Tribal 2 App Review

by Mentos

Introduction

Tribal is a pretty simple shoot-the-target type game. It is similar to a lot of games found at amusement parks or fairs. Targets show up on the screen, and you have to tap them to shoot them. You can shoot up to five targets at once with multi-touch, but if you accidentally shoot a bomb, you lose a life. It can be purchased in the app store for $3.99.

Overview

When you first open up this app, you will see this loading screen:

Followed by a screen with some basic instructions:

You can also select a language from the above screen by tapping one of the four flags on the bottom. After you tap somewhere besides on the flags, you will be brought to the level selection screen.

Tapping on the tutorial will take you to a quick tutorial on how to play the game. Easy and Normal are both the “Story” mode of the game on different difficulties, and the arcade mode is just shooting targets and avoiding the bombs.

Storyline

I am going to start off the review with the weakest part of the game. The storyline. Honestly, the story in this game is awful. It is so predictable, and doesn’t match with the game at all. For instance, Here is the first “cutscene” from the game. 

Now, this would make perfect sense. Except for the fact that the cutscene does not explain the bombs at all. Plus, when you “touch the buckets,” it makes a gunshot noise and leaves a bullet hole. 

It does not make any sense that you would be shooting the buckets that you are trying to bail out your boat with. The rest of the story line is pretty much the same – shooting life guard rings to stay afloat or shooting natives to keep them away. The story line in this game is very much lacking.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Tribal 2 definitely makes up for the lack of story line. Although it does get very repetitive (shooting targets every level) it still manages to stay quite entertaining. It’s a lot of fun to show off to your friends, and play when you are stuck in boring situations. I always enjoy games like this, because you can fool around with them for a little bit without being stuck in the middle of something when you have to turn off your phone. In a lot of the adventure games for the iPhone/iPod Touch you can’t save until reaching certain checkpoints, and it is very annoying to have to redo parts of the game. The “arcade” mode in this game makes it so you can play as much as you want without having to redo parts.

Graphics

Tribal 2 is a target-shooting game. It does not need to have very good graphics to stay fun and interesting. But surprisingly, the graphics are quite appealing. The targets are very well made, and the backdrops in each level are very interesting to look at and can really change the whole mood of the game. From the dark stormy backdrops to the sunny island ones, this game never ceases to amaze. 

Conclusion

Overall, this game is a ton of fun. Even though the story line is highly lacking, the great graphics and gameplay surely make up for it. When I have some free time, this is one of the first games I whip out. Especially if I don’t know how much time I am going to have before I have to turn off my iPhone. I just turn this game on arcade mode, and if I suddenly have to turn it off, I can quickly hit the home button and then turn off my phone without feeling like I have missed anything, or need to redo something. At only $3.99 this game is a steal. I give it an 8/10 for great gameplay, graphics, and endless fun.