Noga Android App Review: An Educational Game to Applaud

What Noga is

Noga is a ‘local word’ in Uganda, to mean “Pluck”. Developed by Tamithi Developers, is a 3D maze Android game with a colorful Army Green twist. If you love runner games but want something that is challenging, then ‘Noga App’ is your best bet. At first it might not look challenging, but the more levels you advance to, the harder it becomes, and trust me, you’ll definitely love it because it’s educational, and I would strongly recommend it for the kids.

The game is Rated for 3+ meaning, it’s suitable for all age groups. Some violence in a comical or fantasy context is acceptable. However, bad language is not permitted.

Game Story-line: Gigi (you the player) is supposed to finish his chores set by Kaaka (his grandmother) of collecting different types of fruits from mangoes, to pawpaws, to bananas, to water melons, naming a few, swiping left and right, up and down through the maze in the least time possible given to him.

Gigi will have to run to all corners of the maze looking for these fruits. ON the left hand side bar of the game, you’ll be in position to see the number of different fruits you ought to collect. Before any level begins, you’re given a “Checklists” you ought to follow in order for you to complete that level. For instance, if it shows that you ought to collect four (4) bananas, then Gigi has to make sure he does collect the four bananas for his grandmother.

Speaking of levels, there four levels and of which you can’t skip one to go to another. You’ve to follow one at a time, unless when you’re done with all the levels or a certain level, you can always choose what level you want to play. These levels “Beginners, Standard, Expert, and Master” each have different stages within them. With the beginner’s level, it has 5 stages, the standard level has 10 stages, the expert level has 10 stages and the master level has 5 stages.

Each stage in a level has a task (in other words, the number of fruits you’ve to collect) you ought to accomplish in a given period of time. Once you fail the level, you start a fresh till you get it done.

What we liked:

1. Basing on it’s name, the Noga is a traditional or locally made app in Uganda, seeing Kaaka dressed in the local dress dubbed “Gomesi”, that is pretty awesome and we love to see more culture in the game during it’s updates.
2. Noga is educational, you reach a level where you’re asked to unlock some fruits by simply answering a few questions. (We truly loved this feature… 100%).
3. Noga is so simple and precise. The graphics aren’t that bad.

What we didn’t like:

1. The app is a bit big (about 43 Mbs), if one has a smartphone that has low space and memory, the game will be freezing at all times, which really isn’t cool for such a game.
2. Gigi (you the player) can’t be customized, like; perhaps changing the gender of the player, or changing clothes, and so forth. Developers should have given players a chance to customize their own player, which I think it’s fine.
3. On the stages of answering questions, a player will be asked to answer a given question or to pay a certain amount of coins, once a player selects the question part and fails, the game ends there and then, which I find annoying, at least it would deduct on the coins you earned to allow you proceed with the game.
4. Levels and stages don’t change, they just look similar making the game somehow boring. At least each level and stage should have a different environment. Noga developers should really look into this.

Conclusion

Noga joins the local gaming apps like; Matatu that are actually made by Ugandans.

The app is available for download on PlayStore, however, the developers of the game mentioned that the game will be available for iOS and the Web hopefully by the end of November.