The ILands Game is a Decent Substitute for Sandbox Game
iLands is a game available for iPhone and iPad. It's free for iOS 4.3 and up. However, iLands Premium is available as an in-app purchase for (US $3.99.) If you don't want to drop $6.99 for Minecraft - Pocket Edition, then this is your game. You start with a fresh block world to build on and personalize however you like.
The graphics are pretty decent in comparison to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, but they could be better. The D-pad is located on the left side of the screen allows for strafingand moving forward and backwards. Moving around with the D-pad may be difficult at times. It takes some getting used to, but it's doable for the majority of the time. The control on the right is solely for jumping up and worked pretty well. While navigating the terrain it was a bit jerky when hopping over obstacles. Sometimes, the touch targets wouldn't respond until I tapped several times. For instance,when using the X to break dirt, grass, or blocks, it could take a more than two taps. Freddy's Blog While I was building and exploring my Solo world, the game crashed often.
You're given a base of building materials that range from sand, grass, bricks. The steel skeleton blocks are unique to iLands as I've never seen anything similar to them in Minecraft - Pocket Edition. Steel skeleton blocks are great because they allow you to build a solid structure while still enjoying daylight, which is not the case when building using solid blocks. I enjoyed building with the cobblestone to construct roads and houses. The materials that have locks can be unlocked by purchasing the full version. This review was done with the free version.
If you're looking for the survival mode that is similar to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, you will not find it in the free version of iLands. I'm not sure if a similar feature to survival is available in the paid version. I usually play in creative mode all the time in Minecraft - Pocket Edition anyway, so I didn't find it a problem in iLands.
If you love building blocks in a virtual world, iLands is a worthwhile free download. I'd love to know what the paid version of the game lets the user to do, apart from unlocking building materials. I loved building buildings, as well as any other projects that my imagination could create.
ILands is a good alternative to for a sandbox game