Android App Review: Safari! HD

Article first published as Android App Review: Safari! HD on Blogcritics.

Safari! HD is a pretty fun and addictive way to kill some time. This Android game stacks hexagonal images of safari animals’ faces across the screen, and the player gets points and/or time added to the clock by making a line with his or her finger across three or more connecting animals of the same type.

There are three different game modes in Safari! HD. In “Time Attack” mode, the goal is to get as many points as you can before your time runs out. “Survivor” mode operates with basically the same concept, but you can add additional time to the clock by getting more points. The “Endless” mode lets you play for as long as you like, as the title says, without end. The only way to stop the “Endless” mode is to voluntarily quit or to play until your battery dies.

In and of itself, Safari! HD is fairly entertaining. However, in addition to the game proper is the meta game–that is, the game outside the game, or in other words, the achievement system. Safari! HD participates with the mobile gaming community OpenFeint, which, if you are not familiar with it, has an achievement system similar to Xbox Live Achievements or PlayStation Trophies. As an achievement junkie, I have spent most of my time with Safari! HD hunting those achievements.

In addition to its partnership with OpenFeint, Grasslandgames, the developers of Safari! HD, have been wise to make multiple versions of the game. As you may know, Android runs on many different types of devices, some with a larger screen than others.To accommodate for the possible variations in players’ experience, there are two versions: Safari! HD, for phones with larger screens like the HTC EVO, and regular Safari!, for phones with smaller screens like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini. There is also a free trial version available: Safari! Lite.

For just over a buck, Safari! HD is a good app to pick up if you are in the market for a game.