Before I bought my first iPhone, I owned a BlackBerry Curve. I loved that thing, even with its many flaws, because it was my first device that handled email and the web, albeit in extremely slow fashion. That, and it was the cool thing to have around the office.
I wasted away many a day playing Snake on that thing, as I did on other phones that came before it. It was simple, fun and easy to use — why wouldn’t I play it? Turns out that’s Nimble Quest in a nutshell.
Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on twitter.
The Old School
Nimble Quest makes it clear right from the start that this is a game based on the OG Nokia version of Snake that eventually found its way onto many mobile devices. In that game, you were a snake that could travel in four directions: left, right, up or down. You couldn’t touch the wall, any enemies or obstacles with your snake, or else you’d die. Pretty simple, yet amazingly addictive.
Yeah, they’re pretty clear about the whole thing.
In Nimble Quest, you have that same concept, but with a twist. Instead of a snake, you control a conga line of characters from an RPG-esque world. Pirates, knights and wizards all live here, and you pick them up along the way to make your snake longer. In addition, you can fire on enemies with your characters, plus pick up bonuses that enhance your abilities along the way. It’s Snake mixed with Final Fantasy — kind of.
Gameplay
Being that Snake was a pretty simple concept, you can probably guess that Nimble Quest is pretty similar. Well it is, and it isn’t. You start with just one character, and you use your finger to swipe throughout the world. As you get closer to your enemies — snakes, people, knights, etc. — you automatically attack. Now you don’t want to run into these enemies, as that will cause you to lose energy and potentially die. Instead, you just attack and then swipe away so as to avoid a direct hit.
Like I said, it’s pretty straightforward.
As you take down your enemies, they turn into various items. Sometimes it’s a gem, other times it’s a person. And if it is a hero, then you can add them to your chain just by walking into them. By the time you’re done with the first level, you’ll have at least three heroes in your group, and it just keeps getting bigger from there. Eventually, you can get up to 15 characters in your chain.
That 8-Bit Thing
The look of the game is very much based in the old-school world of Nintendo and the SEGA Genesis. There’s a distinct and deliberate chunkiness to the characters, and it’s well appreciated by a gaming vet such as myself. The variety of characters is also pretty cool, since you have lots of options to work with.
Step in line!
Overall, this is a very pretty game, even though it’s simplistic in its appeal. Although there are lots of pretty colors, don’t expect your iPhone’s Retina display to flex its muscles too much.
The IAP Part
It seems that every review I write nowadays has some kind of mention of in-app purchases, and Nimble Quest is the same. This time, it’s the non-offensive kind that isn’t anywhere close to necessary, but exists just to help some people get an extra level up here and there.
No thanks, I’m good.
IAP exists in the form of extra continues, buffs (extra powers provided during the start of the game) and so on. In my time with the game, I never ran into an occasion where I just had to have the extra, and most of the things that you can purchase are also available with the gems available whenever you kill certain bad guys. So this is the “good” kind of IAP, if such a thing exists.
Yay or Nay?
Nimble Quest is fun. It’s not particularly addicting, although it does give you lots of options for killing a few minutes when you can. It’s a doctor’s waiting room app for sure, although you could make the argument that you could lose a few hours in the game if you wanted. Don’t expect to pull any marathon sessions, however.
For the whopping price of free, Nimble Quest is definitely worth the buy. And considering that it’s likely you won’t spend a whole ton on additional purchases, there’s no real downside to me.