Culture

Platform: iOS, (4/5).

Trute? Flumpet, maybe? In any case, It's irrelevant what I call the solo, synthesized instrument, of brassy and fluty timbre, that provides the musical context for Firefly Hero. Just like the game's visual style, fundamental mechanics and 'story', it is as simple and effective as is befitting an iPod touch title that costs about as much as six or seven slices of sandwich loaf. Because insanely affordable distractions are totally what I need right now.
 
Firefly Hero follows the Angry Birds formula, a set of design choices sure to make any iPod Touch/iPhone game successful. A hyper-simple fundamental concept isn't enough on its own; it has to be one that snuggles perfectly into the touch screen interface. At this, Firefly Hero succeeds. As the player, your job is to switch on lights, which your firefly makes a fly-line for. Tapping another light part way through the journey switches the power to the new luminescent source, changing the course of the insect. As you might imagine, some devilishly clever (and devilishly devilish) angles on that simple puzzle solving tool are present in the game's 75 levels.
 
The second starchy, structural ingredient in Angry Bird's recipe for success is the star ratings that can be gained for each individual level. It's all about the player being able to invest as much, or as little, of themselves into the game so that there is literally no mood in which they would not enjoy it at least a wee bit. In Firefly Hero, a particularly pretty shooting star has attracted its non-shooting companions, and lured them down into a forest on Earth, leaving you to collect them all. An individual level must be completed by collecting all the stars, but it is your choice how many light-taps you use. There is no limit - so a tired player could complete levels lazily tapping whenever the mood struck him, while a perfectionist might not move on until he had firmly secured the golden-leaf.