RhinoBall

by Eric March on October 27, 2008 at 1:56 pm

(5 votes, average: 4.60 out of 5)

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App Name: RhinoBall
Developer: AvatarLabs
Category: Racing Games

It used to be that movie tie-in games cost $40+, had no demos available, and could only hide the fact they sucked really badly just long enough to get you to buy and leave the store with it.  (Now, I’m talking back in the 80s and 90s here)  The full magnitude of their glowing suckitude usually hit you in the face about two minutes after loading it.  Buyer’s Remorse was pretty big in those days when it came to branded software.

It’s interesting then that the product tie-ins I’m seeing on the mobile platform have generally been free.  Most of them have still sucked, granted, or at least were quite firmly meh.  But then there’s RhinoBall.

A tie-in for Disney’s forthcoming CGI feature film Bolt, RhinoBall puts you in the role of Rhino the hamster, and the object is to burn down a crowded city street in your hamster ball collecting lightning bolts along the route in the fastest possible time in your quest to reach your favourite television superpooch.

Sound simple?  It is.  But I must confess, it’s actually pretty enjoyable.  Graphically, RhinoBall is a 3D over-the-shoulder (well, over-the-ball, really, but that sounds dirty) perspective race-against-the-clock game, and on the surface it looks most excellent.  The textures are a bit low-res though, and this becomes quite evident because everything is kind of close-up in this game, given that your view is a few inches off the ground and all.

Speaking of being on the ground, one of the less attractive aspects of the game is that the twisting path of bolts you must follow sometimes leads you underneath vehicles, and the (static) camera is at just such a height as to make you pass straight through the vehicle rather than under it, causing deliberate and blatant clipping, as if you enabled the no-clip cheat in your favourite FPS.  A dynamic camera that ducks underneath vehicles would have worked wonders here.

And speaking of vehicles, the screenshot here tends to make things look more dynamic and exciting than they really are.  The fact is, the only thing that moves in this game is you.  All of the vehicles and obstacles are otherwise quite static.  Perhaps having moving vehicles would have made this game a much more difficult challenge — but if you ask me, I think it would have been much more enjoyable because it would be a more difficult challenge, not to mention making the whole scene look, you know, alive.

But don’t get me wrong, despite everything I still think RhinoBall is quite good.  Granted, I’m a sucker for 3D games, but there is still some fun gameplay to be had here.  Control is acceptable, though I think perhaps the accelerometer control’s sensitivity could be tightened up a bit. Following the path of the bolts can be challenging sometimes, and some fun little additions are added here and there, such as ramps you can speed up to and jump over.

Each level is introduced by a clip from the movie, and the game’s main menu also allows you to view both the theatrical and television trailers for the movie (at a bit of a low frame rate, I might add) — naturally.  You ain’t gettin’ a branded freebie without some direct marketing involved.  But at least it’s unintrusive and thematically relevant.

Overall I think RhinoBall is a cute and enjoyable little game.  Be warned however that this is one of the largest games in the App Store, weighing in at almost 95 megs — so no 3G download for you.  Not that you’d want to if you have a skimpy data plan anyway.  But the scenery is quite varied, and there are numerous levels, so I happen to think it’s worth it.  Not 5 stars, perhaps, but a good, solid 4 anyway.

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Posted in Games: Racing