Whack Attack! Games contains two iPhone/iPod Touch games to choose from. The first game is Blast-a-mole and the second choice is Memory Attack. Blast-a-mole is very similar to the arcade game whack a mole, but in Blast-a-mole you need to hit moles with targets on their bodies and not every mole that pops out of a hole. Memory Attack is similar to Simon. Players have to remember the pattern of colors that light up and press them in that order.

Blast-a-mole may sound like a simple game, but it can be challenging. Players get three lives, which are represented by hearts. Three lives basically means you get three times you can hit a mole without a target on it before the game ends. The goal of the game is to accumulate as many points as possible by hitting moles. The game gets tricky by delaying when some of the targets are placed on the moles. Moles will pop up out of the hole and, initially, have no target on them and all of a sudden you look again and there is a target on the mole. Much like the big box version at the arcade, players have to hit the moles before they retreat back into their holes.

Believe it or not, there are levels in Blast-a-mole. The levels start out fairly simple to give you a chance to get use to the game play. As the levels progress, there are more holes that moles pop out of and the graphics get brighter and busier, which makes it harder to see the targets on the moles. Eventually, players have to turn the iPhone/iPod Touch horizontally to allow for more holes on the screen. The more holes on the screen the harder it is to hit all of the moles that pop up.

Memory Attack brought back great nostalgia for me. My favorite game growing up was a game called Simon. For those less fortunate people that did not grow up in the Simon era, Simon was a plastic toy that contained four different colored lights. Players had to hit the lights in the order the game did. Basically, you had to watch the pattern, memorize it and then repeat it. Memory Attack is the same game only the lights are on the iPhone/iPod Touch screen and not a plastic device. There are four lights, red, green, blue and yellow. Players have to hit the lights in the order they saw them light up. There is a sound that accompanies the light, which makes it a bit easier to remember the pattern. Players can use both senses, sight and sound, to remember the pattern.

Points are not the only goal for both games. As a side bonus, players earn tickets by playing the games. The tickets can be used to buy different themes and sounds for the two games. If players can manage to save enough tickets, they can purchase another game as well. Players have to accumulate 5,000 tickets to open the third game.

The graphics are great for both games. The moles are clear and the target can be seen easily, except in the harder levels, but that is done on purpose to make it more challenging. The lights on Memory Attack are bright and when the light lights up there is a swirl that goes across the light making it easy to discern the light is on.

Whack Attack! Games offers a lot of fun and challenge. Players get two games for the price of one. Whack Attack! Games is a great way to pass the time and well worth the $1.99.

We got an opportunity to talk with Kane Minkus, Managing Partner at SomaTone Interactive Audio, about their specialized team of individuals whom put the sound into many of the games we play. Casual games from Peggle, Azada, Chocolatier, Diner Dash and literally dozens more to console titles like Assault Heroes 2, Luxor and American Idol. SomaTone has their beautiful music in the MMO game market as well with World of Warcraft, Pirates of the Burning Sea and many more.

They construct the wonderful music that sets the stage for many game genres and add dynamics to an otherwise plain world of beeps and bleeps. Kane Minkus had plenty to say about the game industry, casual games and where we’ll see audio going in the future. His answers will make you stop and listen to the music…

Since the invention of the 16-bit console game, we’ve had huge leaps in graphic capabilities. Today, Sony and Microsoft over-hype their graphic intensive systems, how important is the audio component to video games?

Audio is an incredibly important aspect to any multimedia or interactive experience. Let’s take an extreme example – next time you are playing a game, turn the volume off completely and notice the difference of your experience of this game – is it better or worse? Are you more engaged or less?

Now, usually it is not a question really of whether audio should be there or not be there in games, but the real dividing line comes when a judgment call has to be made about whether or not to invest in a great team to produce great audio. The difference between top notch audio and just ok audio will have the same net affect on the users experience.

To test that theory, next time you are playing a game, put on high school marching band music while you are playing and notice the difference in experience you have. In fact, changing the audio track to a picture changes the experience to something so dramatically different that this technique is used in therapy. If you want to change the experience of some event that has happened to you in the past, in your minds eye, replay the whole event and run a different soundtrack behind it (in your head) and instantly the experience will change. This is how powerful audio is in determining the experience of something.

Are there any genre’s of games that benefit more from high quality audio? RPG’s for instance?

Well, every game benefits from an appropriate and high quality soundtrack, and the genre and quality of writing will determine the value of the audio. For example, a fun casual game, for example a time management game, should in no way be given a dramatic RPG soundtrack.

Unless of course, that was the intended experience the producer wants. And that’s the great part about audio – you can tell so much story with the music in the instrument choices, dynamics and melodic/harmonic choices. Each game should have a well crafted soundtrack. Even the sound effects (SFX) can give you a much better experience based upon the way they create the realism of an animated object – choices in material, dynamics and progression through a SFX can tell so much about what the animation is on the screen.

What genre of game has your team really loved to work on?

Genre is not so important to us as much as games that are willing to take risks with the audio and really tell a story. So much can be done with audio to differentiate one game from the next that we love working on games where we have more creative freedom to go a little out of the expected ordinary approach. More and more games are doing this.

Do gamers actually buy sound tracks for video games as a secondary purchase?

LOL – it is funny that you ask that! We have sold a couple soundtracks separately and in online games recently. I would have to say at the moment, they seam to not be buying the soundtracks that much. Occasionally, a really definitive soundtrack connects with an audience and sells like hotcakes, but on average, I can not say it is something users buy. This is a shame from our perspective, as some of the music for games is absolutely extraordinary works of art on their own.

For example we released three soundtracks this year that were recorded with the Berlin Film Orchestra, an incredible orchestra that records all the film music coming out of Berlin.

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