{"id":12380,"date":"2014-09-24T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T00:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12380"},"modified":"2014-09-09T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T11:18:35","slug":"thomas-was-alone-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/24\/thomas-was-alone-ipad\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Was Alone (iPad)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"THOMAS_BOX\"<\/a>Thomas Was Alone is an indie puzzle-platformer that was originally released on PC, then later on PS3 and Vita, and now you can play it on iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here).\u00a0 In the game, you play as one or more different colored rectangles and squares.\u00a0 Each one has a special ability.\u00a0 One can jump really high, one can\u2019t jump very well but can fit into small spaces, one can float on water, etc.\u00a0 You must use teamwork to get all the shapes to their respective portals in a level.\u00a0 Once they are all in a portal, you move onto the next stage.<\/p>\n

The graphics are very rudimentary, but an award-winning narrator gives each square and rectangle a name, like Thomas, Chris, John, Claire, etc., as well as a personality.\u00a0 The narration also helps you figure out each shape\u2019s skills and how to get past certain obstacles.\u00a0 I was both impressed and disappointed at the game\u2019s controls at the same time.\u00a0 The game uses the touch screen to move left and right, jump, and switch squares with ease.\u00a0 I liked how accurate the directional controls were, as you can easily nudge slightly, handy for making staircases out of the blocks by jumping on top of each other.\u00a0 However, there was a time or two where I would move in the total opposite direction, but I partly blame that on my carelessness while playing.\u00a0 Even so, I can\u2019t help but thing this game would be best played with a console controller.<\/p>\n

The game has an artsy feel to it, due to the minimalist graphics, similar to Chuck Jones\u2019 Academy Award-winning animated short: The Dot and the Line.\u00a0 However, that wasn\u2019t enough to grab me to keep playing.\u00a0 Plus, the jumping puzzles can get repetitive in places, especially when you clear the same obstacles multiple times in one level.\u00a0 And sometimes constantly switching out characters can be tiresome.\u00a0 But if you enjoy indie games and jumping puzzle platformers, you may want to check this one out anyway.<\/p>\n

\"THOMAS_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the PS3 and Vita, Thomas Was Alone is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Language.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t consider squares dissolving in water that violent, and I didn\u2019t catch any bad words in the text, so they must be used sparingly.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for the menus, but the words in-game are followed by spoken voice from that award-winning narrator.\u00a0 Younger gamers may get frustrated with some of the harder levels, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Was Alone is an indie puzzle-platformer that was originally released on PC, then later on PS3 and Vita, and now you can play it on iOS devices (reviewed on iPad here).\u00a0 In the game, you play as one or more different colored rectangles and squares.\u00a0 Each one has a special ability.\u00a0 One can jump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12383,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12380\/revisions\/12383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}