Hey, remember the iPhone's multi-touch screen? Not many game developers seem to, limiting applications to allowing players to touch two virtual on-screen buttons at once. Blacktorch Games' simple little fly swatter, Don't Fry the Frog, serves as a simple reminder of how much fun you can have with two fingers at once.
Despite glowing iTunes reviews and it's low price of absolutely free (or perhaps because of it), I was initially reluctant to give Don't Fry the Frog a go. After doing these gaming app of the day posts for a while you start to get a feel for what's got potential and what's simply more trash cluttering up the store.
And sometimes that feel is wrong.
Don't Fry the Frog's premise is quite simple. You've got a frog. You've got flies of the healthy and unhealthy variety. If the frog eats a certain amount of unhealthy flies, he croaks (hahahahah haha ha). Healthy flies, on the other hand, serve as power-ups, making the job of keeping our amphibian friend away from the bad side of the bug buffet much easier.
In order to keep the bad flies away from our hero it takes a pair of magic fingers. Place two digits on the screen and an electrical arc runs between them, lengthening and shortening as you pinch and pull. Move your fingers about, trapping the nasty flies in the arc, racking up points all the while. The longer your fingers touch the screen, the better your score.
And the better your chances of catching the frog with 50,000 volts, which is bad. See the game's title for instructions.
Play well and you'll earn fly pennies good for purchasing equipment, new healthy flies and eventually tools and beam upgrades from the in-game shop. Seeing as this is a free game, you can of course opt to purchase the pennies with real-world cash to help the developers pay their bills.
Don't Fry the Frog's simple little two-finger game mechanic makes for some challenging rounds of fly extermination. For some people it also makes for the sudden jarring realization that their fingers are pretty damn porky. Some people. Not me. No, no, no.
But what this charming little free game really does is remind players (and hopefully other developers) that they aren't limited to virtual buttons or tapping techniques. There's still plenty of room to grow.
Don't Fry the Frog! [iTunes]