Line Rider Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

The phone version of the massively popular online game.

Linerider is huge. Not on mobiles, but in the world of flash gaming. Essentially it's an etch a sketch with an objective. Create a course that a little guy with a funny hat and scarf that has to ride on with flags to pass and an end goal to reach. It's almost like playing dominoes, you basically set them up in an interesting and innovative way, set off at the start and hope they all fall down.

This worked brilliantly online but while a lot of thought has gone into the mobile version, it doesn't quite cut it. Not that there isn't a lot in there, you have two modes, a free mode where you can let your imagination run riot, and a puzzle mode where you have to complete a partial course. In each instance you have a veritable smorgasbord of options for the tracks, straight lines, curves, speed up areas and the like. The problem is that controlling your pointer is not an easy thing on a mobile. Imagine trying to draw intricate shapes on MS paint with a mobile keypad. It would take ages wouldn't it. And I'm sure there are people out there willing to do this, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

I guess this is my biggest drawback in the "game" which does try to faithfully recreate the original. The graphics are basically the same and the animation is nice and smooth, when actually riding around on the tracks, or falling down through breaking through some of the destructible lines. The puzzle mode is half decent, there are 22 puzzles in there and you basically have to complete the track to ensure all the flags are collected. You also have to stop in the finish area which I found the trickiest part. I managed to complete a few of these, but then got pretty stuck and had no idea what I was doing wrong.

This frustration is probably a watchword for the game. When you are creating tracks or even on puzzle mode, the track is a lot bigger than your mobile screen. So basically you have to scroll across. This can be quite annoying on the puzzle mode where you are trying to remember how the track is laid out, but even more so on the free mode where you can often lose the changes you make!! The controls don't really help matters either and while you might make the time for the laborious process of creating a new level, switching between drawing lines / elements can be a chore. Still, I would have to give the developers credit for making the game so large and free, the puzzles will take you a long time and you have the option of uploading courses and checking out others.

The game is essentially all about the fun of creating and playing the levels. Just like dominoes, if you spend ages setting it up ok and making sure it works, the end result can be really rewarding. You can save your progress on the puzzle levels as well as the free levels, although one other niggle is that if you fall through a gap, you will be in freefall until you press stop. It's therefore key that you make sure you have checked the level before you start to ride. However, creating the whole level and getting it just right takes far longer than I had time for, so this would be an ideal game if you have all the time in the world and the patience of Buddha. I have neither but maybe you do.