Game Reviews

Neurokult

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iOS
| Neurokult
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Neurokult
|
iOS
| Neurokult

"Ah," I thought, as Neurokult's trippily futuristic intro screens flitted by, backed by pattering ambient electronica. "This is going to be some kind of zen-like virtual stress ball."

After all, this is a game that boasts a 'sonic art' designer, and which offers an 'enhanced experience with headphones.' All the signs pointed to blissful trance.

Don't you believe it.

Blissful ignorance

Neurokult is one of those games that leaves you fearing for your health. So stressful and manic does it get that I half expected to collapse with an aneurysm during one especially tense level.

But then every level is especially tense in Neurokult. This unholy amalgam of Fruit Ninja, Ikaruga, and Rez has you touching coloured orbs as they scroll onto the screen, 'derezzing' them before they can escape off the opposite side.

Prior to touching these orbs you must switch the screen to the associated colour using a strip of buttons along the left-hand side of the display. You can also chain together multiple orbs of the same colour by touching and dragging between them.

It's a very simple control system, but it's soon complicated by the introduction of bomb-like orbs that will detonate if touched, spelling instant game over.

Orb-ital bypass

With the screen rapidly filling up with orbs of all colours, it becomes a frantic game of putting out fires in a bid to survive each level's countdown timer.

If the game has one flaw it's the sheer one-note intensity of its gameplay. It's absorbing and responsive, but it can also be enormously wearing, to the point that playing any more than a couple of levels at a time is unthinkable.

Even the introduction of new elements - a drop to just two colours rather than three, or a pesky security node that ambles around a level - offers small respite from the game's relentless onslaught.

Neurokult is a game for those with equally high quantities of dexterity and bloody-minded resilience. It soothes the senses with its lovely electronic soundtrack before socking you in the temple with its frantic gameplay.

It's fun, then, but not for everyone - least of all those with high blood pressure or a weak heart.

Neurokult

A cool, responsive and remarkably stressful arcade tapping game that only really has one nerve-shredding trick - but it plays it well
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.