In Crash Dummy (out now, $2.99) by Immanitas Entertainment, you’ll play as Cid, a crash impact dummy (basically, a robot) dispatched on a mission by Professor Advisor. What Cid needs to do, ultimately, is save the professor’s daughter, who their archenemy, D-Troit, has kidnapped. Of course, before Cid can reach the professor’s daughter, he’ll have to sneak through hostile territory and battle belligerent bots.
At the start of the game and every level, you’ll be treated to a story, mostly featuring the evil acts of the bad guys. Within the game itself, dialogue between Cid and the professor furthers the story and also serves the dual purpose of providing you with instructions. The story and dialogue sequences are quite long, but you can skip them (probably not the dialogue, if you’re not certain what you’re supposed to do).
The levels, including the two tutorial levels, are lengthy and you’ll have to pass through several rooms. There is no game saving within a level, so you’ll have to keep the app running in the background if you wish to pause your play. You’ll start each level with three lives, but you can sometimes pick up more lives within the level. Cid’s health is represented by a battery, which will get depleted whenever he suffers damage. Certain hazards, such as green toxic liquids, can destroy him immediately. Other than that and enemy bots, you’ll have to watch out for moving and rotating blades, zapping electricity, purple jets of poisonous fumes, etc. To proceed from one platform or room to another, you’ll have to climb ladders, activate machines or other mechanisms to open locked doors and ride elevators.
What makes Crash Dummy especially fun are the great variety of actions Cid is capable of. Game controls include a virtual D-pad as well as attack and jump buttons. Through tap and swipe gestures, you can perform additional actions, such as dashing, readying a weapon, and activating a panic mode that blasts surrounding enemies with electromagnetic waves. By sliding the D-pad down, followed by left or right, you’ll enter stealth mode. You’ll need this to get past security cameras, for instance. In absence of a loaded weapon, Cid can punch his enemies — and break wooden crates, some of which will release battery boosts, ammo, and orbs.
Crash Dummy offers 16 levels, which will be unlocked one by one as you clear each preceding level. If you’re unsure whether you’re ready to dive right into the game, you can first download Crash Dummy Lite for a free trial.
iFanzine Verdict: Crash Dummy, which runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, is a challenging platformer that will keep you well entertained with a diverse range of actions. If you’re looking for more than just action, the game also offers a good storyline and puzzles to solve, since you’ll have to figure out what you’ll need to do in order to proceed to the next area. Personally, I found the story sequences and dialogue too lengthy, but it’s not a problem with the “skip” option included. The one thing that posed a bit of an issue for me was the absence of in-game saving, which wouldn’t be as bad if the levels were shorter.