String King- Zen Bound Review

I'm not typically one for "casual games". Often this name is used to describe games that even a trained monkey could practically master. The saving graces of casual gaming are innovation in basic gameplay/presentation concepts and the prized title of "easy to learn, hard to master". Zen Bound is a casual game that does those right.

Zen Bound is an indie iPhone/Touch puzzle game that actually has its roots in the demoscene as a freeware PC game called Zen Bondage. The idea behind the gameplay is to wrap a single long piece of rope around a 3 dimensional wooden figure. Anywhere the rope touches will paint the figure within a certain radius, if the rope is removed the paint will disappear. The goal is to wrap the rope evenly and efficiently, so as to paint as much of the figure as possible using as little rope possible. Backtracking or bridging gaps can waste precious rope-length so effective wrapping is necessary. You must paint a certain percentage of a figure to progress. The more you paint the more flowers you'll grow on the figure selection screens' trees, allowing you to choose from more figures.

The beauty of Zen Bound is it manages to be a fun and challenging game where the only obstacle is the limits of your own finesse and patience. There's no time limit, no lives, no enemies. There's just you, some rope and a lot of wooden figures that need painting. It makes for a relaxing game that manages to be quite challenging as well. If you want to spend a while on a figure and get a perfect 100%, go for it. If you don't mind that 80%, it's ok. You can always come back to it. Zen Bound is a game that encourages efficiency but only at the pace you see fit. While I couldn't find any evidence this game comes from an actual Buddhist practice, I wouldn't be surprised if it does or becomes one.


The controls work surprising well. Tapping and dragging rotates the figure as if its rolling away or toward you, tapping with two fingers spins the figure like a roulette wheel, tilting and rotating the iPhone/Touch adjusts the direction of the rope. It feels so intuitive that I quickly discovered how to rotate the figures on multiple axes.

The game is absolutely gorgeous to see on the iPhone/Touch. Almost everything from the interface to the figure selection screen looks Asian-inspired and aged yet beautiful. The figure selection screen features a tree with lanterns and selectable figures hanging on it. Tilting the iPhone/Touch makes them sway and hang realistically. As you complete figures, more and more flowers will grow on the tree. It creates a great vibe. The music adds to this with relaxing Asian-inspired beats that are similar in style to the PixelJunk Eden

There's a lot of figures to wrap and paint in two different modes, "Tree of Reflection" and "Tree of Challenge", making for a total of 51 levels with some significant replay value. The game also allows for playing in short or long bursts with a robust automatic save system. The game is one of the more expensive iPhone/Touch games at $4.99 but this is still a great deal. You'll want to spend hours playing Zen Bound, and luckily there's enough content, challenge and fun to back it up. soundtrack. The songs are free to download for all paying customers, as well. The overall aural experience is wonderful as the music is combined with the sound of the rope springing, plunking and stretching. When starting the game you are greeted with the message, "Designed for headphones.", and they aren't kidding.

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Posted by TideGear - Adam Milecki at 3/9/2009 12:20 AM
Categories: Reviews,iPhone
 

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