I do not consider myself a mobile gamer. An oversaturation of sub-par games mired by in-app purchases and pay to win mechanics have left such a salty taste in my mouth that I play little to no attention to the games store on my phone. If I want on the go gaming I generally stick to my 3DS or my long abused PSP. This might come across a bit harsh as hidden behind the cash grabs are many gems I have likely missed.
This may change with the arrival of Acrosplat, a new physics-based puzzle game from App Sreet Games. I first came across the game at 2016’s EGX, word of mouth from fellow attendees about this “Amazing new game” drew my attention so I put my Mobile gaming ignorance aside and sought it out. Best decision I made that weekend.
Acrosplat feels like a love letter to the golden age of mobile gaming before the devs began mercilessly targeting our bank balance.
The aim is simple, you have to flick your strangely adorable paint blobs into a paint can. A simple premise that grows ever more addictive with the addition of traps, buzz saws, sponges and a whole host of other obstacles standing in your way. What starts as a simple sling shot mechanic soon becomes quite deep as you strive to complete the level with a three-star rating.
The game has a lot in common with other classics of the genre, Cut-the-rope and Angry birds come to mind as you slingshot the blobs from platform to platform and Acrosplat sits comfortable among them with its fantastic level design and clever ideas. The game does a good job of introducing more and more mechanics without feeling overwhelming and avoiding the trap of holding your hand too much. This allows an experimental player to discover solutions that may not have been the intended path.
My favorite feature is the paint mixing, you often come across solid wood that you are unable to pass, but by sacrificing a blob and “painting” the wood, other blobs of the same color can pass safely through it unscathed. This means you may have to mix some colors to get the wood the color you require. Mixing a red blob and a yellow blob allows an orange blob to pass through and so on. I use the term sacrifice because somehow the blobs feel like they have a personality, a feat that can’t be ignored considering they are literally balls of paint. In the backgrounds of levels, you often come across parodies of movies starring the cute colorful little things. An Acrosplat movie? Sure i’d watch that…
There are many objects found in the game, each of which has its own hook. Blenders can mix your blobs together, blades slice your blobs in half and seesaws are pretty self explanatory but there are many more inventive toys packed in there that I won’t go into because these are fun to discover yourselves. They are introduced evenly throughout the 100+ levels at a pace that keeps the game from getting stale.
If you’re concerned that you will burn through those levels pretty quickly (Spoilers: You Won’t) then there is also a level editor for the budding level designers out there. You also get to share these levels online and try others out too. Effectively boosting the content and really packing in enough to warrant your purchase.
It’s clear that I’ve become pretty enamored with this game, it has shattered my opinion on what I thought the mobile gaming market had become and has me generally interested in playing games on my phone again. If you are like me and just use your phone for obscure things like making phone calls then it’s time to clear some space and install Acrosplat when it launches on March 9th on Ios, Android, and Amazon.
DISCLAIMER: I got to play a preview build and will be reviewing the full game closer to release.
