On the AppStore since day one, Spinner Prologue is a funny game developed by Fuel Games. The game is free, and it is just a prologue, a glimpse of what the full version will be, so it is very hard to be harsh with it. Dammed! You know how much I love doing harsh review…
Gameplay
You play as an arrow that is irretrievably moving into the direction you are pointing at. Instead of controlling the arrow directly, you tilt your touch device around and the game will detect the movement using iPhone’s accelerometer and change the direction of the arrow. While tilting your phone in front of you, the world looks pretty much stable on the screen. A vertical line on the screen will be almost stable. No matter how you tilt your phone, it will stay vertical.
Good good good, good vibration…
People familiar with LocoRoco will see a pattern here, except that instead of rotating the world using left and right trigger, you tilt your phone to give a direction to the arrow, and the world stays stable. Pretty neat. Using an accelerometer as a Gameplay element isn’t something new. It is one of the ingredients of the insolent success of the Wii receipt. But when you turn your WiiMote, the TV does not turn with you, only the picture. And this is what is so special about this game. The world is visually stable, when you tilt right, the word is not turning right, but the arrow will always point toward the bottom of your touch device. It’s hard to explain but it’s a refreshing sensation, it’s immersive and easy to pick up. Never saw that Gameplay on a gaming console before.
The prologue
So you make your way through the first couple of levels and at first everything is just pure fun. At first the Gameplay overcomes all the problems. At first…
Act I: And here comes the troubles…
There are various problems with this game. First thing on my list: the beginning of levels. The levels are designed in a way that you have to reposition your touch device in the normal position before you start to play. If you don’t, you just lose. That’s it. Pretty frustrating. It wouldn’t be that bad, you are at the beginning of the level after all, but people really hate to lose, specially when it comes from a flaw in the game. Which lead me to my second grip: the messages. Every time you lose or start a new level, you get a little tip in a standard dialog box, which whatever tilt you gave to your iPhone, will always be displayed as if your device was straight. Let me tell you, when you play that game, especially in the dark, your device is being rotated so much that you are completely lost if you are asked to straighten the iPhone. It is Ok to ask the player to straighten the phone but you need a visual anchor of some kind and the game should be paused until the phone is in the expected position. I don’t think the message dialog thing does the job right. And please, stop repeat the same message again and again…
Act II: The message strikes back, and back…
When you loose, you get a little hint. That’s nice.
When you loose 20 times, you get the same hint, 20 times.
Nice at first, those hints soon appear to the frustrated player as taunts, it’s like the game is making fun of you. And yes you die a lot in this game. After some very easy levels, the game difficulty suddenly peaks at some very specific spot on the map where you have to do the perfect move; there is not a single pixel of tolerance. It would be Ok if I could restart just before the damm difficult turn, but noooooooo, you have to do the all maze all over again. And you have to remember the correct path, otherwise you’ll restart from the begening…again. I always hated those brain training games :).
Another problem is that you have no choice but to fail in order to succeed. BUZZZ, WRONG ! Common guys, that’s Gameplay 101. You never force your player to lose just because you took the wrong path. I mean in a maze the odds are pretty high that at first you take the wrong path, right? Sometime the corridors are large enough so you can do a U-turn, but even then, you have to turn your phone so fast that it is not easy to be accurate after that.
Personally I’m not convinced about the maze aspect of the game. Trying to find my way into this daedal is not what made the game fun to me. Trying to avoid touching the wall was the fun part, unfortunately there wasn’t much variety in the level design here. Kuru Kuru Kururin shares the same Gameplay roots. You have to make it through a maze without touching the walls, but the situations, the different maneuvers, the speed variations, contributed to make the Gameplay very rich (hint hint).
Epilogue
I’m not fair. I’ve just reviewed this game as if it was a full retail version. But it is because I enjoyed so much at the beguining that I really expected much more. They call it a prologue. The name is maybe unfortunate (Polyphony digital took the same name scheme for Grand Tourismo. GT5 prologue is just an appetizer on the content, but the engine and the Gameplay is pretty much there), it’s probably more of a tech demo, or a Gameplay prototype if you like.
It’s my favorite free game on the AppStore so far. A Gameplay experience that you get only on the iPhone right now. I really would like to encourage the developer. You have the idea, it’s working. I think you could do an amazing game with it. I’m looking forward to play the full game !
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