This is the fourth of our ‘Community XBLA Reviews’ for this week. Remember, comment on any (or all) of the five ‘Community XBLA Review’ (Sine Mora, Anomaly, Diabolical Pitch, The Splatters and Fez) posts in this week and one randomly drawn participant will win a code for Sine Mora sponsored by Microsoft SA.
This review of The Splatters is done by community member Charl ‘PottyZA’ Potgieter.
Developer: Spiky Snail
Publisher: Microsoft
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Price: 800MSP
If we had to give it a numerical score: 8.0 out of 10
The Splatters is an action-puzzler with awesome physics, gorgeous visuals and simplistic, but great, sound. The game is developed by Spiky Snail games and has a very mobile-game feel to it.
You play as the titular “Splatters”, who are basically little goo men with a tendency to get themselves killed. The gameplay, as well as the menu design is akin to the popular game Angry Birds, while the visual style and physics seem similar to World of Goo.
Your goal in each level is to fling your blob people in the direction of “bombs” (they looked more like World of Goo constructs to me).You win when all the bombs are vapourised by your Splatters’ goo explosions. You earn points by building up combos and taking out as many bombs with one Splatter as possible. The game has a similar structure to Angry Birds, you can earn up to three stars for each level.
The game’s use of physics is superb, the splatters react realistically to every impact and adds a special kind of randomness to each level. This does, however, result in a fundamental problem: Many of your stunts and combo’s are almost completely dependent on luck. The graphics and sound stacks up well to other XBLA titles.
The game’s controls work well and are very simplistic by design. You fling your Splatter by pointing in a direction with your analog stick and pressing A, how far your splatter flies depends on how long you press the button. Eventually you unlock Stunts, which are more advanced, stylish moves that help in taking out the bombs. The Splatters isn’t a particularly difficult game, whenever you get stuck you can simply press Y and the game will show you a way to complete the level.
There are a total of 65 levels for you to splatter your way through. Unfortunately, there is no multiplayer to speak of. The game does, however, have well implemented community features, namely leaderboards and an innovative feature called Splatter TV. Splatter TV is a network that allows you to download other players’ replays or upload your own. This is useful if you’re gunning for the top spot on the leaderboard and you need just a little extra help to grab the lead.
Overall, The Splatters is a great arcade game. It is a lot of fun to play and very addictive. Fans of the puzzle genre might feel that it has been done before (it is similar to Angry Birds – fling things to destroy other things). It is well worth the 800MSP and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun game to play in between the big AAA releases of the year.
Remember, comment below – stroke the man’s ego, tell him he’s awesome, tell us if you agree with him, or simply tell him you love him – and you could win a code for Sine Mora. Competition will close at noon on Monday 30 April.
Also, check out yesterday’s Diabolical Pitch review by Bryan ‘Sil3nt eck0’ Padayachee and the Anomaly: Warzone Earth review by Charl ‘PottyZA’ Potgieter and the Sine Mora review by Chris ‘SpirosZA’ Hartley from the days before.
