Endless runner games are fun to play and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. If you are looking for a game that is fast-paced and a little different, Noodles Now is a game to consider. Accessible from either your iPhone or iPad, it puts a new twist on the runner game with controls that are a little different and puts you in an environment that is a mixture of fun and adventure.
Noodle Now is set in some futuristic place, maybe a different planet, and you are a noodle delivery person. You sit on a what seems like a motorbike, and it may even be a hoverbike, and traverse the town to deliver orders and pickup tips. Each town is located under a dome and the roadways are on a grid-based system. The motorbike will move forward all on its own. You don’t have to press down on anything, which also means you can’t control the speed. The control you do have is when to take turns: left, right or U-turns.
When you startup the game, you will see a quick and informative tutorial that describes the environment, what your mission is, and how to control the motorbike. The game is designed well as it allows for both left- and right-handed people to play comfortably. I say this because you can choose you want your control zone to be in. By control zone, I mean an area of the screen, just to the left or ride of your rider, where you will swipe to take turns.
To turn left, you swipe left, to turn right you swipe right. The U-turns are basically the equivalent of-drawing an upside-down ‘U’. Looking at the roadways up close, you will see that there are tracks over which the motorbike travels and these tracks will turn left or right or go straight. To help with navigation, the app provides a nice viewing window that shows where you are in the city relative to the next delivery destination. This helps guide you towards that spot in the quickest way.
As you pass the delivery point, you will score points in the form of tips. Your goal is to fulfill each delivery as they pop up by getting to it fast. Initially, when you start to play, the roads will be free from diversions and obstacles, making it fairly easy to get around. As you move up in levels and to different cities, you will see the game start to get more challenging, and it won’t be a straight line to the delivery point; you will see more traffic, different road layouts, and more, which makes sense because you want a little variety in the game.
The one thing I found annoying was that every once in a while, even though I had not swiped the motorbike would take a turn, even though the road was going straight (i.e. there was no forced reason to turn).
I enjoyed playing Noodles Now because it offered a different type of game playing scenario than what I’ve seen in other runner type games. No chasing or running from something; just a simple game where you need to deliver some food and collect on your tips!
Rating: 8.5/ 10
Price: Free
