Mortar Melon review – Save the fruit in this lovely Windows Phone and Windows 8 physics game

Mortar Melon Windows Phone Lumia 1520

Microsoft fans dream of a continued ecosystem in which we tin buy a game one time and play information technology on phone, tablet, PC, and console. We're non quite there withal, but at least some game developers are supporting all of those platforms. Take London-based indie programmer Mudvark Express. Mudvark'south debut championship Mortar Melon is already available on both Windows Phone and Windows 8 and RT. And before long it will come up to Xbox One equally role of the ID@Xbox program.

Mortar Melon is a physics-based puzzle game in which players try to burn down watermelons through obstacle-filled levels and safely into a basket. The game is complimentary to play on both Windows Phone and Windows 8, with an extra batch of levels available equally an in-app purchase. It runs on Windows Phones with 512 MB of RAM, so everybody can take fun breaking, I hateful saving watermelons.

Mortar Melon for Windows Phone 8

From cannon to basket

Some physics puzzle games have slingshots, birds, and pigs to shoot. Instead of that deadening stuff, Mortar Melon gives players a cannon and a watermelon that needs a happy home (a basket). To send the watermelon to its new family, you lot'll have to either shoot it straight into the basket or bounce information technology off a series of obstacles along the way.

The deadliest of those obstacles are buzzsaws that volition turn your favorite fruit into into gooey red chunks. Some objects show less obstructive, such every bit rotating windmills or locked gates that can be opened via tap or click. The premium desert level pack introduces jars that will deed like portals, magically transporting the watermelon from identify to place.

Just beating a level by reaching the basket only gets you one star. To earn a total iii-star rating, players must collect all of the boosted fruit strewn throughout the level. Sometimes the fruit will exist encased in bubbling that threaten to behave information technology off-screen and out of your life. Nobody wants to lose their fruit and face the threat of scurvy! Pop the bubble by tapping, clicking, or striking information technology with the watermelon.

Mortar Melon for Windows 8

Fun but fiddly

The bones concept of shooting an object from one place to another should be instantly familiar to mobile gamers. To aim the cannon in Mortar Melon, you pull back on it and release. A dotted guide line volition plot the class of the projectile, but only until it strikes something (not the subsequent bounces).

Simple concept, but the aiming here is not equally smoothen and intuitive every bit you lot'd wait. The cannon can exist rotated in 360 degrees, and sometimes it will rotate wildly when you're just trying to adapt the strength of the shot. I'm thinking the solution would be to limit the rotational axis to meet each level'south requirements.

Decision-making shot forcefulness proves tough besides, even with a mouse. The arc jumps from minimum to maximum fashion too quickly. Equally a consequence, firing shots of low and medium strength requires a lot of trial and error. There needs to be much more of a middle ground and less wild swinging of the cannon.

Lovely vegetation

Mortar Melon is a colorful game, filled with layers of parallax scrolling. The lovely looks (moreso on Windows 8) shouldn't come up as too much of a surprise. One of Mudvark's three-man team is Henry Hoffman, who worked on the gorgeous Mush for Windows Phone. Mush is prettier overall, but the similarity of the two art styles is hard to miss. The actual frame rate is lower than it should be on my Lumia 1520, but it runs perfectly on my gaming notebook.

Mortar Melon includes 24 jungle levels for gratis. Players who crave more can go the 24 desert levels as an in-app purchase. Unfortunately, Mortar Melon is non a universal app – seemingly due Game Firm publishing the Windows 8 version but not the Windows Phone game. The extra levels toll $one.29 on Windows Telephone and $1.49 on Windows 8.

Given that Mortar Melon debuted final year, it seems unlikely that Mudvark will improve the aiming controls at this point. Only physics puzzle fans should all the same give the game a go, peculiarly with the kickoff 24 levels costing nothing. I'yard excited to come across how well the upcoming Xbox 1 version will play with a controller. We'll let y'all know when it gets a release date!

Mortar Melon – Windows Phone 8 – 5 MB – Free – Store Link
Mortar Melon – Windows 8 and RT – 12 MB – Free – Store Link

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