Do you like to watch things explode? Boy, have I got an app for you…
Whether you’re waiting in line at the DMV or on a seven hour red-eye flight with a screaming baby, sometimes you just want to kill time by blowing stuff up. Enter, Demolition Master HD for iPad, a game that allows you to act as a dynamite expert in a world where the only reason buildings exist is for you to make them crumble.
This isn’t a bad thing. The physics engine in Demolition Master HD feels accurate. You place a few sticks of dynamite at various points in a steel structure, and then, when you feel you’re placed enough for the desired result, you detonate them. Either the building crumbles to the designated height and you win, or it doesn’t, and you lose. That’s it. Occasionally you must strategize because there are “out of bounds” zones on either side of the structure you’re trying to fell (maybe there’s another building there? No idea. It’s invisible.), and you have to avoid letting the building beams crumble into that zone. This is the hardest part of the game. In fact, sometimes, it’s too hard. But what’s a game without a challenge?
There a few different stages (Earth, the Moon, Mars…), and each stage has many, many levels. Never mind the fact that dynamite wouldn’t work the same way in space. That’s not a problem you need to concern yourself with. Your only concern should be demolishing buildings, and that’s what you’ll be doing. Every level. Over and over and over again. Which is to say, the game is ridiculously repetitive. Some levels are harder than others, but, all in all, you’re blowing up buildings. That’s it. The graphics feel a little rudimentary, and the change in backgrounds between levels or stages isn’t enough to make you feel like you’re doing anything different from building to building. It’s just “see building, place dynamite, hope for the best.” Maybe this is exactly what you want. But I got bored. Where are the boss buildings? The King Koopa of steel structures? Why can’t I be blowing up buildings in order to save a princess or at least win some kind of medal?
Still, even though it’s about as thrilling as washing dishes, there’s something almost zen about Demolition HD. You can take all the time you want placing the dynamite, and sometimes you’ll spend your entire commute trying to level the same building, shifting your blasts millimeters away from where they were the last time you failed. You can log in to Apple’s Game Center to compare scores with your friends, but you can’t really play head to head and see who is the fastest demolition expert of them all. Again, Demolition Master HD is a simple game with a simple goal: Blow stuff up. And sometimes that’s all you really want.
Demolition Master HD is available on the App store for both iPad and iPhone, and is dangerously close to being worth the $1.99 it costs to download.
App Store: $1.99
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