Welcome to ‘iPhone Games iLike‘, Sarcastic Gamer’s resident iPhone feature, where many a game for the touchy, feely device are discussed in a banterous (if only that was a word) and informative manner.

At first glance, Trace may seem like a fairly standard platformer. There are no power-ups, no fancy effects and definitely no Tanooki suits. This is all sacrificed for the one thing that differentiates Trace from the slew of other platformers available on the iPhone: the ability to draw the platforms you walk on.

I bet you can't tell hich bit is the original level, and which but I drew.

You are put in the role of an unwitting stick-figure called Jim. Actually he isn’t called Jim (the game makes no reference to the character or his origins), but rather than refer to our intrepid two dimensional adventurer as ’stick-figure’, I figured (hey, hey!) that a charming moniker would be more fitting. Anyway, you control Jim on his insatiable quest to traverse single-screen levels, using three virtual buttons: left, right and jump. For a device with no physical controls, a platformer doesn’t seem the best fit, but let me put your qualms to rest by assuring you that Trace’s controls work…very well. Yet this virtual D-Pad is only half of the game: you can take full advantage of that gorgeous capacitive iPhone touchscreen, and draw, with your fingertips, an unlimited number of platforms to jump on. This is not an optional extra, but a sheer necessity if you want to complete any of the game’s 120 levels.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: you could theoretically draw genitalia.

Said levels are grouped into sets of 20, with 6 worlds in total. The different worlds, while varied on paper, don’t greatly affect the gameplay. If you happen to play a ‘Plant’ level instead of ‘Flame’ level, the only real change is the colour of the platforms you draw.

Each level is timed, but there’s little incentive to go back and try for a new highscore. The real crux here, is trying to complete all the levels, let alone set a top time. So far I have only managed to finished 59 stages and a quick traipse into the fifth and sixth worlds confirmed that I will never, ever, ever, finish Trace.

The game is a bit buggy at times, with Jim getting caught on the odd bit of scenery, and the graphics and animation are simplistic at best, but all this irrelevant, because I have yet to talk about this game’s best feature: it’s free.

Trace (Free):

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