Game Reviews

SPiN: The Silhouette Game

Star onStar onStar onStar halfStar off
Get
SPiN: The Silhouette Game

There are literally hundreds of play sets aimed at toddlers that focus on fitting shapes into holes. Matching up squares, circles, triangles, and random extravagant shapes apparently helps develop the child's mind. Who hasn't, as a child, tinkered with these games while waiting in a doctor's office or at a relative's house?

We're all experts when it comes to SPiN: The Silhouette Game, then. That same shape-fitting ethic is intact here, albeit twisted in a good way. Matching a circle with a circle isn't too difficult, for instance, but trying to force the shape of a parrot on a perch through a silhouette that initially looks more like Florida state than it does a bird is no easy task.

But that, in short, is SPiN: matching up various objects that can be twisted and turned into any direction so that the side that faces you matches whatever silhouette the game provides. The silhouette can always be matched, but very rarely in an obvious fashion. Nine times out of ten the silhouette depicts the shape from a very odd angle, skewing the small parts to look big and the mighty look meek. Time is your only enemy here and the game is very much a test how long it takes you to find the right angle.

Twisting and turning the shape with your finger is the way you go about this and the game has made it incredibly easy to do so. Almost every movement imaginable is possible in exactly the way you might expect. To rotate the end of the shape up, for instance, you simply swipe your finger up. On the other hand, turning the shape clockwise is a matter of moving your finger clockwise, moving it left a question of swiping your finger left across the screen, and so forth.

Failure is never a result of faltering controls then. It's fair to say that success is often a matter of luck, or rather, trying every option available to you. On more than one occasion I inadvertently stumbled across the solution mid-move. Such is the variety of shapes on offer, ranging from everyday household items to the bizarre. It's rarely obvious from the start just what is required and the game's biggest test is resisting the temptation to panic when the solution isn't uncovered within your first few tries.

Of course, your panic level also depends on which mode you plump for. In the game's standard setting, each successful match you make adds time to your clock bar, with the level ending when it fills up entirely. Frantic mode gives you a clock that ticks down at a frenzied pace, while the minute rush – as you might expect – gives you just 60 seconds to try and score as many points as possible. Your score itself can be greatly improved by 'perfect' matches (matches made with the fewest possible number of rotations taken), while a 'miss' resets said running bonus total to zero.

The one gripe with standard mode is that you often face the same shape twice, but with the silhouette itself having been altered. That's not a problem in itself, but with only the silhouette changing at the back of the screen and the shape itself remaining static, it's often hard to tell whether you've moved onto the next challenge or not, resulting in valuable seconds lost.

That aside, SPiN: The Silhouette Game is very playable, delightfully presented, consistently challenging, and perfect for an iPhone quick-fix of fun. Without calling on one cliché too many, if you're after something that tests you mentally but doesn't drop a clumsy cast of needless characters or a tagged-on plot on you, then this is the perfect fit.

SPiN: The Silhouette Game

Fitting one shape into a matching silhouette, SPiN is endearingly challenging during play and, though fairly basic as a concept, would make a delightful addition to your iPhone line-up
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.