Aurora Feint was one of the original, amazing games made exclusively for the iPhone. Its gorgeous graphics, engaging sound effects and challenging puzzles made for an Apple success story. Aurora Feint 3 (free) for the iPad lacks any new features that would bring back original fans of the series. New players might enjoy the game, but either way, people will become annoyed at the idea of purchasing extra lives.
Aurora Feint is a puzzle game where the goal is to match three or more pieces in a row. You receive points for making the match, and the pieces disappear. It sounds simple, but the challenge comes from trying to match more than just three pieces in a row while achieving combos. The more points you accumulate, the faster you’ll level-up. You need to level-up in order to keep defeating the bandits who are trying to steal from you. These battles pop up at random times throughout the game, and the winner will be the one who can attack the fastest. You attack by matching puzzle pieces. You can also tilt your device to attempt more combo matches, but this feature really doesn’t work well on the giant iPad.
The game goes on with a predictable pattern of practicing your matching skills and fighting bandits. It goes back and forth in the same manner, and it becomes boring after a while. The game lacks variety. It’s just not as much fun as the original.
You start the game with only one life. If you run out of health while in a battle, the game asks if you’d like to purchase another life to give you a second chance at defeating your foe. You get a pack of two lives for 99 cents through an in-app purchase. The in-app purchase has its strengths, but purchasing lives to continue a game isn’t one of them. This is an absolutely ridiculous feature. It doesn’t even matter if you lose the battle. You don’t lose any experience points. All you have to do is wait for another battle to start. The whole concept is turning fans away, including myself.
