Updated:Etch-E-Toy Game Review

[Rating:4stars]

Etch-E-Toy as  you may have been able to guess is the WP7 version of etch a sketch. You know, that extremely popular toy that let you turn some knobs and etch a drawing into the screen. This app works pretty much the same. You use the screen to rotate the knobs and make your drawing. There really isn’t more of a description that can be given.

This Etch-E-Toy app works well. I saw no issues with the functionality. I admit though that I have always been terrible with this type of toy and playing with this app was no different. Although I know my shortcomings with this type of game I do know that this app functioned much like the original Etch-A-Sketch with a few digital improvements. One of the things I viewed as an improvement is the ability to save your etch. In the original you naturally had to erase your sketch before being able to do another one. With this app you can save your picture so all the time and patience put into one of these sketches doesn’t have to be in vain. Also included in this app is the ability to undo. In the original if you made a mistake you would have to start all over again. This app gives you an undo button so that you can undo just your last steps instead of the whole picture. The one real negative that I found about this app is that the advertising is directly on the screen which interferes with your drawing, of course you could always upgrade to the paid version for $0.99 and it will be ad free. Also I know that I am terrible with these things but I didn’t feel as though I was able to control the knobs properly, they seemed to move too rapidly to make any kind of accurate drawing (though I realize some might like that). The biggest thing that I disliked was the sound effects. Boy was it annoying and really loud.I had to put my phone volume to 4 to be able to tolerate it and it was still grating my nerves. Overall Etch-E-Toy performs as it should but I really wish they would slow down the knobs so that drawing could end up more accurate and more importantly I wish they would eliminate the sound or dramatically reduce its’ volume.

Update: Controls of the game have been improved, so much so that even I feel like I might be able to produce something worth looking at. The sound is stiil rather annoying but thankfully the developer implemented the option to turn off sound. i maintain my stance that the volume should be lower to begin with for those who do enjoy the volume on this type of thing but that's all up to personal preference since I am perfectly happy turning the sound off.