Glo Flo - the first release from Capcom Mobile offshoot Beeline Interactive - is all about insects. The critters sit atop a rectangular grid of circular pegs and your job is to link like-coloured bugs with a single, uninterrupted line using your finger to join the dots.
If the objective of the new brand was to distance itself from Capcom’s traditional IP – or perhaps to illustrate the scientific theory that insects are inherently racist - then it’s done a good job.
Unfortunately, this simplistic puzzler never really develops into anything other than a pleasant time-killer.
Insect decideThe first few stages are insultingly simple. You’ll have solved the first set of nine puzzles within five minutes, at which point you move onto a different backdrop and repeat the process, though the solutions start getting trickier.
But once you’ve figured out the general methodology, the difficulty curve plateaus. There’s more trial-and-error on the later stages than the earlier ones, but usually the solution can be teased out fairly quickly.
You’ll reach the last of the game’s 63 stages even quicker if you lack the willpower to resist its overly helpful hint function. Rather than giving subtle clues, the game reveals the correct route to connect one group of insects – and once that’s been drawn, the rest tend to fall into place rather quickly.
Beetle bummedTheoretically, then, the replay value lies in the Time Attack mode. Here, the idea is to create the longest possible line between bugs, with bonus points and a boost of ten extra seconds should you use every point on the grid.
Again, however, the difficulty levels off too soon, and most players will have nabbed every achievement within their first few goes.
Glo Flo is a cheap and cheerful way to while away a couple of hours, but anyone hoping for something a little longer-lasting would be best advised to get their puzzling kicks elsewhere.