Hands on with Bailout Bonanza on iPhone
Change you can believe in
Bailout Bonanza literally cashes in on rising populist sentiment against greed in business on a device made by a Fortune 500 company.
It's a deliciously ironic point and one that only fuels the novel appeal of this intentionally cheesy game. More a timely political commentary in the vein of an Iraqi shoe-tossing title than an epic 3D blockbuster, it's a simple and unobtrusive game that makes more use of the handset's touchscreen and accelerometer than half the App Store.
The concept is basic: money falls from the top of the screen and it's up to you to catch it in your basket. You start with three baskets and earn an additional basket for every $2000 you accrue.
The game is organized into levels, each one increasing in difficulty with bills falling more frequently and faster. Fail to secure the money, however, and it goes right into the CEO's pocket. There are also random obstacles thrown into the mix, like shoes that destroy your basket.
Moving the basket is done in one of two ways: touch or tilt. Opting for touch controls means using a finger to slide the basket along the bottom of the screen.
The basket is pretty small: placing a finger over it obscures it from view. As such, it becomes as much a game of catching money as predicting exactly where the basket is.
A large basket would be ideal, not to make catching bills easier but to ensure that you can see the basket as you're sliding it across the screen.
Tilting grants an unobstructed view of your basket, but less precise control. It's overly sensitive, which causes the slightest tip of the handset to send the basket flying. This is great when you need to quickly move the basket to the edges of the screen, but frustrating when attempting to catch dollars falling near the center.
A calibration option for the tilt controls to allow customization of the sensitivity level is something we hope to see in the final release.
Geared to tap into the fashionable disdain over corporate greed, Bailout Bonanza clearly doesn't stake a claim as a grand adventure.
Instead, the same frivolity with which executives have frittered away millions manifests itself here in the form of casual play. Nonetheless, a few fixes are necessary before we can bank on this tongue-in-cheek game.
