Photo Spot

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Posted by admin on 04 Apr 2009 @ 7:16 PM

Somehow Photo Spot managed to slip under the radar when it was released in March. Having loved visual-based games for some time (remember the “I Spy” image-spotting book series?), Photo Spot [App Store] immediately caught my attention when I saw it in the App Store ..

The premise behind the game is that you’re shown two images, and have to spot four differences between them. In addition, you have to beat the clock, and every wrong tap you make takes a significant chunk out of your time. The concept isn’t exactly unheard of (and has actually been done by several iPhone developers before), but the game is still well-executed and fun to play.

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The moment you open the app, you’ll notice the exciting (and, dare I say, groovy?) graphics seen throughout the app. Every aspect of the interface is customized to match perfectly. The only complaint I have about the interface is that it has no visual feedback–when you press a button, it simply loads the result instead of making an indent (like the indent of the buttons on Apple’s Calculator app). It would also be nice to get some sort of option to play in portrait, but that would require a lot of work on their part, and probably make half of the App Store reviewers erupt in complaint!

The foolproof main menu sports four simple options, and five if you have a game in progress. The “How to Play?” screen (pictured above) shows you everything you need to know to get started in just three screens. It’s actually quite well-laid out, but contains a spelling error (gasp!). There are only two options in the Options menu, though, which are to set the volume of the sound effects or look at the credits. The sound effects during gameplay themselves sound very professional and clear, albeit a tad childish.

The actual gameplay is laid out in an orderly manner that’s extremely easy to understand. You’re given a picture on the left and right sides, which you compare to find the differences. You can tap on the area of difference (on either side), and it will circle it if correct. If it’s incorrect, you’ll be penalized for a bit of your time, and hear a buzzer sound. There are some pictures that are extremely difficult to differentiate, which is why Photo Spot includes three hints, accessible via a single tap in the top right corner. As you progress through the levels, the amount of time per image set will decrease, and you’ll have to be on the top of your game.

For everything Photo Spot does right, it’s not without issues. Due to the fact that its library of images contains only 100 in all, you’re likely to see duplicates from time to time. That said, it doesn’t make it that much easier. It can be hard to find the differences even after playing the levels several times. Photo Spot can also crash from time to time, but it only happened once in my testing.

Altogether, Photo Spot is a fun little application that can kill some time when you’re in need of a break. The intuitive gameplay system and exponentially increasing difficulty levels are both merits for this title. However, the originality of each game is limited to the number of photos present within the application. An excellent solution to this dilemma would be for Nexx Studio to implement an in-app image downloading system so they wouldn’t have to run all content updates through Apple’s review system.

Nexx says that an update called the “Global Challenge edition” has already been submitted to Apple for review, and will sport some new features (presumably some sort of online play or online scoring system). It will also raise the current price of $0.99 to $1.99. Despite the minor issues with this app, I still recommend that you take a look if you’re at all interested in this genre. It’s simply entertaining and extremely challenging at times, and even more fun to play with others.