Dune
Action
#31
When you’re looking for a new game, what are you looking for? Maybe something not too complex, right? A game you can pick up, play for seconds, minutes, to an hour or more. Or just seconds. Whatever….you just want to pick it up when you have time, play, and then put it down, without any penalty. It has to be fun, of course! What good is a game if it’s not at least enjoyable. There’s plenty of “fun” games that most people will only play a time or two, before being forgotten until the inevitable deletion. The game needs to grab you, and make you want to try it “just one more time” before putting it back down. Dune may be the next viral finger-tapping game. Described as one of the smoothest game ever, you have the simple task of jumping above the line to score as many points as you can. But, the higher you get, the harder the landing will be! You must not crash and you definitely must keep it smooth. Dune from Voodoo is a new high score chaser with a very simple premise and equally difficult mechanics. In Dune you must roll a ball over sand dunes while gaining enough inertia and height to fly into the air and pass over a bar in the sky which then moves higher at each successful crossover. You earn points by crossing the bar, landing smoothly and then basically doing this in succession for bonuses.
The terrain is made up of sharp peaks, round hills, and valleys. Sharp peaks are best to get the most height when lifting off. The dessert appears undulating sand dunes and the round hills will help you pick up some speed, but if you catch too much air, you’ll hit the next peak and lose whatever momentum you built up. The task of the player is to claw to move the ball through the sand as long as possible. The round hills and their respective valleys are ideal for landing because of their smooth curve. Anyways, negotiating the terrain is only half of the challenge; you can bounce along as long as you’d like and you won’t earn points if you don’t cross the ever-rising line in the sky. The way to move the ball is to swipe: swipe horizontally to the right to move straight to the right, swipe upwards to climb the slope and cross the slope down. To overcome the dunes, you have to accurately swipe the ball up and then claw down so that when the ball hit the ground, it will move down the slope and get the momentum to easily go up the slope. Each time you pass a sand dunes, you will get 1 point. If you can’t move the ball, the game will end. So you need to be ingenious in order not to let the ball fall down, otherwise the ball will stop.
Gestures are limited in holding down your screen to speed up or to dive down and also lifting your finger from the screen when you want to release into the air. With these simple mechanics, everything comes down to timing. Just before reaching the very top of a peak, release your finger and you’ll head into the air, as you start to fall, aim for the next slope and dive. However you must be aware of diving back down and hitting an incline; that will end your fun unceremoniously. With some practice, you’ll learn how to get the most momentum back up while falling. Unlike endless runners, a great feature of the game is that you can slow down or even completely stop if you need to adjust your timing or the pressure is getting to you. You can then slowly work your way back up to speedy jumps and landings. As much as you want to smash your finger into your screen to get the right speed, it doesn’t matter how hard you press or where on your screen you press to get the ball moving. Get used to the physics and inertia by just holding down on the screen and see how the ball moves. Even though it is purely psychological, you might find yourself mimicking the horizon line’s peaks and valleys to guide the ball then adding a flick at the end to send it up into the air. But ultimately, sweeping, swiping or otherwise gesturing on your screen has the same effect as keeping your thumb in one place while the ball moves. As the point line moves further and further away, you’ll earn points slowly (one at a time) if you rely only on crossing the line. Earn a x2 multiplier for a “smooth landing” immediately after you’ve crossed the point line. If you get two smooth landings in a row, you’ll trigger an orange flashy comet which gives you a 4x multiplier. But beware, if don’t continue to get over the line, and your landing is not anymore a smooth landing, you’ll immediately lose your multiplier. Surprisingly, there is no bonus for staying in the air for a long time, but there is a “To The Moon” bonus point if you rise high enough.
Try playing Dune, a family-friendly casual mobile rhythm game that provides quick and fun gameplay, without any commitment needed. Click upon your device’s system operator icon below to download the game:
