Pocket God has enjoyed a certain amount of success for a number of years now, but we all know that a game has to keep up with the times, so today we decided to take a closer look at this fan favourite.
Pocket God is a drag-and-drop microgame which makes it a good choice for a time killer. There's no real story, no end goal to achieve and no levels of difficulties. Instead, up to six islanders per island, five different islands and a number of forces of nature are yours to control and manipulate.
This means that you can either allow the island inhabitants to feast on coconuts beneath a glorious sunset—or else to suffer a tyrant and being eaten up by a hoard of ants. For the little sadist in you: a poor islander can be scooped up and spun whirled through the air or gobbled up by shark and you can create an earthquake by giving the device a good shake. Not only can you navigate (manipulate?) the island dwellers, you also control the weather and even gravity. Just swipe you finger across the display and the nice blue skies turn cloudy and grey. If that isn't enough misery for you, you can always zap the islanders with bolts of lightning.
There are five islands overall, and each island has its own conditions and combinations of options. It would take ages to list all the options—and discovering said options is half the fun, so I won't say another word.
The game also harbours several mini games à la Doodle Jump and Line Runner.
As mentioned above, the idea behind this game is an interesting one—interestingly wicked! While characters do respond to evil deeds with shock, fear, etc., there doesn't seem to be an AI at play.
The graphics are cute (goggley eyes, cartoon style), but the app itself is quite sadistic if I'm being honest. Almost every action is destined to torture the characters as there are only a few options to do them a good turn rather than traumatise them. Now, we could get into a lengthy discussion about the moral repercussions of creating cutesy games that are truly quite evil, so feel free to voice your opinions in the comments section below, or in the forum. For now let's simply agree that 'life is a game'...
Bottom line:
Pocket God is a fun game for when you're looking to kill a bit of time, especially for anyone who's ever fantasised about controlling the weather and all that. The app has undergone a ton of updates that have really turned it into a fun (albeit evil) companion to have on one's Android device.
Update. Support bolt creative