Game Reviews

Revolve

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|
iOS
| (R)evolve
Get
Revolve
|
iOS
| (R)evolve

Revolve has all the hallmarks of a game jam game. It's a flighty little thing. A game stripped down to its basic parts, trimmed down to almost bare-bones gameplay.

And it works wonderfully well. It creates a simple rhythm that sticks from your first play to your last. There's no particular depth, but there's all the shiny polish you'd expect from a Team17 game.

It won't last you for very long, but while you stick with it you'll always find yourself popping back for another go.

Planet side

The premise is simple. You control a planet. On that planet life is beginning. Little trees and podgy space monsters are springing up on its surface.

Unfortunately the planet is constantly bombarded with meteors. One hit from one of those and all that wonderful life will come to an abrupt end.

The space-rocks come in waves and you need to twist the planet so they smash into uninhabited areas. A tap on the left of the screen spins the world left, a tap on the right of the screen spins it right.

After each wave a seed plops out of one of your shrubs and wherever it lands some new life starts to grow. The more life, the harder the game gets.

Some of the more advanced critters on your world will fire lasers at incoming meteors, but the best way to survive is still by wheeling through space.

Space invaders

There's a twitchy feel to the game. You're twisting and turning your way through an on-rushing maze, relying on reflexes and near-misses to get you through.

There's a touch of Super Hexagon to proceedings, although Revolve is never as angular as Terry Cavanagh's spinny vomit-comet.

If you're looking for a new arcade game that bristles along at a neat pace, then Revolve is likely to fit the bill nicely.

Its gameplay is basic, but there's enough here that you'll find yourself unable to put it down for a couple of hours.

Revolve

A sharp, short arcade experience. Revolve may not stick in your head for long, but it's still good fun while it lasts
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.