Mobile Phone Game Reviews By Sarah: Ancestor

Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope you’re all still hanging in there and staying safe. This week we’re going over a much different game type than any of the previous games. If you love challenging endless running games, I highly recommend you keep reading!

Ancestor

What is it?

Ancestor is a puzzle action runner game from Super Mega Quest that is available for both Android and IOS. It was released in 2015 and has since gone through several version updates. In the game, your character must battle attacking orbs, destroy blocks in your path, solve symbol puzzles to get past more large blocks in the path, and fight bosses. The longer you last in the game and the more obstacles you get past, the more currency chips you earn. These chips can be used to buy new cloaks and other appearance changes for your character. 

The various obstacles and enemies appear in a random frequency and order, meaning you have to use quick reflexes to shoot down orbs as they attack you, shoot some of the blocks to destroy them and remove them from your path, or solve multiple symbol puzzles to remove the rest of the blocks from your path. Sometimes you even have to try to do all of these tasks at the same time. The game gets harder the longer you survive, so it can be quite difficult to progress very far in the game until you improve your reflexes for the various tasks.

What did you think?

I really expected to love this game. I have played and loved many runner and puzzle games in the past, like the Impossible Game to Temple Run, and fully anticipated getting addicted to Ancestor. However, I could not get myself into this game. There was no tutorial of any kind. So, I spent quite a while trying to figure out the controls. I couldn’t figure out how to jump (I’m still pretty sure you can’t jump) or how to get past the symbol blocks (I kept trying to shoot them like the other blocks, but apparently you have to tap them until all of the symbols on the blocks are the same). Plus, it shows you a ridiculous number of ads. My largest complaint for this game is the sheer number of ads it shows you. Every time you die, you have to watch an ad. There’s no getting away from it and no skipping. You have to watch the full 30 second ad, which really got on my nerves. Especially in the beginning when I was still trying to figure out the controls and kept dying in rapid succession.

That being said, the game is very beautifully designed and quite challenging. It cycles through 8 different stunning backgrounds that really give the game a unique feel. The music is perfect for the game setting and the overall art style of the game makes it a joy to play. For people that love the challenge of a game, I think this game will certainly give most people a run for their money. 

Would you recommend this game?

If you love puzzle action runner games, then yes I would recommend you try it. I could see this game being a lot of fun for someone that can really get good and play it a lot. However, if you’re more of a casual gamer like me, I don’t recommend it. It’s difficult to learn and the frequent ads only exacerbate the frustration of continuously dying early on, which is not a great start to a new game.

Thanks for tuning in to this Mobile Phone Game Review by Sarah! 

Until next time, I’ll be on my couch,

Sarah Berge

Inked Gaming