This week we look at Doom, a classic first person shooter finally ported for the iPhone, and Jukebox, a personal music quiz for your iPhone.

Doom

Reviewed by mechcon

Doom for those who don’t know (I should be nice at least writing this paragraph), is a classic 1st person shooter which pushed the boundaries of what PC gaming was capable of achieving in it’s day. We’re talking 1993 here folks. The game has caused a lot of controversies (as all games with violent content sadly have), but has still been dubbed as a cult classic to even this day. What is more fascinating it has been a benchmark title to port the game to just about anything, from iPods (as in the clickwheel models), to various handsets, to even calculators!

Enter Doom Classic for the iPhone.

A game which was really in the making to be officially available on the app store. I was quite ecstatic to see this come out the other day, although what I’ve feared were the convoluted controls which is a general trend sadly with 1st person shooter titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform.

Not naming titles, but there are ones out there which just takes a lot of the fun out of the game, but there are some out there who can play it well with the accelerometer (tilting the physical device to turn or move forward/back), but others still struggle. I confess to be one of them who struggles still.

With that said id Software have done a great job in making playing 1st person shooters on the iPhone to be a casual, yet action-packed fun-fest.

The graphics are left intact with slight enhancements, the sound has been kept to the original style, and I should also mention that this is a port of Ultimate Doom, which contained the 4th episode “Thy Flesh Consumed”, so a total of around 36 or so levels. I’m yet to try the multiplayer function out (going to hunt for someone else who has Doom).

The only thing that people may um and err about getting this game, is the price. Otherwise it is a solid port for the iPhone and if you are a fan of Doom or any classic 1st person shooters as such from that era, then this game is for you!

4.5 out of 5

Pros

- Graphics/sound left intact
- Fairly customisable controls
- Multiplayer

Cons

- Controls can take some getting used to
- Price may be questionable to some people

Version reviewed: 1.0
Price: $8.99
Developer: iD Software
App Store

Jukebox

Reviewed by Rémy

Remember when you got your first iPod? Remember the Music Quiz, included as one of the four pre-installed ‘games’ to play? Oh, how we have progressed since then. As the we celebrate the eighth anniversary of the introduction of iPod 1.0, we find ourselves spoilt for choice with just about 100,000 apps available, ready to be downloaded and installed straight on to our iPhones and iPod touches. One of those is Jukebox, which attempts to bring that same ‘music quiz’ experience in an app, with an updated interface that’s much more suitable for our big multi-touch screens.

The app’s split up into two parts – the music quiz itself and an artist-specific quiz. Despite my best attempts, Jukebox refused to search my iPod for any artists, so I’m unable to review that part of the game. An update, currently in development, will hopefully fix that frustrating bug. Meanwhile, the music quiz has a very clean and polished user interface. Like Apple’s own iPod app, there’s a strong emphasis on artwork throughout the game (which also serves as a pretty big hint) and it’s easy to select your choice after you recognise a song. You get roughly 6-7 seconds to choose out of the list of four.

Having played the game for hours on end on my iPod back in pre-iPhone days, I’d have to recommend it to addicts of the original game. The developers are to be congratulated on building a lovely interface for the game that makes the game even more enjoyable. I look forward to the next update, which features a harder mode without the album artwork present in the current version. Though it’s ridiculously simple, I’ve always loved playing the Music Quiz, and Jukebox is the best possible way to bring it to the iPhone.

Version reviewed: 0.1
Price: $1.19
Developer: Swipe Interactive
App Store

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