Hands on with Gish Mobile

Earlier this year, we wrote about Gish, a new mobile game based on an existing (and award-winning) PC/Mac game.

In the wake of SolaRola's success, this darker spin on the 'bouncy thing rolling round platforms using proper physics' genre grabbed our attention.

Well, we've had a chance to play it now, or at least the alpha version, courtesy of developer Hardwire. The game sees you playing a gloopy ball of tar.

The physics already feel pretty good, as Gish moves around, jumps, slithers through narrow gaps and squishes up walls.

Hitting '#' greases him up, allowing him to ooze through gaps more easily, while pressing '*' makes him angry, enabling him to smash through blocks or jump on enemies.

There are some good squelchy sound effects, and the gameplay has a decent focus on exploration and stealth (yes, this despite the hero being a big ball of tar).

The game has suitably moody visuals, offering a direct counterpart to the colourful levels in SolaRola. There are moving platforms to ride, coins to collect, and a fair few beasties to avoid or squash.

It's promising, in other words. Hardwire tells us that the game will be Zeemote-enabled, allowing you to use the JS1 Bluetooth joystick to control Gish.

Meanwhile, there'll also be Bluetooth multiplayer - something we didn't test in the preview version, but which will apparently include death match and co-op modes.

From what we've seen so far, Gish looks like it could be a treat on mobile, although the challenge may be in getting the majority of users who haven't heard of the original to buy it.

Rest assured, we'll be following the game's progress, and will bring you a review when it's finished.