Apple Arcade review #29: EarthNight
Back in the early days of the iPad, there was one game that got a lot of playtime on my tablet — mostly from my daughter, although I put in a few hours myself: Robot Unicorn Attack. There was something weirdly charming about that game, particularly the endlessly looping “Always”, by Erasure.
EarthNight reminded me a bit of Robot Unicorn Attack, even though it’s not an endless runner. I’m not sure exactly what it is. A transient runner? A 2D auto-run platformer? An occasional faller? You play a little girl (or old man!) who jumps into space and lands on dragons. You run along the top of the dragon, jumping to avoid (or bash) monsters and collecting treasure. Then you kill the dragon by absorbing (?) its essence (??), and jump back into space to find another dragon.
If there’s more to it, I never saw it.
There’s nothing wrong with EarthNight. It’s got a distinct, painterly style, 8-bitty music, and everything works well. I got bored quite quickly, but maybe, like my three-year old daughter with Robot Unicorn Attack, your child will stay glued to the screen for hours.