Developer: Golden Gear Inc
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad
The premise behind Seraph is actually quite endearing. From every wish made a star is born, but that star needs dreams to help it survive and grow. Forgoing any sort of weaponry or violent conduct, the player’s task is to control a falling star, helping it collect dreams whilst avoiding the nasty nightmares that plague the land.
Behind the story, Seraph is all about chasing high scores. The level scrolls constantly to the right as the screen is bombarded with all sorts of objects. Dreams, which take on the form of dots coloured blue, are essential for the star to survive, and every one collected adds to the star meter at the bottom of the screen, as well as earning the player points. Then there are the nightmares, which are coloured red. Collecting these corrupts the star, causing the star meter to reduce which generally means game over if it happens too often. The effects of nightmares can be negated by quickly hunting down some dreams.
At points the star can be upgraded, which means that when a particularly large nightmare comes flying past the player can slow time and use the ‘cleanse’ ability to turn the nightmare into a dream, along with a healthy boost in points. The aim is to get as far as possible, earning as many points as possible.
Seraph gives the player the choice of using either tilt or touch controls. Choose touch and the star is controlled via a virtual pad, while tilt requires the device to be moved in the direction the star needs to go. Touch controls work perfectly, but tilt never felt particularly responsive.
Graphically, while never dazzling, Seraph is certainly interesting enough to hold the player’s attention, with an interesting background effect. The audio also suits the game very well, with chanting, stringed instruments and drums all building in intensity the further the player progresses through a level.
Seraph is certainly a good game. While those looking for variety might come away disappointed, fans of beating high scores will definitely find much to enjoy as things do get pretty intense.