KiloMania – Review
By App Type: Uncategorized
Our rating: 
By: KiloMania
Version #: 1.1
Date Released: 2008-10-29
Developer: Pavel Klinkov
Price: 0.99
User Rating:
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Kilomania has 1’s and 0’s in abundance, and being somebody who studied these elements of data communications for an entire semester back in college, I found this app quite intriguing. I was really drawn to it and expected it to be really good. But then I saw that the binary digits don’t actually amount to something really significant to the app, except perhaps to make the game look more interesting with its setting that involves so-called high-speed data transmission. That’s when I thought that Kilomania is just okay.
As its premise goes, the goal is to transmit the most amount of data in the form of 1’s and 0’s. I was thinking along the lines of using my knowledge of the binary number system, turning to logic, and encountering terms such as bits, nibbles and bytes to do this, but it turned out I was just stretching my expectations a little too far. What to actually do is stack horizontal bars consisting of square blocks that are each marked with either a 1 or a 0. You start off with a bar of ten blocks positioned at the bottom of the screen while a similar bar hovers above it. Then you tap anywhere on the screen at the exact moment that the whole of the hovering bar is right on top of the stationary bar. Otherwise, the blocks at either end of the hovering bar that happen to be out of place gets detached. Then a new hovering bar appears. Its length is the same as that of the previous one after the out-of-place blocks, if any, have been removed. Again, you’d have to place this bar exactly on top of the bar below it so as not to lose any more blocks. When you have stacked enough bars to account for about three-fourths of the height of the game environment, the construction collapses so that only the topmost bar is left at the bottom, and you’d have to build another stack. After every collapse, the hovering blocks begin to move at a faster rate, but I noticed they always stop for a very short while every time the background music loops regardless of their current speed. The game ends when you are left with no bar or block to work with.
Since the app did not have a tutorial or a help section, I had to figure the aforementioned out for myself. At first I thought of placing the hovering bar on top of the stationary one so that blocks of the same bit (1 or 0) are adjacent to each other. But when I did that, I saw the end blocks coming off and before I knew it the game was over. So I tried what the developer could have easily devoted a small help section for and finally got it right.
Somewhat eminiscent of the classic Tetris, Kilomania is a very, very simple game. All you have to be concerned about is tapping the screen at the right time — nothing about the 1’s and 0’s. You can take away the data transmission contrivance without taking away anything from the game as far as gameplay is concerned. But you’ll come to realize in the end that the binary digits serve as seemingly high-tech decorations in an otherwise plain-looking game.
Quick Take
Value: ‘0’ for low
Would I Buy Again: ‘0’ for no
Learning Curve: ‘1’ for a bit high; no tutorial or help section
Who Is It For: People who like bar-stacking games
What I Like: The use of 1’s and 0’s
What I Don’t: No tutorial or help section, hovering bar chokes every time music loops, the use of 1’s and 0’s for no gameplay-related reason
Final Statement: Kilomania is a terribly simple game riding on so-called high-speed data transmission to sell itself. But for the most part, it’s okay.
My Rating: 2/5
O U R T A K E . . .
