Gobliiins (yes, I spelled it right) is yet another early 90's point-and-click adventure game that has been ported to the iPhone. It was quite popular in its day, and the new version has brought back all of the fun and much of the pointless frustration of the original. It's a good buy at its current (introductory) price of $0.99, but don't even consider playing it without frequent use of its new Hints system. At least at first...
There is a decent screenplay to Gobliiins that tags along behind the 22 levels of puzzles. You probably won't pay too much attention to it, as you will be too busy trying to figure what to do next, but if you are interested... It is the story of Hooter, Dwayne, and Bobo, three Gobliiins -- hence the triple "i" -- on a quest to find a cure for what ails the Goblin King, Angoulafre. The poor king was set upon quite suddenly (by some jerk with a voodoo doll), and your three heroes are his light and hope.
Each of the goblins has a unique ability and function. There is a warrior who climbs and punches things, a technician who can pick things up and use them, and a magician who casts spells at things. Separate, they are doomed to failure. Together, they are the stuff of legends -- or at least the three pieces you will need to manoeuvre in order to solve each puzzle.
The puzzles are interesting, generally, but can be a bit overwhelming in the beginning. Without the hint system, it is highly unlikely that anyone would ever make it past the first two stages -- at least not without hurling one's iPhone through one's wall. Thankfully, the hints are not hints at all. They tell you exactly what you need to do next.
The point-and-click controls in Gobliiins are a little sloppy, as you are dealing with small characters and objects that were originally meant for a full-sized computer monitor. There are two options: touch only, and mouse-pointer. Touch allows you to poke your goblin of choice, and swipe around the screen for exclamation points (interactive objects) for him to travel to. This can be a bit frustrating, as you will often end up sending your goblins to the wrong place, or do something that will have them making cute, angry faces at you. Using the mouse pointer can give you a bit better accuracy, but... it's using a mouse pointer. That means it's a pain in your goblin butt.
The graphics and audio are cute and fun, in the cartoon-style that is so often used in games that are built on the ScummVM engine. They suit the story and the platform quite well -- but as I said before, you will probably forget about the story. None of the puzzles really seem to connect to it, and the game doesn't spend any degree of time trying to remind you of it. Regardless of the shortcomings of Gobliiins, it is still a fun game. The control difficulties are not a killer, and the hint system gives you the puzzle answers when you get tired of trial and error with your three heroes. If you are a fan of point and click adventures, you could definitely do worse than picking this one up -- especially for the current price tag of $0.99 (v1.1, Nov. 19, 2010). 3.5 out of 5.
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