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Review of Star Wars Trench Run for the iPhone & iPod Touch

Posted on Nov 20, 2009

I very much wanted to give Star Wars Trench Run for my iPod Touch (or iPhone) a strong recommendation for a couple of reasons. First, it's Star Wars and despite George Lucas' attempts to destroy my fond childhood memories of his creation, they still persist. Second, it was created by a local company, Infrared5, and I had met one of the principles of the company at my Boston event. However, I can't truly recommend this game mostly because its gameplay is too shallow and repetitive to warrant its $4.99 price (which is moderately high by App Store standards). To be clear, this isn't a bad game per se, just not one I'd highly recommend.

Basically, Star Wars Trench Run has two different styles of play which you can do either in a "mission" mode, where it sort of follows the story of the final assault on the Death Star from Episode IV, or an "arcade" mode where you choose either the dogfight or trench aspects of the game. That appears to be the extent of the gameplay available and both are pretty similar other than the fact that in the trench portion you are dodging obstacles.

Navigational controls are motion based which generally work pretty well, though with the general lack of fine-grain control that motion controls generally have. You also tap one portion of the screen to shoot and another to cause the game to slow down momentarily. I don't recall any sort of time-bending powers in Star Wars and I assume that aspect was added due to the frustration level you may experience with the motion controls even with the added ability to refine their sensitivity.

Graphically, the game is fine. The ships actually look detailed enough and the backgrounds are straight out of the films. The only place it seems to be a little lackluster is in the trench where the guns and obstacles sometimes look grainy or blurry. Still, on the whole, the game looks good and the addition of some clips straight from the movie does work fairly well to make it seem as though you are playing through the end of the film.

Without too much effort so far, I have made it to the part where, in theory, Darth Vader is targeting your X-Wing while you navigate the trench. Part of my overall frustration with the trench level in general is that the 3-dimensional aspect seems off enough that you'll often crash into obstacles it looked as though you'd easily clear and clear ones it looked as if you'd definitely hit. You absolutely need the time-bending/slow-motion abilities here. The dogfight portion is just as it sounds and you'll just spend your time spinning around trying to aim at various TIE Fighters which isn't terribly difficult though more annoying than it needs to be due to the motion controls.

Overall, as I mentioned, this isn't a bad game necessarily, it just isn't great and has limited replayability due to its shallow and repetitive nature. A year ago, that was acceptable and expected for most iPod/iPhone games, but nowadays, with games like Civilization Revolution or even classics like Doom, that just isn't really acceptable anymore beyond free or $0.99 games. If you are a big Star Wars fan (yes, I mean you Ray), then you'll probably want it anyway and I am sure it'll sell well enough. Nonetheless, I am hoping that in the future they can put the Star Wars brand and talents of Infrared5 to use on a richer and deeper game.

Comments

I definitely don't agree with this review. I'll agree that the game is a bit shallow - but I tend to think the dog fighting aspect makes up for it. Of course, that was my favorite part of the old X-Wing games, and thats why I think I like this game so much- it reminds me of that.

Posted By Raymond Camden / Posted on 11/20/2009 at 11:32 AM

While I can certainly see your points on the game not being very "deep", I would disagree on the point that games on the iPhone *should* be deeper than this.

Our goal was to target the group of people that use the phone like 90%+ of the iPhone users - for quick, good gaming. Brothers in Arms failed because nobody has that much time to invest on their phone. Not to mention that there was way too much to control in that game.

Hence why Trench Run has very simple controls, and one basic philosophy - Have fun being Luke Skywalker in an X-Wing for your 15 minute bathroom break, bus ride, train ride, dentist visit, dr visit, obgyn visit, in-laws visit - you name it ;)

Anyway, your point about the price is well taken considering the goal of the game. However, there ARE hidden treasures to be discovered, and don't under estimate the power of the leaderboard force and arcade play - we've been at it for months trying to come back in the next day with bragging rights, and we STILL love playing it!

If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll love all the attention to detail we put into the game - from the music, to the VO's, to the markings on the xwing, to the textures in the trench

Posted By John Grden / Posted on 11/20/2009 at 11:52 AM

I've got mixed feelings about the game. Some aspects of the review I agree with, and others not so much (but I see your points).

1) Price Point - Yes. Could be a little lower for what you get. As you pointed out, it's a fairly basic game. I could see knocking a dollar off.

2) The "depth" - I agree with John. I bought Madden when it came out, but never play it. Why? Don't have a half hour at a stretch to play a game of football on my iphone. The games that tend to get the most play from me are blackjack, yahtzee... the short games that I can play while on the train or in the waiting room.

3) The time-bending powers - Madden has this as well. At first I didn't use it, as football players don't really have time-bending powers any more than the rebels did (well, Peyton Manning might). But eventually I relented and tried it, and I was finally able to run for more than a yard. On a smaller screen where the action's moving a little too fast, I think it does help. Either way, just pointing out that it's not unique to this game. Don't know if many other games employ that tho.

Overall, I'm sure I'll play it a few times. It's fun. Although it is kind of tough on a 3G. In the comments on a review at TUAW.com (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/17/star-wars-trench-run-for-the-5-jedi-in-all-of-us/), one of the developers noted that turning off audio might help (which I've done, and it seems like it has). He also mentioned they're looking for ways to improve performance on older devices. Hope they do, as it'll motivate me more to play it if I don't have to worry about it locking up the phone :)

Posted By Charlie Griefer / Posted on 11/20/2009 at 12:54 PM

... and after having followed John's link to his blog, looks like they've got the update for the 3G done. Looking forward to it being available for download :)

Posted By Charlie Griefer / Posted on 11/20/2009 at 1:11 PM