Quite new on the App Store is Launchball, a physics game that might look familiar to you if you’ve ever played the London Science Museum‘s online version.
The Museum has ported the web-based Flash game to the iPhone, with some help from Bright AI, and the result is lots of fun.
Like a lot of physics games, the aim is to get a moving ball from one point to another. In Launchball, you get blocks to move around, each block with different properties.
Some blocks conduct electricity, some don’t. Some are bouncy, some are sticky. Some do things when connected to a power supply. You get the idea. Here’s a tutorial video that shows it all in action:
Launchball is extra fun because it includes a level editor for you to build your own levels once you’ve completed all the supplied ones – and of course, you can share levels online and download new ones from the community. For a dollar, there’s a lot of playability in this app.
There’s also some education, too. Every time you complete a level, you’re rewarded with a (sometimes vaguely related) fact about science and physics.
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
