Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch
TUAW Exclusive: Nnooo's Pop for iPhone
Pop is a new game coming soon to the iPhone by a company called Nnooo, and TUAW got an exclusive look at the new app before the official announcement of the release later today. As you can see from the video preview above, it's a very simple, very casual game, but nevertheless offers some fun and quick touchscreen gameplay.
Pop was originally released on WiiWare, the Nintendo Wii's downloadable content service, and I was wrong in the video -- there are no PC or Mac versions out currently, so the App Store is the second platform the game will appear on. I also show off a similar "game" called Bubbles, put together by Jesse Grosjean (maker of Taskpaper and Writeroom) for his three-year old daughter (I said six in the video, but she's younger than that). Pop runs with that idea of popping bubbles and turns it into a timed and scored game that turns out to be pretty fun.
Click the link below to read more about Pop, including some features that aren't shown off in the video above.
Update: Pop is now available on the App Store.
In addition to the gameplay shown, Pop also offers a timed mode, and special rounds in between the waves that allow you to accomplish certain goals like meeting a score within a certain time. The game also has a "badge" system that will track when certain crieria are met in the game, such as reaching wave 10 or chaining together 20 bubbles. There's quite a bit of gameplay hidden in there, but Pop never really strays away from the core idea, which is that there are bubbles running across the screen, and your job is to pop them.
There are also various settings for the vibration and sound effects, and even a setting for color blind players (which unfortunately wasn't enabled in the build we played, but will reportedly change the shapes of bubbles so people who can't see color can still play). All in all, Pop seems like a fun game, especially for casual players and children, that takes a simple premise and runs a long way with it.
Nnooo has not yet announced a release date, but the app has been submitted to the App Store for review. They have let us know that the game will sell for what seems like a fair price of $4.99 (the game sold for $7 on the Wii, with some extra features like multiplayer). If you've got an iPhone game player in the house who might be looking for a simple arcade game, or want something yourself to pick and play without thinking too much about it, Pop hits the spot.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Marty said 12:38PM on 12-09-2008
Both of these games are like the iPhone game "PopMath", only without any real thinking or decision-making.
Which is great if you go for that sort of thing.
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Steve said 2:00PM on 12-09-2008
That's a game??
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Blackstar601@gmail.com said 3:58PM on 12-09-2008
I'm waiting for the game called "Camera in Focus". ;)
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Deji said 4:32PM on 12-09-2008
"...and I was wrong in the video -- there are no PC or Mac versions out currently,..."
"...his three-year old daughter (I said six in the video, but she's younger than that..."
Mike, is anything you say true? ;-)
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Colin said 5:12PM on 12-09-2008
5 bucks... Enigmo is selling for 99 cents now. It's clear that the dollar is the sweet price for app store games. You're just going to lower the price in a couple weeks and backstab early adopters.
I literally yawned when watching your video. Boring as hell.
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Nnooo said 5:31PM on 12-09-2008
Hi guys,
Thought I just post and say thanks to Mike for the video preview. If you would like to see more video footage of the game or details on the game some links are below:
www.youtube.com/nnooo
www.pop-game.net
I realise that Pop might not be everyone's taste but we have spent a lot of time and effort on the game and think it has substantially more content than a lot of iPhone and iPod Touch games. There are 5 modes of play some of which need to be unlocked as well as badges (our achievements) to collect based on how well you do at the game.
In terms of price it is not out plan to play the price war with the other developers. We do not believe it is in customers best interest or the long term future of the app store to constantly change prices up and down. We have several updates to Pop planned which we hope to roll out of the the next 3-6 months each one featuring new content, badges and modes. $4.99 is not expensive by any stretch of the imagination and allows companies like ours to not only survive but also provide you with better and more fully featured games as well as new content in the form of patches.
We hope you all enjoy Pop and look forward to reading your feedback on our community site soon!
Yours
Nic Watt
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collide007 said 9:17PM on 12-09-2008
Bit awkward at the beginning of the video, that's not a loading screen buddy, lol.
I love bubbles, its really therapeutic, not sure making the idea into a game will work for me though, might make it stressful.
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