Can You Collect 15 Coins? No, Probably Not [Review]

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15 Coins

15 Coins is hard. Alright, that was the shortest review I’ve ever written. I’ll be back Monday.

15 Coins by Engaging Games
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad
Price: $0.99 (promotional price; reg. $1.99)

Apparently, my editor refuses to pay me for three sentences, so I guess I’ll elaborate.

15 Coins is an arcade avoidance game where you’re trying to collect the eponymous pick-ups before you run into a past version of yourself and explode. Probably because of a paradox or whatever happened to Ron Silver at the end of Timecop. Actually, I think the game calls your pursuers “drones,” but they look like you and follow the same path you did, so I’m just going to go ahead and call time travel on this one. The point is that it’s difficult.

You can either tilt to move your guy, or you can turn left or right by touching those sides of the screen. I had much better control using the touch controls, but that came at the price of my thumbs blocking my view.

This problem compounds because 15 Coins plays in portrait, which means that you have even less room to work with if you’re not playing on an iPad. Actually, hang on. I’m going to try something.

*Hold music*

Alright, I’m back. With findings.

Here’s the best control scheme: Hold your phone sideways with the lock switch up, and then you can basically fake a landscape mode (just place your left thumb higher on the screen). Until the developers add a real one, this will get you by.

Your only help — other than mad skills — comes from power pellets that freeze your past selves so that you can destroy them, kind of like in Pac-Man. And that’s a paradox, so maybe they’re drones, after all.

15 CoinsGame Name: : 15 Coins
The Good: Lots of challenge, rounds are over in a matter of seconds, so you can play pretty quickly.
The Bad: Needs a proper landscape mode, and the power pellets always wear off exactly half a second before I take out a drone. Stupid pellets.
The Verdict: It’s not deep, but it will give you a quick fix of arcade-style action and frustration.
Buy from: App Store – 15 Coins – Engaging Games

[rating=game4]

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