Spin-It!
|
| Spin-It!

Sometimes you can't help but feel that the puzzle genre has almost been exhausted on the mobile phone. The wait between the occasional gem can seem so long that it's easy to become despondent. For every work of puzzle gaming genius, there seem to be plenty of others that try hard but miss the point somewhere.

Unfortunately, Spin-It! is one of those games.

Spin-It! is a game where you have to link up a certain number of objects of the same colour to make them disappear, only this time they're balls and they're all encased in various chambers of a rotating mechanism.

You rotate the machine by roughly 45-degrees with every key press, which in turn moves the balls down to the bottom chamber until three or more are linked together and then they disappear – only to be replaced by more of them. Complete the set and a new level appears with a slightly altered design and yet more balls.

To make the gameplay feel slightly deeper than the average puddle, there are a series of bonus balls that slot randomly into the gameplay. Rainbow balls change to the colour of the first ball they touch, Bomb balls explode any of the same colour they hit, Painter balls change the colour of any other balls and Link balls create an explosive combo. Nice, but not quite enough to make the game any more addictive.

There are also four different game modes, including the option to post your high score on the Gamarama website via your phone. Once again, it's a worthy attempt by the developers Reaxion to add more to the overall game package, but without a solid basic game to begin with, it's little more than icing on a decidedly average cake.

So, if you hadn't noticed, it's actually quite difficult to get worked up about Spin-It! Like all the best puzzle games, the gameplay is initially easy to grasp, but unlike the best of them, it doesn't have the depth and 'just one more go' addictive hook to keep you playing until your eyes are crying out for mercy and your phone's battery finally gives way.

It's impossible to play Spin-It! and not feel slightly disappointed. Despite the occasional flicker of originality and interest, it's a game that's never going to last the distance and keep your interest for long.

Linking up with the Gamarama site offers the opportunity to open up your scores and gaming prowess to a larger community, but unfortunately we suspect that you'll tire of Spin-It! way before you've created a score that would trouble the top of the league table.

Spin-It!

Like New Labour, this is all spin and no substance
Score
Dean Mortlock
Dean Mortlock
Dean's been writing about games for 15 years now and has played more than he's had hot dinners. Mind you, he does eat a lot of salad…