Lamp Head is yet another endless runner styled Windows Phone game but the game isn't your run of the mill endless runner game. The goal is to run your gaming character as far as possible, flipping up and down to avoid deadly obstacles.
Fitted with a lamp to shed a little light on these dangers and keep the darkness at bay, Lamp Head is an entertaining Windows Phone game to pass the time with. Available for low-memory devices, Lamp Head also includes missions or goals to work towards and global leaderboards.
Endless runner games can be fantastic time wasters and can be a fun way to challenge your reflexes and timing. Lamp Head isn't an overly complicated game with a simple main menu that offers options to jump into game play, access the game's settings, view your missions and leaderboards and a link to the gaming store. You also have links to the developer's Google+. Twitter and Facebook pages.
Settings for Lamp Head cover muting the sound and music as well as viewing the game's credits and resetting your gaming progress. Lamp Head's store has in-app purchase options for gaming coins (more on this in a second).
Game play starts with a very basic tutorial to walk you through gaming mechanics and features.
The game screen has your character running along a platform that splits the screen. His lamp head will light up the path and reveal a host of dangers that includes spikes, saw blades, falling rocks, flying birds and more. To avoid these dangers, your character will need to flip between the screen halves.
As you approach a danger, just tap the screen to have your character flip up or down on the screen.
To add to Lamp Head's challenge, the light is battery powered and will start to dim as you play the game. As the light dims, it becomes harder to see the dangers but luckily there are batteries scattered about the course that will re-charge your light.
Along with the batteries, there are also power-ups that can be collected to make your character temporarily invincible or slow the pace of the game. There are also gaming coins that can be snatched up as well that can be used to revive your character if he gets chopped up by a saw blade, impaled by a spike or any other means of death.
Along with trying to run your character as far as possible, Lamp Head has a series of missions to work towards. These missions include traveling a set distance, avoiding a set number of obstacles or tapping the screen a number of times during a run.
Game play is moderated slightly with player lives that have to be replenished with time or by purchasing lives with your gaming coins. You begin game play with five lives and lives are replenished at a rate of one every three minutes. While I'm not a big fan of the gaming token systems, I've seen setups far worse than Lamp Head's.
Overall Impression
Lamp Head is a fun time waster of a Windows Phone game. Graphics are nicely drawn up, game play challenging and the game steps outside the box just enough to help it stand out from other endless runner games.
Game play does start off at a casual pace and as you would guess, the further you travel the faster the pace becomes. The power-ups that temporarily slow the pace will come in handy and don't be shocked if you are tapping the screen constantly to avoid dangers.
Likely the only nit I have with Lamp Head is the lack of a help screen. The tutorial does a good job of showing you how to play the game but a reference section on the power-ups wouldn't hurt.
All in all, Lamp Head is an entertaining title to have in your Windows Phone gaming library. At last check, Lamp Head is pulling down a 4.5 star rating in the Windows Phone Store, which we will not argue with at all. If you decide to give Lamp Head a try, let us know in the comments what you think of the game.
