while you might be a champion playing in the office, you'll find yourself sucking your teeth as you venture further and further away from work; your trashcan gets as far as the opposite side of an alley. As far as free apps go, this one's a keeper. After a couple of tries, you get the hang of the distance of the can, and just how far you can flick the ball. Play long enough, and you'll be calling the shot before the phone does.

Game Mechanics:


The raw simplicity of the game was what really attached me to paper toss. Once I started listening to music, flicking a crumpled up piece of paper into a trash can got me really mellow. As far as the game handles, Paper toss is going to give you a real smooth ride. There's not much on the screen at any given time, so you'll never have to worry about some lag messing up your throws. After each throw, hit or miss, the game will randomly switch the fan from one side of the level to another, as well as fiddle with the wind resistance. The only thing that got on my nerves was how hard it was to judge a throw when there wasn't a lot of resistance. Then again, when you start playing the game that hard it looses a lot of it's appeal. It's really meant to be an idle-time-wasting game

Graphics:

As far as graphics go Paper toss isn't anything special. Then again, it wasn't trying to be. For a game as simple and low key as this one, don't come in looking for anything fancy.  As you can see, the coloring is bright and stands out. As far as detail, Backflip studio does a good job in painting you a good picture of the surroundings. The office stage, for example, has a few books slumped over each other, a potted plant soaking up some florescent rays, and a Windows that actually has a "start" button in the bottom left hand of the screen. To be honest though, the graphics are not the strong point of the game by a long shot. I never took the time to really look around the place when I played, and I don't think you'll find much reason to do it either. Backflip gets an A for effort, but there just isn't too much to see or remember

Final Review:


All in all, I'm giving Paper Toss for the Iphone a 3 out of 5. Simple controls and story add a lot more than you'd think, especially because you don't have to focus on much. I think Backflip studios earned their three with decent graphics and smooth, clean gameplay


Picture 1: http://interracialscentral.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/paper-toss.jpg
Picture 2: http://appmodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Paper-Toss-World-Tour-010.png 




Thanks for reading. Check back often for new posts, videos and information. - Tahj