Squibs Arcade Review

I thought I’d seen all the different genres there could be in the land of App Store-ville. It seemed like we had all the bases covered. But then along comes a game that made me realize that there was still some undiscovered territory out there&#8230- Parodies of Watch Game styles. It was there in front of me all the time, but I never even saw it.

Thank goodness for Alten8 Limited and Chillingo Games for finding this little niche and bringing us Squibs Arcade, a collection of 7 different “watch” games. All of which are based on old watch games mixed with parodies of current games.

The idea of a “watch” game is pretty simple. Graphics are even more simple. Movement is simulated by the LCDs moving from one pre-drawn character to the next. There’s nothing fancy about it and the controls are usually in the “move left and right” variety. They needed to be simple because they were supposed to be the type of thing you could play on your watch&#8230- thus the name, “watch game”.

But I will say that the graphics with Squibs Arcade are actually pretty good. This is mostly because they’re trying to make fun of the basic side of things. The characters all have a little more comic feel than what you’re usually going to get in this genre.

Now I mentioned that there were seven of these games, so let’s give a little list of the games, basic play, and the game that they’re parodying.

“Crowd Wader” is a slight parody of Assassin’s Creed, only instead of all the killing you try to avoid the crowds and pick pockets. You move left and right to get to your victim and try not to get hit by anyone.

“We’re Fat” is a take on the Wii Fit &#8211- okay, in name only, not in the game play. You move the character’s arms left and right trying to catch the good carrots and avoid the cakes. Every time you catch a cake you get fatter and fatter until you finally explode. Pretty funny idea, actuall.

“Cardboard Axel Mush” has a bit of fun with Metal Gear’s “sneak past guards in a box” idea. So you move left and right and try to make sure that the guards don’t turn around and see you &#8211- with an exclamation mark appear over their heads no less.

“Gun Cogs” seems to be a bit of a Gears of War game. You move around, hiding behind crumbling walls, trying to pick up various cogs. It’s war at its “watch” loving best.

“Regret The Fist” is the watch version of a fighting game. In fact, the full name of the game is “Regret The Fist &#8211- XE Championship Vs. Alpha IV Turbo: Third Impact”. Now that’s a title we could all grow to love. Here your job is to move back and forth dodging your opponent’s attack. Doesn’t quite live up to the name, but then again&#8230- what could.

“Call Of Honour” is a parody of&#8230- oh, if you don’t know you should have stopped reading a long time ago. You are Private Generic and have to take on a bunch of Baddies, the type you only see in games (you know the type who shoot worse than Stormtroopers).

The last game is “Fantasy Turn Base” which is actually a pretty good mini version of Final Fantasy. This one actually has two screens, one for you to walk down a path until you meet up with a random monster. The other is for you to fend off the attacks of those monsters.

So there you go&#8230- there is a lot of different games here, but I should tell you that none of the games is the type you’ll be playing for hours and hours. They are good for pick up and play and that’s about it. Basically what you’d expect from something you could play on a watch.

One thing I really liked about the game is the way the menu interface works. Once you pick a game you’ll see the back of the “handheld game” and the rules that are put on the back with a sticker (one that looks like it could actually fall off). That’s part of the real charm with this game. They al look like you’re holding an old handheld game. I guess that almost makes it a parody of the LED sports games from the App Store.

Squibs Arcade is not the type of game that you’ll be longing to play late into the night, but it is a fun bit gaming and certainly well worth the $1 you’ll spend on it.

Thank you, Squibs Arcade for filling that one last gap in the App Store.

The Good

Seven Different Old School Games
Fun Menu Interface
Easy To Play Controls
Fun Parody

The Bad

Separately The Games Are Not Much