new Kill the King controls
The update to Kill the King was live last night. I was keen to try out the new controls, my best scores for the old controls were 59 75 74. Supposedly levels 1-16 were made easier too, but they're not really.
As it turns out the new controls don't make it more likely to get lower scores, I haven't yet got close to the scores I had with the old controls. You can repeatedly fire at exactly the same angle, which is a good improvement (oddly, I had never noticed the angle thing before, probably because my finger would have been obscuring it), and you can fire the cannon without blocking the view.
The main issue with the new controls is that three different things can happen when you release the Fire button:
the red gauge stays where it was when you released, same as the old behavior
the red gauge jumps down to somewhere close to the ground
the red gauge does a jump upwards, adding some variable amount of power to the shot
Really, it should stay like it used to be. By doing that you get a couple of moments to notice where the power had reached, so that next time you know how to adjust the power. By immediately jumping down to the ground, which may seem more authentic, you don't fully notice what power you had used.
There are some levels that are now easier to achieve with the new controls, but many of the less fun levels are still less fun (the ones where timing is critical, but how much the big ball moves when hit is quite varied). It might be nice if when you get a Failure, the cannon remains at its current angle, because most likely you're going to go to that angle when you try again.
Couple of less important notes:
The Levels select screen should have a Home icon, because it's easy when touching the Record Mode button to accidentally press the Classic Mode button, and to get back to Record Mode you have to go into a level to play it, just to get a Home icon to press.
The Help screens are for the old controls.
As it turns out the new controls don't make it more likely to get lower scores, I haven't yet got close to the scores I had with the old controls. You can repeatedly fire at exactly the same angle, which is a good improvement (oddly, I had never noticed the angle thing before, probably because my finger would have been obscuring it), and you can fire the cannon without blocking the view.
The main issue with the new controls is that three different things can happen when you release the Fire button:
the red gauge stays where it was when you released, same as the old behavior
the red gauge jumps down to somewhere close to the ground
the red gauge does a jump upwards, adding some variable amount of power to the shot
Really, it should stay like it used to be. By doing that you get a couple of moments to notice where the power had reached, so that next time you know how to adjust the power. By immediately jumping down to the ground, which may seem more authentic, you don't fully notice what power you had used.
There are some levels that are now easier to achieve with the new controls, but many of the less fun levels are still less fun (the ones where timing is critical, but how much the big ball moves when hit is quite varied). It might be nice if when you get a Failure, the cannon remains at its current angle, because most likely you're going to go to that angle when you try again.
Couple of less important notes:
The Levels select screen should have a Home icon, because it's easy when touching the Record Mode button to accidentally press the Classic Mode button, and to get back to Record Mode you have to go into a level to play it, just to get a Home icon to press.
The Help screens are for the old controls.
Comments
To be honest with you, I liked the old controls more as well, but you and I are in the minority. The negative reviews have already been changed to favorable ones. I probably should have left the old controls as an option in hindsight.
And I just looked at the controls screen, and it actually had been updated I just forgot to say that you press and hold fire to adjust power. I'm sure people will figure it out, though
It may also be worth adding a power number, that just changes at the point that you fire. Then you can use the same strategy as you do with the angle. Instead of trying to get "about 3/4", you might instead try to get "exactly 72". Then, obsessive people like me and you could work towards getting some levels in one shot!