Playman Track & Field- Impossibly Fun

Recently, RealArcade released another iPhone game: Playman Track & Field. It’s a heptathlon of sorts- for your iPhone and fingers. Your avatar competes either in solo events or in a tournament of 5 events against cartoon people from other countries (you can pick the country to represent in case you aren’t feeling terribly lovey-dovey with the stars and stripes). It’s a tap-style game so the more accurately and quickly you tap the touch screen, the better your character is going to do.

I played one round of each event and stumbled mightily. I’ve never played a tap game before and it took me a few tries to understand how the movement of the character is in direct correlation with how accurate your tapping skills are. I found the pole vault and javelin to be tough to beat in the Pro level. In fact, this is the first iPhone game where I find myself unable to beat a level I think I should be able to beat. I can play Fieldrunners all day long but know I’ll never win. I feel like I should be able to beat this and the fact that I’ve dedicated hours to conquering this task and have failed both frustrates and exhilarates me. How weird is that?

Back to the game. It’s got cute graphics and easy flow and it’s one of those games you can play for 60 seconds and then put down. Perfect for in between meetings, bus rides, lunch breaks or just a quick diversion. You can play for longer- and my experience has been the longer you play, the more likely you are to beat whatever challenge you’re having trouble with-but it’s not a game that requires a ton of attention. You can play in single player or multi-player mode. Multi-player mode works if you’ve got a bunch of people who want to play and all pass around the same device. It also works well for training purposes for all of the events, if you pit yourself against 5 other players that are all being controlled by you. I’m sure that’s not what it was intended for, but it works.

Playman Track & Field has gotten some great reviews, and it seems the reviewers echo the same sentiments as mentioned above. But read them for yourself to get a better idea at what the pros are saying! Oh, and if you can beat the javelin level in Pro, hit me up with some hints. I’m going crazy.

Slide to Play review

Pocket Gamer review (I seriously can’t believe they can’t beat the 100 meter dash. Dude, you guys are pros!)

Mobile Game FAQs review

Art of the iPhone review and video

Appcraver review