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Probably my favorite game coming out of PAX Prime 2012 was a small mobile game called Catch 22. I hesitate to only title it as a mobile download when there is also a PC/Mac version of the game as well as an app on Facebook.
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Catch 22 is developed by Mango Down, an independent game company based in Utrecht, The Netherlands and consists of three guys: Roel Bartstra, Guus Hoeve and Marlon Etheredge. These guys met at the Global Game Jam this year and created the first version of Catch 22 in the 48 hour time slot. After this they went on to win multiple awards and have released the full iOS version of the game yesterday.
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The premise of Catch 22 starts off with something simple: avoid the other ball. You play as one color of these circling orbs and you need to jump over the counter-orbiting sphere when it gets close. Simple enough. In order to progress in levels and score, you need to collect coins that float just above your head. Jumping into them, and out of the way of your one enemy, is the key to the game.
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This concept is simple and brief and because of that, it works perfectly for the handheld device. What I personally found so intriguing about the game is that I'm terrible at it. I'm really bad. The core difficulty in Catch 22 is that once you've collected all of the coins, you take control of the opposing orb and your initial orb will repeat all the moves you just did. Now you need to focus on avoiding the enemy (which is a ghost version of your previous self) while trying to collect coins and increase your score. This requires a good level of concentration and a level of remembrance of what you just did.
Being completely honest, I'm really bad at remembering what I just did.
It's quite interesting that your own moves become your only enemy and I quickly found myself dredding the return of that orb around the centralised sphere. Avoiding my past self became a mini victory in itself; only to quickly be taken away when my enemy came around again while I frantically tried to remember if he'll plan to jump up, or stay on track.
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What I like so much about Catch 22 is just how much detail has been put into what is such a perfect pick-up-and-play game. The learning curve is incredibly minimal but the amount of brain power required to be any good is high. It's a wonderful contrast.
I highly recommend picking up Catch 22 on the App Store if you haven't already. Or, if you're more interested in the free PC/Mac versions of the game you can find them through the developer's site and even on Facebook. If you're interested in the guys behind Mango Down, look into their Twitter page.
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