Playing Ant Smasher for an Icky Fun Time

Combining aspects of the high-quality touch screen interface of the iPhone with the hidden urge in people to break things, developers have come up with a game app to satisfy this need for aggression. Ant Smasher potentially draws out the beast in the user with its simple yet smashingly fun gameplay.

The simple goal of the player is for him or her to smash ants crawling across the screen with the finger. Something to chuckle about is the squeamishly comical sound made whenever an ant is reduced to a yellowish smear on the screen with every smash. The game begins with two lives for the player, with one deducted for every ant that scurries its way successfully across the screen, or meets up with the occasional bee.

The bees provide an additional dimension to Ant Smasher’s gameplay. Like the ants, these bees move across the screen albeit at a more random pattern than the ants. Any attempt to squash the bee will instead result in it stinging the player, losing one life in the process. Alternatively, allowing contact between bee and ant will result in the lost of one life as well. The lively confusion this brings to the screen literally crawling with insects serves only to enhance the challenging and addictive gameplay.

Players may mistake Ant Smasher for a very simple game, but in fact the ant-smashing campaigns become progressively more difficult with each level. Earlier stages have only ants crawling the screen one at a time, which can rapidly grow to several and to literal armies of the creatures, who also become faster and more unpredictable in their walking patterns as the players level up. Ironically, difficulties in efficient ant-smashing are resolved through another type of smashing. Help can be had in the form of occasional power-up items which the player acquires by finger-smashing them as well, providing him or her with bonuses like extra lives.

Easy playability and the fun factor of the ant-smearing mayhem makes Ant Smasher an instant favorite with kids of all ages and casual players alike. A minor item in the wish list is for the game to have its own non-scoring version for iPhone users wanting to do trial play, but even so the full game combines fast-pace action with engaging gameplay that will have players glued to their iPhones for hours on end.

Ant Smasher is a guaranteed mainstay in App Store, having everything that makes apps hit it with users. It provides an easy learning curve for beginners, becoming progressive sharper for more experienced players. With realistically icky graphics cleverly employed with the quaintness of the theme, smashing ants had never been this fun. The player experience satisfies killer instincts without rating for a violent mature game. Those wishing to get an adequate feel for Ant Smasher can avail of the free version, but for a 99-cent price tag the game holds enough excitement for users to make a full-version purchase.