doglegged gathering: Beyond Ynth for iPhone and iPad review

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Beyond Ynth for iPhone and iPad review

Beyond Ynth for iPhone and iPad is a cute little platformer game with great graphics that is unique, fun, and challenging. It's about a little bug named Kribl who's on a big journey to bring light back to the Kingdom of Kriblonia. In order to do so, you must move, turn, and traverse labrynth boxes which help you reach the end of each level.

The controls for Beyond Ynth are very basic and simply include 4 buttons, two on each side of the screen. The bottom buttons move Kribl left and right and the top buttons make Kribl jump left or right. Beyond Ynth includes interactive tutorials that teaches you all the tips and tricks to having a successful journey including slamming down Ynths, climbing, moving objects and more.

Beyond Ynth includes 80 levels that are displayed on a map. You start out in the forest and as you complete levels, new ones become available. All the levels have amazing graphics that compel me to choose my Retina iPad over my iPad mini even though I typically prefer to play games on my iPad mini.

During your journey with Kribl, you will encounter a wide variety of habitats including dusty deserts, volcanic valleys, dark forests, and icy mountain peaks. Each habitat has its own special trait and thus it's own tutorial. For example, in icy levels, you may encounter slippery sections of your blocks and Kribl will only survive outside of a Ynth for a few seconds at a time.

The good

Fun, addicting, and challenging
80 levels
Storybook with hand-drawn illustrations
Realistic physics gameplay elements
Original music and songs, recorded in a studio
Super-smooth dimensional scrolling
High-score lists and achievements
Helpful rewind feature
Solution videos
15 hours of gameplay

The bad

Addicting enough to kill a significant amount of productivity. Wait, is that really a con?

The conclusion

Beyond Ynth is a fantastic casual platformer puzzle game that will easily have you hooked after just a few minutes. Each level is unique in its own way and look amazing on Retina screens. This is another one of those games that I can't believe I'm only discovering now, because it really is quite awesome.