High Noon (iPhone)

The good: Simple mechanics pack a lot of fun.
The bad: All avatars are male only, and there is no women’s apparel to buy at the store.
The tally: 9 / 10

About the Game

The iPhone is an amazing device whose portability, touch screen, motion sensor, and wireless connection have opened up new ways to play video games. One game that takes advantage of all these features is High Noon, a gunslinger simulator set in the Wild West.

The game play of High Noon is simplicity itself. Your objective is to win an online gun fight against a single opponent. At the start of the fight, you “holster” your weapon by holding your iPhone downwards by your side. When the battle begins, you aim your gun by tilting your iPhone. To fire your weapon, just tap the screen. You can aim more carefully by keeping your finger on your iPhone as you tilt it before releasing your finger to fire your gun. You may also use special items that you buy in the game to give you an edge, such as a sack of flour to blind your opponents with or a noose to hang them by their leg as you take shots at them. Whoever is the first to reduce their opponent’s hit points to zero wins the battle.

Each time you win, you are rewarded with a certain amount of gold commensurate to the challenge that your opponent gives you. When you’ve earned enough gold, you rise up in level, thereby unlocking new items to buy in the store as well as raising your hit points. Leveling up also gives you a small amount of wampum, a Native American currency that isn’t easy to come by in this game. While you can buy many items with gold, some of the more desirable ones can only be bought with wampum. You can use these items to customize your avatar, outfitting him with interesting clothes and hairstyles as well as weapons and special items to help you win gun fights. If you need more wampum, you can purchase it for real world money from the iTunes store.

Each gun fight that you go through uses up a point of energy. When you run out, you have to wait some time for your energy levels to go up. Alternatively, you may buy and consume items that replenish your energy, but these items can only be bought with wampum. There really isn’t enough depth to this game for most players to play over long stretches of time anyway, so requiring players to take a break when their avatar gets tired isn’t a bad idea.

Room for Improvement

If there’s one quibble to be had with this game, it’s that all the avatars are male. There is no option to choose a female avatar and outfit her with women’s clothing. Consequently, the game misses out on an opportunity for hilarity by allowing players to cross-dress their avatars.

Conclusion

In summary, High Noon is proof that games do not need complex mechanics to be superb. It may be simple to play, but the challenge of tilting your iPhone to aim your weapon packs a lot of fun.