Tomb Rush

In the action puzzler Tomb Rush the pharaoh’s tomb is under attack by a relentless swarm of monsters and it’s your job to protect the pharaoh’s remains at all costs.  Your only means of defense is to kill anything and everything in site, but the problem is the weaponry at your disposal is limited.  Starting with as little as a wall mounted crossbow you must pluck monsters with precision shots.  Your propensity to kill determines the length of your game and the number of defense mechanisms at your disposal.  Strategy, timing, and coordination are key to earning big points and successfully protecting the tomb.

Created by Volcano Computer Tech Co., Tomb Rush is an action puzzler that at first may seem a bit blah, but after you get the hang of it quickly becomes a very fun to play and tough to put down game.  The entire game takes place inside of the pharaoh’s tomb.  A flood of one-track minded portly cavemen charge into the tomb, in no particular order, in an attempt to seize and conquer the tomb.  You can unlock up to 7 “powerful properties”, like trap doors, candles that function as flame throwers, spring loaded platforms, lightening esque bolts of energy, and more to defend the tomb.  As mentioned you start with only a crossbow, but quickly earn new properties based on number of kills.  When you see a hovering key pop up you’ll want to touch it ASAP as it activates a new property.

The more properties you earn the better.  They essentially serve as back up defenses for when monsters slip through you first, second, third, etc. lines of defense.  When monsters approach just touch any of your properties to use them.  Some take longer to “reload” than others so you want to make sure you time their use perfectly.  The crossbow and the spring board fire pretty rapidly, but the trapdoor and candle take a while to reload and if you set them off too early the monsters will blow right past them unscathed.  A great fall back weapon is the pharaoh power.  If you touch the pharoah and then swipe your finger across the screen it sends a bolt of lightening jutting toward your target.  It takes a while to use this one though so you pretty much only want to use it as a last resort.

Tomb Rush is a super simple concept that somehow became ultra addictive the more you play it.  At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because I played it a half a dozen times or so and thought to myself the game was kinda boring.  But apparently that’s only because I stunk at it.  Once I got the hang of it and started unlocking more and more weapons and defenses and was mowing down wave after wave of monsters I thought to myself this game is pretty sweet!  After getting on a roll and unveiling a hard to kill boss that ushered in newer and uglier monsters I was hooked!

Tomb Rush builds on itself as you play and demands 100% attention to detail and precision timing.  Monsters come at you straight on in the early stages of the game, but eventually they come at you from multiple angles.  Having the ability to defend against waves of enemies from multiple angles for sustained periods of time is key to scoring big.  Once you get to that point in the game it’s extremely hard to put down.  If you enjoy simpler game concepts that are challenging and you can turn to at a moments notice from some instant gratification, then you’ll really enjoy Tomb Rush.

Pros:

• Offers good replayability; really addictive once you give it some time
• Great game for both children and adults
• Games can last seconds to minutes depending on skill level; great time waster

Cons:

• No onine global leaderboard or social media integration

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later

Posted by Ryan Johnson
on 09 1, 2010
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