Spider

Spider is like Qix meets In The Night Kitchen but with spiders instead of prepubescent wieners. ...That simile was pretty disturbing. Sorry about that.

This is the first iOS game I've played on the Touch that I really like. It's got some problems, like the spider's transition from walking on a web to walking on the floor/walls/ceiling/etc., but I feel like I'd actually put up with the annoyances in order to play this game more. In fact, this is one I will probably play quite a bit more even after writing this post.

The level design and the feeling of exploring the environment is really great! Not only do I really want to look around, but it's generally pretty fun just moving around (flinging the spider is quite satisfying) and the ability to interact with the environment by creating webs and eating insects actually starts to feel immersive.

As usual, there are issues related to using the touch screen. Overlapping, context-sensitive controls related to touching the screen to move around and zoom in or out suck ass, as usual. As I mentioned above, the game is a bit schizophrenic about transitioning from moving on a web to moving on the walls/etc. It's also annoying when the portal to exit the level happens to appear where the spider is standing, randomly ending the level. Slightly less annoying is when I accidentally jump into the portal because it materialized off screen. "Oh, there's the portal. Great."

Finally, I wish the game would let me look around even more. The strongest point here, in my opinion, is the levels themselves. As each level starts you get a good, fully zoomed out view of the level, a perspective that doesn't seem to ever really return. That's a shame!

Generally, though, this is my favorite so far.

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Update after staying up all day playing Spider:

I've thought of a better simile for this game -- it's like Glider Pro meets Silent Hill.

All of my complaints about this game seem to be invalid! The thing about accidentally going through the exit portal? There's an option to return to the level when this happens. Going through the portal lets you see the entire level, so this is actually a gameplay strategy (eat enough insects to open the portal and then go through to check out the level to find hidden stuff and whatnot). The zooming still doesn't seem to work wonderfully, but I did get a little better at it and it's probably safe to say that I'm just messing something up there.

Moving from a web to a wall/floor/etc. is still a little finicky, but I'm pretty happy to let that issue slide at this point, in part because I finally noticed that this game has no instant death at all. In fact, no death whatsoever! That's probably one of the reasons I like the game so much.

Oh, I should say that there's no player death in the game. Having finished the adventure mode now, I have to say that the story in this game is awesome. Super well handled and very creepy. I haven't solved whatever the puzzle is relating to the hearth (a multi-level puzzle, I think) so there's still that to go.

All-in-all, I think this is a really excellent game.

I'd like more! ...Hm, I think I'm going to wind up writing a post about length of gameplay now.