Tipoli: one touch to your heart

One-touch love

The iPhone/iPod touch is becoming the system for new and fresh ideas that utilize simple mechanics to create compelling games.  Games like Canabalt, Hi, How Are You and Mecho Wars are rising in popularity on this device for their deceptive complexity.  While most games go for a more tradition D-Pad and buttons layout for the touch screen, Tipoli (Divide by Zero) bucks that trend and impliments a one-touch control scheme.  

In Tipoli you take control of two ball characters: Periwinkle, the bouncy one, and Mint, the sticky one.  These two characters are bound together and move by using the inertia of Periwinkel's orbit around Mint.  This game uses a polarity mechanic (think Ikaruga) to switch the positions of Periwinkle and Mint.  Periwinkel moves in a constant orbit bouncing between surfaces while Mint sticks to the surface.  When you tap the screen the positions change, and mint will go flying while Periwinkle will continue its orbit. 

The developer does a great job introducing the player to the way movement works in Tipoli increasing the difficulty levels as the player as they progress.  Players must travel from one end of the level to the other, which holds a giant heart that indicates the end.  Some levels will allow you to just collect that heart, while others will contain smaller bonus and save hearts.  Levels will become larger, in scope, and harder to maneuver as new platform types are introduced.  The standard yellow line allows for simple movement, yet blue lines will catch Mint and allow Periwinkle to travel through. Tipoli becomes increasingly difficult with the inclusion of new platforms, and some levels can become quite infuriating at times.  That is not a bad thing, as the game quickly slaps you in the face and says, "Do you think I'm going to let you reach the end of the level that easily?"  It's a jarring experience as you go from blissfully climbing up a platform to mis-timing a jump and watching your little characters fly off of the screen, missing their destination by what seems like mere pixels.

I can not stress enough about how hard some of these levels get.  Some are deceptive by making you think you have to go one way, while another way maybe an easier route.  This game is reminiscent of Echochrome in that it's all about perception when it comes to navigating these levels.  Other levels are hard for the fact that the orange platforms seem a bit broken.  The orange platforms were the bane of this otherwise sublime experience.  Here is a run-down of my experience: There is one particular level which has a series of these orange platforms lined up horizontally leading to the heart piece.  When Periwinkle or Mint touch these platforms, they will begin descending or ascending depending on their position on the platform.  The problem is that these platforms are extremely touchy, so if you aren't quick and prescise enough, they will pretty much travel in whatever direction and break the level, causing me to have to restart countless times.

My other gripe has to do with the control scheme itself.  While the moments where I felt in control were great, there were other moments in which the characters were so out of control that I could only pray and hope that Mint would latch on to something solid.  Most of the time my characters went careening off the stage like a couple spastic Bucky Balls angering me to the point of white-hot rage, but then the game would counteract that with its charm and lucidity, and I would continue on my merry way hitting platforms, or missing completely.

Tipoli is an awfully charming game that kept me gleefully interested in my iPod Touch for something other than music.  The game is very blunt in its theme of love, yet I feel as though it gets too wrapped up in that theme that it sometimes affects the game mechanics.  I get it, love often has those leaps of faith that can send things into disarray, but I do not like that disarray to happen in games.  For instance, one of the levels describes how love is patient, so to fit with that theme it puts you on a moving cloud that literally takes you from point A to point B in a minute which feels like three minutes because I'm doing nothing but staring at my screen and riding a very slow moving cloud.  That's cute, but that makes for a very boring moment that took me out of the overall flow of the game.

I had plenty of fun with Tipoli, and it will continue to be my go-to game for when I need to kill a couple minutes due to its quick levels and pick-up-and-play approach.  The game is primarily geared towards the younger ages, and girls; But, despite the target audience, I found myself loving the tranquil music, oil-painting art style and the overly cutesy, yet poignant, portrayal of love. There is plenty to love about Tipoli from the complex levels to the friendly price.  This game is a bargain on the iTunes App Store for what you get out of it.