Through To lota Review

Through To Iota, is a devilish mix of pool and curling with four types of stones to master throughout the course of fifty challenging levels spaced into ten stages. Each level consists of a simple objective; shoot the stones into the goals. With varying numbers of stones required per goal, overlapping goals which require a stone to be placed in the overlap, and strategically placed obstacles, this is not as easy as it seems! in Fact its downright frustrating as hell.

Gameplay:

In through to lota you are provided with a fixed number of stones that need to be tossed across the screen into designated areas.  The circles you are aiming for may require more than one stone.  This is where the strategy comes into play.  If you are not careful with your aim your second stone could knock out the first stone that was already in place.  On other maps you will be tasked with the desperate goal of slipping your stone in the small area between two circles.

The game is kind enough to give you a set of instructions on the title screen.  Unfortunately, the game really doesn’t give much detail as to what the various properties are for each different type of stone.  You are left to guess what each colored stone does.  This could be on purpose but the tortured controls really make it hard to figure out what each stone does.

The game features 50 levels that are divided into sets.  The first 45 levels are available to be played in any order.  This is nice since the chances that you will get stuck somewhere are pretty high.  If you complete the first 45 levels you gain access to the lota.  I hope you have a lot of patients as the amount of energy and effort it will take to get there is going to be quit immense.

Controls:

The developer stated the Through to lota was a difficult game by design, im not sure if that meant they designed the controls to increase that difficulty on purpose or they just didn”t think this one through? The controls nearly destroy this game.  Looking at the video or reading this your would think you could just swipe the stones across the screen right? Well instead you are relegated to touching a stone which builds inertia while  spinning your finger until the arrow points in the direction you want to shoot.  You will find that this form of aiming is less than accurate.  I had real trouble getting the arrow pointed in the exact direction I wanted.  It would always bounce to much to the left or right of where I was aiming.

This makes the game outright enraging.  I literally threw my iPhone across the room out of frustration after some time. I wanted to like this game I really did, but I choose to spend what little time I have gaming not to be frustrated.. Yes I like a good challenge like the next person, but developers need to think mass market with iPhone apps. Challenging is one thing but games with suspect controls will kill your application.  Sure it’s not as much of a facotr early one, but once you reach levels where precision controls are needed the games flaws shine brighter.

What We Liked:

+  50 plus levels +  Fresh take on an existing genre +  Interesting physics system

What We Disliked:

-  No in game music support -  Extremely frustrating controls -  Instructions left us guessing

Final Verdict:

This game has is a really cool concept.  I probably would have really enjoyed it if the controls weren’t  so much as a factor for me.  I personally can not play this game anymore because ultimately I will take a hammer to my iPhone if I keep playing.  If you have lots of patience you might enjoy this game.  There is a lot of fun and strategy to be had however its hidden beneath a less than perfect control scheme.  I hope the developers hear this and  at least offer a second control set so those of us will  be able to play what could be a very addictive and creative game.

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Tags: Review

Category: Games