Tablets such as those from Apple, RIM and
Google have slowly but surely become a household item these days. Although
faced with scepticism at first, sales of these tablets are now on its all-time
high. Directly proportional to this sales stats are the number of apps that are
available for download for these devices.
However, a lot of people don’t know that
there are apps and games readily available for download that are made by
Filipinos. And even less people know that some of these games were designed to
reflect the culture and lifestyle found in the Philippines. A good example of
such game is Grillin’ Pablo.
Fortunately, Icannhas, the developer of
Grillin’ Pablo, was generous enough to give me a copy of the game. So, After a
few days of fiddling with the game, here’s what I have to say about it.
THE
STORY BEHIND THE GAME
The opening credits of the game reveal the
storyline that the game follows. That is, you play the role of Pablo’s
childhood friend who vows to take revenge on him for humiliating you when you
were still young.
A few years later, Pablo is now a street
food vendor and you plan to settle your score with him by building your own
food cart business and giving him a run for his money. Set on Sunnyvale – a
fictional neighbourhood, your goal is to cook an array of street foods, from
fish balls to isaw, in order to “Grill” Pablo and (possibly) push him to
bankruptcy.
GAMEPLAY
Grillin’ Pablo is your typical management
game but with a Filipino flavour. Players start off with the basic cooking
equipment (a grill) and one food item (isaw). The goal is to serve as many
customers as possible within a given time frame without disappointing them.
Each customer then pays you coins of a specific amount based on what kind and
how many items they received. These coins in return are used to purchase items
and allow you to cook more items for incoming buyers.
As you progress along the game and as you
amass more coins, you will be able to buy upgrades to your food cart and
additional food items that have higher coin return values. Just like any other
time management games, there is a goal in terms of the number of coins you have
to collect for each round in order to proceed to the next level. If you exceed
this goal, you get bonus points for that round, while failure to meet the goal
would mean that you have to redo that level.
WHAT’S
NICE
As I said earlier, Grillin’ Pablo is a time
management game with a Filipino twist, and as such, it features a lot of things
related to Filipino culture. For starters, you get to sell your favourite street
foods, like isaw, fish balls and gulaman.
Furthermore, the customers featured in the
game reflect a lot of Pinoy traits and characteristics. There’s a boy next door
student, a serious professor that makes the students anxious, a jogger who just
wants to quench his thirst and a social climber female student are some of the
characters one will meet while playing the game.
And if that’s not enough, there’s even a
robber if you take too much time before collecting the customer’s payments. In
terms of visuals and sound, the game offers average to above average graphics,
which is to be expected in this game genre. Music and sound are average, with the
polyphonic background music providing that much needed accompaniment tune.
WHAT
NEEDS SOME WORK
There are actually only two things that I
didn’t quite like about Grillin’ Pablo. First is that the game seems to be
suffering from a mild case of identity crisis. The indeed has major Filipino
influences, but the stages in the game, like Sunnyville and Schmell Academy
sounds a little bit foreign. Malls and movie houses like the Tyna Malls and
DreamBig Cinemas stages also aren’t really places where you’d find a roving
food cart that sells isaw and fish balls right?
I’d probably understand the foreign
influence in the game if they are also targeting non-Filipino iPad users, but if that’s the case, then I don’t know why the
developers decided to put that weird voice-over before each level that says: “Hoy!
Magluto ka na”. I mean, if they’re targeting a more diverse audience, wouldn’t
English be a better choice?
The second thing that I think needs some
work in the game is the controls. For a time management game, dragging items
around the screen isn’t really a time saving way of playing the game. It also
makes it difficult to see incoming customers especially if your hand is
blocking the view while you’re putting sauce in an isaw you just cooked. Maybe
future updates can make use of tapping rather than dragging items across the
screen.
FINAL
WORDS
The world of app development is indeed very
competitive. With lots of players in the market and various game genres to
choose from it’s very easy to get lost in the mix. However, it’s very nice to
know that there are still Filipino players in the brutal battlefield of apps.
Icannhas’s Grillin’ Pablo might not be the
perfect app but it sure does what it’s supposed to do. Yes, there are some
things that its developers may need to improve in future updates of the game,
but all in all, it is quite an enjoyable experience playing the game.
For players who want that action-packed
scenes and gameplay, visually stunning graphics and deep storylines in their games, this app
might not be for you. But if you’re the kind of casual gamer who just wants to
kill some time, or if you’ve been a big fan of games like Cake Mania and Dinner
Dash, or better yet, if you’re feeling patriotic and wants to try out some
proudly Pinoy-made apps, then Grillin’ Pablo would be perfect. And at $0.99 in the Apple Appstore, it's one sweet deal for a great app.
GAME
RATING: 4 out of 5
