Game Reviews

Gravity Galaxy review - a smart, spacey physics-based puzzler

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| Gravity Galaxy
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Gravity Galaxy review - a smart, spacey physics-based puzzler
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| Gravity Galaxy

Gravity is a funny thing – the fact that we are all held in place on a giant floating ball in space is something that can make your head spin if you think about it too long.

For Gravity Galaxy, however, Newton's discovery is your new plaything, as you use the gravitational pull of planetoids to manoeuvre your way through a series of increasingly dangerous star systems.

It's a clever, tricky puzzler that will have you scratching your head one second before punching the air in victory when you solve the damn thing, but it's altogether a little shallow and short-lived.

Push me, pull me

You don't have much control over your ship in Gravity Galaxy – you tap the screen to propel it from the planet you're currently on, and let gravity do the rest.

Other planets appear with rings around them to represent the strength of their pull, and you'll need to precisely gauge your positioning to avoid being dragged in the wrong direction.

You can hold the screen to freeze your ship in place, giving you a target line that shows you some of the curvature you'll face, but for the most part it's just trial-and-error.

Yet while this sounds slightly annoying, it actually works wonderfully – each launch creates its own moment of tension as you cross your fingers and hope your calculation works.

And when it does work, you'll be awash with euphoria, patting yourself on the back for another flight well done, only to completely mess up the next move.

Spacious

The levels are all incredibly well-designed, making the route to the end always relatively easy to find but challenging to accomplish, and there's bonus challenges and stars to earn for those seeking out a higher level of difficulty.

It also looks remarkably pretty too, with plenty of bright colours and particle effects filling the screen to keep your eyes entertained as you die again and again seeking the elusive third star.

The only downside is that it's all a bit too short. Get the hang of Gravity Galaxy and you'll find yourself blasting through the game's forty levels in around an hour.

Additional challenges help to give you a little more to do, but the mini game they unlock access to is largely pointless and forgettable.

PixelByte is promising more levels down the line, and they're likely to be as wonderful as the rest of the game, but at the minute this is an afternoon's distraction at best.

Touch down

Still, there are much worse ways to spend an afternoon. Gravity Galaxy is a clever, interesting puzzler that will keep you plenty entertained in its relatively short run.

Its levels are tightly designed and offer enough challenge without being too difficult, and the bonus challenges should keep even the most hardcore puzzle fans happy.

You may blast through the content relatively quickly, but if you've got a bit of time to kill, this is definitely one of the better ways to do so.

Gravity Galaxy review - a smart, spacey physics-based puzzler

It's a little on the short side, but Gravity Galaxy is guaranteed to bring you joy and make you think
Score
Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.