Game Reviews

Little Galaxy

Star onStar onStar onStar onStar off
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| Little Galaxy
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Little Galaxy
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| Little Galaxy

Mars is the closest planet to Earth. It takes between 150 and 300 days to travel to the Red Planet from our home planet (depending on the speed of your ship and how much fuel you're able to burn to make the trip).

Your character in Little Galaxy, however, is able to hop and skip gleefully between celestial bodies with the minimum of fuss. Via a single tap of the screen, he can jump out off his current ball of rock and fly towards the next planet.

Each planet in the game rotates, so you need to time your tap to make sure your spaceman doesn't drift off into the inky blackness of space.

Rows of stars indicate the ideal leaping point. They also serve another purpose, mind. By collecting these stars, you see, you build up your score.

Stop this planet - I want to get off

Timing your jumps takes practice. And Little Galaxy's dev slowly ramps up the challenge by adding in suns which pull your spaceman off-path thanks to their gravitational pull (you need to alter the trajectory of your leap in order to compensate).

Other challenges include planting flags on planets, getting a certain number of star chains, or collecting items with a magnet.

The game is divided into challange-based levels, each of which has three main objectives. You need to complete this trio of tasks before you can move on to the next series of tasks. You do all this against the clock, which lends a bit of urgency to proceedings.

Across the universe

Little Galaxy's one-finger gameplay is accessible and intuitive, while the whimsical visuals and endearing music only serve to make the whole thing even more appealing.

Leaderboards give you the incentive to constantly improve your scores, and the game's relatively stern challenges will keep you busy for some time.

It may be overly simple for more demanding iOS and Android players - and a bit repetitive, too - but Little Galaxy has all the ingredients of a portable classic: it's fun, attractive, and taxing enough to be addictive without putting off casual players.

Little Galaxy

With this whimsical and endearing game, Bitmap Galaxy hits the sweet spot between simplicity and compelling challenge. Practically anyone can play and enjoy it, though it still demands skilful play
Score
Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.