Spiral Splatter Review

With over 100 timed levels to test your hand-eye coordination, Spiral Splatter has a lot going on. The concept is simple, move your ball character from where he starts to the exit. The challenge comes in the form of the environments, where touching the walls even slightly will result in death. The process is akin to the board game Operation. Like the classic game, Spiral Splatter has plenty of moments of relief, satisfaction, joy and frustration.

Gameplay

Players are eased gently into Spiral Splatter in the first set of levels. You play as the white ball, with a simple goal of reaching the end of the level, represented by a target. The player moves the ball with the left control stick and can hold down the A button to move at a faster speed. In the top right of the screen is a timer and corresponding stars. These stars are your reward for completing the level under a pre-determined par time, and are also used to unlock new sets of levels. There is a meter underneath the stars that shows you just how much time is left before your star grade goes down. Should you hit a wall and explode (which you will, a lot), you automatically start the level over and the time resets. Earlier levels have checkpoints that you will restart from but the timer will remain running. Controlling the game is simple with just movement and a single button input, but there is still plenty of challenge to be had.

Each set of levels has it's own environmental theme and level of difficulty that will vary depending on a player's abilities. In world 4, barriers will block the exit; these are only removed by moving your character to a black button, but naturally they are placed in hard-to-reach areas. Later worlds introduce timed buttons that countdown before being reset, portals that move the player to different areas, a canon-like enemy that will shoot you and a ghost whom you must outrun to the exit. This variety in gameplay did a great job keeping Spiral Splatter from feeling overly repetitive. If you find a level you can't seem to pass, players can skip it and move forward as long as they have earned enough stars to unlock further levels. I did find some issues with the levels not resetting properly, especially after pressing a timed switch. Also, there were instances where i retried a level and the clock immediately started while other times it waited for me to move to start.

Graphics

The graphical style in Spiral Splatter is both pleasing and effective. Each world has its own two-tone background that looks beautiful in its simplicity. The shape of each level is represented well by white barriers which are easy to identify, as well as the black buttons and brown portals. With Spiral Splatter relying so much on precise movements and speed, I was grateful to not have too much going on in the background.

Duration

Skill and speed based games will always depend on the player when it comes to duration. I estimate that the average player can look to spend between 2-5 hours completing all levels. Players interested in earning 3 stars in every level can expect slightly more time playing. Once you complete all levels with 3 stars, there is nothing more to do except replay them for faster times. While this may sound disappointing, it is thankfully offset by the low purchase price.

Achievements

Spiral Splatter has 18 achievements for 1000 Gamerscore. 4 of them are tied to dying a number of times, 10 related to progression, and 4 more for earning 1-2-3 stars in each level. My time spent with Spiral Splatter was brief but mostly enjoyable.

Conclusion

          

There were plenty of moments where I felt "thank goodness I never have to play that stage again" and others where I felt like a precise input master when I was in the zone. I feel that Spiral Splatter is priced perfectly for the type of game it is and the amount of replay value it contains. I enjoyed earning all the achievements but likely will not be playing it again. Fingers crossed for a sequel!  

*Game was provided for this review

Game: Spiral Splatter
Developer: Neonchimp Games
Publisher: Sometimes You
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $4.99
Size: 287.48 MB
Release date: 3/12/2018
For More Info: Spiral Splatter Official Game Website
Download from Microsoft Store