Review
Apple’s ‘Top 25 Free Apps’ chart is a rapidly evolving, constantly changing list of the best and most downloaded free apps. Because of this, it is a great place to pick up a great new app for nothing! Slide to Unlock is no exception and recently enjoyed some time at the top of this list in the UK.
Slide to Unlock is a simple game, but a great way to spend a couple of minutes – a perfect example of one of those ‘waiting for the bus’ games.
As iDevice owners, we are all familiar with the ‘Slide to Unlock’ slider that appears every time we wake up our devices, Slide to Unlock takes this feature and manages to turn it in to an amusing, yet simplistic game.
All you need to do is slide the ‘Slide to Unlock’ sliders (as you would to wake up your device) as they appear on screen – sounds 
simple right? Well it is at first, but as you progress through the level the sliders start appear faster and faster, so you have to work harder to keep you screen clear. If 5 sliders appear on your screen at one time, that’s it – game over!
The rate at which the sliders appear on screen increases the longer you play, but expect a steep difficulty curve. After around a minute I think it becomes physically impossible to move your fingers fast enough to stop the sliders building up!
Also be aware that the ‘Slide to Unlock’ gesture requires you to slide your finger across the entire screen, this can be a little difficult to do repetitively, leading to the occasional missed slide – all it takes is one missed slide and it can get a little difficult to catch up.
Expect plenty of greasy fingerprints all over your screen too!
Game Modes
There is a variety of game modes to keep you entertained, each with a slightly different take on how the sliders appear on screen:
- Classic – You only have to slide incoming sliders to the right, this makes for a great warm up game and introduction to the general aspects of the game
- Twist – Just like classic, except you will need to slide incoming sliders to both the right and left. As such a little more tricky than classic
- Doubles – You will have to slide incoming sliders both left and right, but occasionally those sliders will arrive as doubles – meaning you will have to use two fingers to do well on this game mode!
- Revenge – Just like doubles except, when a double arrives, you will need to slide one to the left and one to the right. The makes for the most difficult game mode and requires a lot of dexterity!
Game Center and Achievements
I’m quite fond of Game Center, so any app that implements it well gets a thumbs up from me! So I was happy to see that Slide to Unlock has plenty of achievements to unlock. The achievements are split in to 3 main categories; Total number of unlocks, length of time survived in each game mode and fastest speed reached in each game mode.
Final Thoughts
Slide to Unlock has now, *ahem* slid, back down the Top Free Apps chart, but it is a great game at an even better price (free!) and definitely something worth downloading. It is not something you will play for hours at a time, but you will find yourself going back to the app to try and beat your high score and earn those prestigious Game Center achievements!
