Wipe Review—Wipe the Hell?

[Atariboy]

We’ve all had part-time jobs like working at a diner or for a fast food chain, or walking dogs, in order to finance our survival in this cruel world. Playing video games is one of those things that keep us sane, a form of escape from the torment of real life. And yet we are now playing video games that greatly remind us of our current or former jobs—like wiping tables.

Wipe is all about wiping tables, and nothing more. This title has all the depth of a platter, but it is entertaining to a certain degree. However, even though you purchase this game at full price, there are still levels that are locked, and half of the items are also “coming soon.” I don’t know why. The game itself is shallow, and yet content is still held back. Why?

Furthermore, I really don’t understand how game developers can have a hard time putting up a good interactive tutorial. Wipe has none, though it does have an in-game text manual. However, even the game manual is finicky, because you can’t escape out of it directly. You have to swipe yourself back to the first page to access the “back” button.

Also, this is becoming a trend in PS Mobile games, physical buttons not being implemented. The core gameplay is indeed veering towards touch controls, but is it difficult to program the use of Start in pausing?

Gameplay is simple: you just wipe the dirty tables, lifting some plates if ever the dirt is placed under them. And that is it. There is a combo system, but nothing out of the ordinary. The cloth you are using gets dirty over time, and you have to rinse it, which takes some time. Time is important here because there is a time limit for every restaurant/level. Of course, you only have a few levels because, as mentioned, some are still in the pipeline.

Before I forget, there are some decisions in game design that bug me out in Wipe. When choosing a table to wipe, you have to tap on the table and tap the “Wipe” button situated at the bottom left of the screen. How about simply double-tapping? I am not nitpicking, but it should be pretty much a given to have such a control option, right?

I’ve played great Minis, despite that format being hampered by so many restrictions, from controls to file size limit, from connectivity to raw computing power. Freed from those limitations, there is no excuse for developers to slack off in the PS Mobile program.

Back to Wipe, where my main problem is the locked content, or the unfinished state of the game. If this were a demo, a teaser of some sort, I wouldn’t whine like this. However, there are better Flash-based browser games out there. There are some iOS games that are free that are much better than this. Unless SYNC releases all of the content, I will not give a more thorough review than this.

3/10

POSTED BY JASPER NIKKI ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2012 AT 3:02 AM