THE TROJAN WAR

The app that launched a thousand yawns.

The Trojan War is a central foundational tale of Western civilization—and a story that is exciting from beginning to end. Not so this rendering, which is indifferently written and engineered. The opening panel, for instance, sports a comma error and a lame joke in which, the proper virtual button having been pushed, Zeus and Poseidon identify themselves by name while Thetis, that alluring Nereid, says, “I am blushing.” It seems clear that the adapter hasn’t quite grasped the central themes of the Iliad: Why is Achilles so wrathful, anyway? Why did Helen take it on the lam with Paris? What is it about the House of Atreus that should surround it with such bad mojo? The creaky visuals don’t help. While the illustrations win some style points in their utilization of Greek vase motifs, the herky-jerky animation might remind geriatric readers of old cartoons, while younger readers—the intended audience, after all—will fail to be impressed, even when poor horse-taming Hector takes a spear in the chest. About the best use for the app, as it happens, might be to teach American readers a bit of British English, the medium the developer has used; thus, “Achilles comes face to face with the Queen of the Amazon in the scrum.”

Thoroughly unsatisfactory, though filling a gap in the market that cries for a better product.