pluto6
07-22-2009, 08:15 PM
Sparticle will likely not be for everyone. Is not so much a game as it is an experience. When Rez came out for the Playstation, many people just did not get it. It was relatively short. As far as shooters went, it was not particularly challenging - but the experience was immersive. And, you wanted to relive the experience over and over again. So it is with Sparticle.
Eric Metois, creator of Sparticle, initially wrote a program named iChalky, which uses a figure held to together by springs (in the physics sense). I would urge you to check out iChalky on his web site as it will give you a good idea of where the movement of Sparticle comes from. But Eric added the ability of jumping to Sparticle, and that makes a huge difference.
You are introduced to the Sparticle world simply. You start, and immediately you ar launched into a short 3rd person perspective of the character. It is falling. Limbs flailing, your character is inside a huge tunnel. Before it hits
the floor, you are seeing shiny objects, balls rolling around, and uneven landscapes. The world is a huge round tunnel.
You are intially given 1 minute of time, and by collecting gems and various creatures, and objects, time and points are awarded to you. It takes a few seconds to start comprehending the physics of movement. Tilt one or the other, and the free objects start sliding. Your character however resists movement due to friction, and so will sort of slip and stutter, unless you tilt past the point of friction, and then will fall in direction. You can turn the iDevice over and over, and land in any orientation, and continue to collect regardless of how you are holding the device. The gems and creatures populate all surfaces of the tunnel.
Jumping is accomplished by tapping the screen - tap to the right, character moves right - simple, but tap further to the right, the distance is increased, so you can tap left and right to the extremes and watch the character jump
madly from side to side. I found some very interesting effects come from swiping, and depending on the length of the swipe and starting and ending point, you can get some wild results. It takes a few minutes to start to get the hang of it, but you can then start getting some fairly predictable jumps. By tilting, and jumping you can get some phenomenal leaps forward, left, right, up, and even backwards "into" the screen.
Collecting these object would seem to be straightforward, but there are rolling balls or boulders, that seemingly have it out for you. They don't kill you, or take off time, but if they run into you, they take you on a ride lasting
several seconds, totally disorienting you, and taking you off whatever track you were on for collection, so in effect cost you time.
After you collect a certain amount of points, there is a special object that is different in each world, that transports you to a new world. There are 3 world in the game. It starts with a sort of ocean, water world, then takes
you to a dark world were the gems sparkle, and other objects have an almost flourescent quality to them. Lastly is a sort of lava world. The character changes colors and texture based on the worlds, as well as the boulders within those worlds.
The sounds in this app are minimalistic, and you almost have to wear headphones to appreciate the thought that has gone into them. The character makes noise that to me are not in keeping with the overall theme, but I suspect this is just my preferences. The sounds of the boulders rolling though are eery. You can here them on the right or left, clinking and clanking along, almost like soft zen balls. If you jump over them, you will hear them move below you, or behind you and localization is almost 3D. Very nice effects.
Graphically this is top notch. The video on Eric's site does not do it justice. There are little sparklies constantly swirling about your character, and there are different fish types that are always cirlcing around the character as
well. The draw distance for a small platform is phenomenal. The landscape is varied, and colors blend harmoniously together.
Although you start with only 1 minute, the game allows easy collections in the beginning. At certain scores, the difficulty increases with more boulders coming after you to try and take you away. This translates to getting the gems and other characters that add time more difficult, as you are constantly having to jump, or move out of the way. But, I don't really think that the point of the game is the collection. It adds time, but not the final result. The point is really in the experience and movement. Your character has phenomenal ability to jump, glide, almost fly. Given the right amount of tilt, the character will literally just be in constant freefall. Collections and going for a high score are fun though, and one of my few complaints is that there is no way to see prior high scores. Again, the app is not really about that, but I think it still adds something, especially if there is a score being kept.
Overall, this is an app that you can show off the power of the iDevice to your friends. I have a 3Gs, and it ran silky smooth, much more impressive than anything I have seen on a PSP. I believe that Eric is planning on new worlds, and perhaps make some changes in some of the sounds (characters "voice") and perhaps adding additional sounds. Addition of some increased "collectables" - different gems, more characters, would be icing on the cake for me.
Again, like REZ - this is a graphical , motion experience with gaming elements. It is immersive, and absorbing. I think anyone opening their mind to a new experience and spending a reasonable amount of time (20 - 25 minutes) will find this to be something wonderful. Playing with headphones is not essential, but is necessary for a truly immersive experience.
Current version does not support pause /resume. Playing with background music was not tested. Application suspends auto off (this is necessary, as touching the screen is not neccesary to play, it only adds to movement)
Overall 4 - 4.5/5 stars
Eric Metois, creator of Sparticle, initially wrote a program named iChalky, which uses a figure held to together by springs (in the physics sense). I would urge you to check out iChalky on his web site as it will give you a good idea of where the movement of Sparticle comes from. But Eric added the ability of jumping to Sparticle, and that makes a huge difference.
You are introduced to the Sparticle world simply. You start, and immediately you ar launched into a short 3rd person perspective of the character. It is falling. Limbs flailing, your character is inside a huge tunnel. Before it hits
the floor, you are seeing shiny objects, balls rolling around, and uneven landscapes. The world is a huge round tunnel.
You are intially given 1 minute of time, and by collecting gems and various creatures, and objects, time and points are awarded to you. It takes a few seconds to start comprehending the physics of movement. Tilt one or the other, and the free objects start sliding. Your character however resists movement due to friction, and so will sort of slip and stutter, unless you tilt past the point of friction, and then will fall in direction. You can turn the iDevice over and over, and land in any orientation, and continue to collect regardless of how you are holding the device. The gems and creatures populate all surfaces of the tunnel.
Jumping is accomplished by tapping the screen - tap to the right, character moves right - simple, but tap further to the right, the distance is increased, so you can tap left and right to the extremes and watch the character jump
madly from side to side. I found some very interesting effects come from swiping, and depending on the length of the swipe and starting and ending point, you can get some wild results. It takes a few minutes to start to get the hang of it, but you can then start getting some fairly predictable jumps. By tilting, and jumping you can get some phenomenal leaps forward, left, right, up, and even backwards "into" the screen.
Collecting these object would seem to be straightforward, but there are rolling balls or boulders, that seemingly have it out for you. They don't kill you, or take off time, but if they run into you, they take you on a ride lasting
several seconds, totally disorienting you, and taking you off whatever track you were on for collection, so in effect cost you time.
After you collect a certain amount of points, there is a special object that is different in each world, that transports you to a new world. There are 3 world in the game. It starts with a sort of ocean, water world, then takes
you to a dark world were the gems sparkle, and other objects have an almost flourescent quality to them. Lastly is a sort of lava world. The character changes colors and texture based on the worlds, as well as the boulders within those worlds.
The sounds in this app are minimalistic, and you almost have to wear headphones to appreciate the thought that has gone into them. The character makes noise that to me are not in keeping with the overall theme, but I suspect this is just my preferences. The sounds of the boulders rolling though are eery. You can here them on the right or left, clinking and clanking along, almost like soft zen balls. If you jump over them, you will hear them move below you, or behind you and localization is almost 3D. Very nice effects.
Graphically this is top notch. The video on Eric's site does not do it justice. There are little sparklies constantly swirling about your character, and there are different fish types that are always cirlcing around the character as
well. The draw distance for a small platform is phenomenal. The landscape is varied, and colors blend harmoniously together.
Although you start with only 1 minute, the game allows easy collections in the beginning. At certain scores, the difficulty increases with more boulders coming after you to try and take you away. This translates to getting the gems and other characters that add time more difficult, as you are constantly having to jump, or move out of the way. But, I don't really think that the point of the game is the collection. It adds time, but not the final result. The point is really in the experience and movement. Your character has phenomenal ability to jump, glide, almost fly. Given the right amount of tilt, the character will literally just be in constant freefall. Collections and going for a high score are fun though, and one of my few complaints is that there is no way to see prior high scores. Again, the app is not really about that, but I think it still adds something, especially if there is a score being kept.
Overall, this is an app that you can show off the power of the iDevice to your friends. I have a 3Gs, and it ran silky smooth, much more impressive than anything I have seen on a PSP. I believe that Eric is planning on new worlds, and perhaps make some changes in some of the sounds (characters "voice") and perhaps adding additional sounds. Addition of some increased "collectables" - different gems, more characters, would be icing on the cake for me.
Again, like REZ - this is a graphical , motion experience with gaming elements. It is immersive, and absorbing. I think anyone opening their mind to a new experience and spending a reasonable amount of time (20 - 25 minutes) will find this to be something wonderful. Playing with headphones is not essential, but is necessary for a truly immersive experience.
Current version does not support pause /resume. Playing with background music was not tested. Application suspends auto off (this is necessary, as touching the screen is not neccesary to play, it only adds to movement)
Overall 4 - 4.5/5 stars