Heading to dinner tonight with Torrey, he mentioned how much he’s been enjoying the MotionX Poker (dice) game for his iPhone. It was also getting favorable reviews on the App Store (4 1/2 stars) so when I got home I went online and bought a copy.
I found myself saying “just one more roll!” more times than I’d like to count. The animation is fantastic, with dice bouncing around the table and colliding with each other; the sound of the dice hitting the table and the sound track are cool; shaking the iPhone to roll the dice is fun; and the overall game play and style is just darn neat.Â
What really got me though were the little flourishes the developer added. Sometimes the dice come to rest sort of on their edges against each other. If you shake gently or violently, the dice get thrown the same way, and if you shake and keep shaking, the dice keep bouncing around until you stop.
But my favorite touch is the shadows beneath the dice: they shift as you move your iPhone, as if lit from an actual light source. This was so cool that at first I thought I was imagining it, but no, here are screenshots proving it (the first one is straight up vertical; the second rotated 90º counter-clockwise; the third is upside down; click on each to see it full-sized):
With 39 dice designs, 14 collectable gems, and five table designs, all of which require you to achieve certain goals and milestones to unlock, I don’t see this game getting dull anytime soon. And at just $5, it’s priced right.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll just give it one more roll….