The line-drawing game Trenches ($1.99), developed by Thunder Works Games, takes place during World War I and is an extravaganza of strategy. Your role is to command the British military, sporting mustaches and gruff accents, in an effort to annihilate the German forces over several levels of trench warfare.
There are two game modes in Trenches–Campiagn and Skirmish. In order to beat a level, your troops must reach the enemy’s spawning point.
I found one feature somewhat irksome during my time with this game. In order to move left and right along the battlefield, you must drag your finger back and forth. This is typical amongst side-scrolling shooting/defense games, but it was difficult keeping track of my units during battle. I had to do a little digging before finding ‘Move Map On Tilt’ in the Options menu. I think this functionality should serve as default (as it does in Coast Defense – Reloaded, a similar game), mainly because it’s more impressive when a game creator utilizes the iPhone’s accelerometer in a productive way.
You have to wait until the spawn timer is full before you can deploy more troops, so managing your enthusiastic warriors is key to beating each level. Riflemen receive promotions by meeting kill goals, which increase their fighting ability. Another way to boost your soliders’ performance is to place a commander close to them.
The award for most effective type of attack goes to Artillery. Simply drag the artillery option to the target, sit back, and watch the body parts fly.
Overall Trenches is an amusing game. You can post your high scores on the online leaderboards and keep track of in-game achievements via OpenFeint, a feature that many games are endorsing.
Version 1.1, which will include a Capture the Flag mode, is scheduled to be released sometime during mid-January. If Thunder Work Games delivers on their promises of “Cooperative and Competitive Multiplayer modes” as well as weapon upgrades, it will be difficult not to give Trenches a five out of five rating.
