A Little Captain in Your Pocket

Yet another writeup of a game app for the iPhone. Why so many of these you ask? lets be honest, the phone as a handheld game system is limited graphically (as compared to, say the PS3) and since its games are sold as downloads it lends itself to the simpler games, the ones which beckon back to the days this blog remembers so fondly.

In Sea Captain you control a harbor with three distinct docks to which one must navigate boats that appear from offscreen. The boats are of different sizes and speeds (from subs to cruise ships) and their color determines where they must be docked, an operation done by drawing a line from the boat to the appropriate dock. Yes the whole concept is similar to another app called Flight Control but it certainly is not Flight Control "in the fucking ocean".

The game is challenging enough, the amount of boats and their varying speeds make for some clogged maritime routes and you can only crash three boats per round. There are three levels with night and day versions of each (in this version) but there is only one to begin with and the rest are unlocked through achieving set quotas for docked boats. The night missions are especially difficult as they are completely dark save for the light emitting from the center lighthouse, which also acts as an obstacle (together with icebergs and, apparently Pirates!).

Now lets get to the nerd in me. Firstly, I downloaded this thing based on the kickass app icon (and the price and the reviews of course). Its not easy to find a fair priced, fun game in the app store that also has good graphics and generally good art but that New England Captain is a good looking chap. What a great fuckin surprise did I get when I beat the New England stage and moved onto the Arctic where our Captain now sports a hoodie and a rain jacket. Straight out of Deadliest Catch. The lighthouse also changes. See thats the kind of small detail that gets tremendous amounts of points in my book, I cant wait to see what he'll be sporting once I reach the Caribbean.

Get it at the App Store, should still be on introductory sale for a buck.