If I had to choose a single game genre which defined the iPhone/iPod Touch user experience for me, it would be the line drawing games.  This is a genre which is unique (at least to my knowledge) to the iPhone.  Essentially, the point is to guide vehicles into their correct endpoints by drawing a line on your screen connecting the vehicle to its destination (does this remind anyone else of Bill Cosby’s Picture Pages??).  Chief among the games in this genre is Flight Control from Firemint, which I have covered extensively here.  In fact, that game so clearly defines the genre that when Backflip Studios announced Harbor Havoc 3D, they readily admitted that it was inspired by their own love for Flight Control.  High praise, indeed.  And a real challenge for Backflip.  Their goal was to make a game which would not just approximate Flight Control, but surpass it.  To accomplish this lofty goal, they introduced the concept of 3D action, and vehicles operating on multiple planes. 

I do not think I need to delve to deeply into the game play.  Most of you are probably pretty familiar with this genre.  The game consists of a series of maps.  In Backflip’s iteration, each map consists of harbors on a waterway.  As each vehicle enters the screen, all you need to do is draw a line to show its path to the correct harbor.  Each vehicle will follow the line you draw, no matter how indirect the path may be.  Watch out, though, there are numerous different vehicles, each of which travels at a different speed.  You will need to keep track of them all, and ensure no collisions occur to end your game.  Of course, the nice thing about working with ships is that they all have anchors.  Just tap any ship at any time to drop the anchor, pausing its motion exactly in place until you tap it again.  This is a handy tool, which I have not seen used in other games in this genre.

What really sets Harbor Havoc apart from other line drawing games, however, is the 3D designation.  When I first saw this, I thought it was simply a reference to the graphics, which are exquisitely drawn, but it really means so much more than that.  Unlike most line drawing games, which has all of the vehicles traveling along the same plane, there are actually four planes of motion in this game.  First are the ships, which travel along the surface of the water.  Helicopters fly over the surface; and beneath the surface are submarines and rovers, which drive along the bottom of the harbor.   The really cool thing is that only vehicles traveling along the same plane can interfere with one another.  This means that while a ship can crash into another ship, it will pass harmlessly over a submarine.   This may sound like it could make the game easier, it actually makes it infinitely more complicated as you must track not only where each ship is heading, but also on which plane of motion it exists. 

Additionally, the developers really showed a fantastic eye for detail with the graphics in this one.  Whether it is the refraction of light as it hits the water (causing underwater objects to appear slightly distorted), the ripples of water moving on the surface, or even shadows of objects flying above the water, the realism of the graphics in this game is far more than any of use could reasonably have expected (and don’t even get me started on the explosions, which are just incredible).

It is extremely well done, and really makes you wonder what Backflip Studios could do with something like an adventure game, or other genres which use more than a single screen at a time.

Heck, even the menus got in on the 3D graphics action, with a really cool approach to cycling through the various maps.

The other complication is that every vehicle type does not necessarily exist on all of the maps.  When you start the game, there are three maps available: Far East, Atlantis, and Arctic.  Far East is the most basic map, featuring only ships.  The Atlantis takes place completely underwater, involving submarines and undersea rovers.  Finally, the Arctic map involves the most vehicles, with helicopters, ships, and submarines to guide.  Score at least 25 points on all three levels to unlock the fourth and final level, the Lighthouse.  The Lighthouse is unlike anything I have seen on a line drawing game.  It exists in complete darkness.  You must guide the ships to port by using only the glimpses you get as the lighthouse light briefly shines on them (like a real lighthouse, the light is constantly rotating). 

One challenge I did not, particularly on the Arctic level, was that the ships are not always necessarily color coded.  In most line drawing games, the vehicles and their ports are similarly colored, so that you know where to guide them.  To overcome this shortcoming, when you hold your finger on any vehicle, the correct port will glow. 

On top of all this, Backflip games has added integration with Plus+, which allows you to post global high scores online, and post your high scores to your Facebook or Twitter account.  Additionally, there are dozens of awards associated with your Plus+ account, so pay attention to the various tasks you need to accomplish in order to reach these milestones (not all of which are positive in the game).  The only problem I had with this setup, was that I could not access the awards while offline.  This seems like a small thing, but since I rarely have my iPod Touch online, it would have been nice to be able to review my accomplishments, as well as the requirements for uncompleted milestones and awards, while offline.

Backflip Studios has easily become one of my favorite game developers for the iPhone.  Their games, all of which are $1.99 or less, range from completely original games like Ragdoll Blaster and Paper Toss, to completely original approaches to well worn genres.  This latter category is where we find Harbor Havoc, which brings the concept of different planes of motion to the line drawing genre.  While I did find that there was some lag loading a new game, the some stunning 3D graphics, made it well worth the wait.   

Harbor Havoc 3D is available in the iTunes App Store for $1.99. 

What I Liked:

• 3D graphics are exceptional
• 3D gameplay puts vehicles on different planes
• Online high scores and awards
• Lighthouse level
• Anchors
• Fantastic gameplay

What Needs Improvement:

• Slow load time
• Can’t view awards offline

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