Kiwi app review: Ready Steady Go!

Are you ready?

It’s great to see so many original and entertaining apps coming from kiwi developers, and this app makes no exception. Based on the old buzz wire games, Ready Steady Go! is the first app from Thrown Toys of Dunedin.

BUZZZZZ!!!!

I remember playing old buzz wire games when I was young (does that make me old?) – they required a steady hand and nerves of steel. The idea is simple: you have a length of wire twisted into various shapes, and a wand with a circular eye that must pass along the wire circuit without the sides of the eye touching the wire. If the sides touch, a circuit is created and a buzzer sounds, and you must start again.

Unbelievably, despite the plethora of traditional games that have been recreated on the app store, performing a quick search of the term ‘buzz wire’ only brings up one other app, so we have here a pretty original idea and one that, if done well, could be very popular.

One ring to rule them all

As you would expect, Ready Steady Go! uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to control the wand, although not to the extent that you might imagine. Tilting vertically or horizontally will make the wand travel from left to right or from top to bottom, however this is as far as the accelerometer is implemented. For corners and curves, instead of turning the iPhone itself and letting the internal motion sensing hardware take care of the maneuver as you might expect, an on-screen dial must be manipulated with your finger – swipe up to rotate left and vice versa. It’s a tricky control that doesn’t feel natural and although you do get used to it fairly quickly, it does detract from the true feel of a buzz-wire game.

You thought this would be easy?

The game offers a tutorial to help get you used to the controls, and then gives you two gameplay options: ‘Normal’ and ‘Time Attack’. These are pretty much what you’d expect – ‘normal’ lets you complete the levels at your own leisure and ‘time attack’ adds the additional pressure of a countdown timer. ‘Normal’ has further options in the shape of ‘easy’, ‘hard’ and ‘insane’ modes. Some of the harder levels are really out there in terms of trickiness and require a seriously steady hand.

It's wire, man.

Graphics-wise, the game is quite basic and reminds me of something from the Amiga days, or perhaps games that one might expect to see on Windows Mobile or Symbian devices more than the iPhone. There’s not a hint of 3D here – this is good old 2D fun through and through.

It would be nice to see just a little bit more polish on the visuals and controls but it remains an original and challenging game of skill and kudos has to be given for an original idea. This is priced at $1.29 which is certainly fair, although we are beginning to become more and more spoiled by the quality of free apps available in the app store. Nostalgia fans who can forgive some slightly clumsy controls will be suitably entertained!

We have 4 copies of Ready Steady Go! to give away (via redemption code). The first four people to tweet us @iphonewzealand saying why they deserve the game get it.