Nimble Strong: A Great Mixer of Anime and Alcohol for the iPhone

Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 15, 2010 in Videogames |

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

Nimble Strong is a new bar-tending themed game for the iPhone which combines the charm of an old school Nintendo role playing game with an otaku-friendly anime art direction style. However unlike so many Nintendo DS games where you’re challenged with a unrelated quiz at every turn (like Professor Layton) what makes the gameplay here so wonderful is that to advance in the game you have to mix a drink. And you’re not just blindly clicking on a tumbler to score points, but actually learning to bartend as you go along:

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

At first you start out slow with basic drinks, but as the game advances the mixology becomes more advanced as you go. The result is that you’re not just playing a game but learning a skill that may be applied in the real world. I should also note that the design of the game really takes advantage of the iPhone touch screen:

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

What I also enjoyed about this game is that while many iPhone games are either ports from another platform or very casual and light weight, Nimble Strong went quite deep: In other words you could really spend more than a few quality hours playing this game. Another nice aspect of the game is that you meet a nice array of interesting characters, and while they may not be deep they’re always entertaining and feature an anime look that reminds me of a dating sim game in a good way. And as silly as the dialog gets, it’s always charming:

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

Nimble Strong: A game for the iPhone

In many ways Nimble Strong reminded me a great deal of what I loved about Iron Chef in that the developers took their passion for mixology and created a entertaining way to draw you virtually into the very complex world of cocktails. In fact I think a hallmark of the game is that it’s just as entertaining to lose a round and you want to keep coming back for more. And even after a few minutes you start to really learn something that can be applied to your actual real world social life.

Disclaimer: I actually know the producer of this game (Adam Ghahramani) very well — although that’s all the more reason that I’d be a hard ass on this review! You see Adam runs theotaku.com so if this game was in any way unworthy I’d be giving him grief about it because as I know that he’s a fanboy my level of expectations are much higher. I should also note that I actually paid for my copy of the game to make sure I had that extra bit of objectivity about the price point (which was well worth it).

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