Daily iPhone App: Knights of the Round Cable

At this point in the App Store's lifecycle, we're seeing a lot of copycats and reused ideas. Even some of the best apps out there are borrowing ideas and genres instead of creating something entirely new. But Knights of the Round Cable can't be accused of that -- it's one of the more original polished titles I've seen out there lately. It's no wonder that it's from Chillingo.

The idea is that you control a Knight bouncing around a 2D space, and you get two buttons to control him with. One simply sends out a cable that grabs on to the nearest peg from whatever distance you're at, and the other switches direction, so the Knight starts spinning one way instead of the other. The goal is the game is to spin around and collect gems as quickly as you can. You get a bonus for collecting all gems in a line, and each stage is timed, so you're kicked on to the next one when time runs out.

It's fun -- controlling the spinning and bouncing is tough at first, but there is a fair amount of subtle depth to getting good at it. You can also upgrade various specs and stats (and even use other knights), so there's a lot of replayability to the title as well. As with all of Chillingo's other releases, Knights of the Round Cable is just 99 cents, and it's a very fun, well-made game that tries a little something new and different.