The Good

unique and fun gameplay no other game in App Store like this one.

The Bad

No multiplayer, only 15 levels, game can be completed in 30 minutes.

Bottom Line

A blast from the past, Cannon Challenge brings back the fun of artillery games, and it's free, so why not give it a try.

Rating

Genre: Artillery, Strategy

Release Date: Aug 4, 2008

Developer: Discovery

Publisher: Discovery

Version: 1.0

Price: Free

An age old classic makes it’s first appearance on the iPhone. It’s been years since I’ve played any artillery games, the last time I encountered one was in grade school. As a reward for finishing class work early we’d get some time to play games like Oregon Trail and the artillery game. I never imagined I’d ever return to such a simple game and actually enjoy it, but in fact I actually did thanks to Cannon Challenge.

Each level contains various structures and enemies that need to be disposed of by firepower, I wouldn’t have it any other way, god forbid they ever make a game called Diplomacy where all you do is shake hands with everyone. You adjust your shot by changing the elevation and velocity, you can think of elevation as the angle you are firing at and velocity as the speed the projectile travels at.

You can’t really beat the game by only adjusting one of the two variables, you’ll need both at different parts of the game in order to advance. In later stages the game becomes more challenging with the addition of moving targets, such as helicopters and missile silos. The helicopters hover up and down continuously making them hard to hit directly with horizontal shots, it’s usually better to max out your elevation and adjust velocity, so that your shots land almost vertically, with this method there is no way the helicopter can dodge your shot. The missile silos are another story, they’re all about timing, they lower into the ground and resurface in a cycle.

The game is quite short but extremely enjoyable to play, especially since the game is free, which just sweetens the deal. I’m not sure if this game will remain free, it’s been a common practice among developers to make their games free when the game is initially released to gather a good number of reviews and downloads and then add a price tag later on, while retaining their high App Store ranking, which allows them to leap frog over other paid apps. So don’t waste time if you are even remotely interested in this game, grab the game early on while it’s still free.

The game consist of 15 levels, I was able to clear them in 20 minutes. The good combination of graphics, sound effects and vibration feedback really brings the game to life, it definitely has a polished feel to it. Now if only someone could make a multiplayer version similar to Gunbound then we’d be in business, I mean the iPhone is always connected to the Internet anyways, so why not?

App Store Link: Cannon Challenge