Spheritis

Chill game. Just wish I had the patience to play it. Good job, bluestrike! I've always enjoyed your work. (HL2: Awakening and your CS maps)

I was hoping for something more like Marble Maddness or Super Monkey Ball. Unfortunately this game is a lot slower paced and relies a lot more on puzzle solving than dexterity. The worst thing is how much you have to spend rolling around doing the neccessary puzzle solving steps after you've already figured it out. IT's like if the block pushing parts of zelda were an entire game. Also the controls felt a bit too sluggish for me. Alltogether I liked a lot about this game, its good visuals and relaxing audio but I cant recommend it.

If I were to describe Spheritis in a single word, I would probably call it "hopeful". I would also be inclined to call it "convoluted", which is unfourtunately the word that stands out to me.

Spheritis is a game in the same vein as Ballance, Aerox, Monkey Ball and a good number of others. In these games you roll a ball around a stage, solving puzzles and watching as the natural flow of the level either provides the feeling of speeding along rolling hills or the curves of a racetrack, or sends you off the side and into oblivion. Most games of this ball-rolling genre have one or the other, but more often they are a mix.

Currently, Spheritis is halfway there, by which I mean it's slow. No matter which type of ball you're using, the control always feels like it's giving into the terrain more than your keyboard, and I often find them sliding further than I wanted them to even when I don't have to deal with ice, as if they're all made of heavy stone. Granted, this isn't all that much of a problem in the end, but it can be annoying.

Next, the levels, and this is where "convoluted" comes into it. In each level you are required to press a number of switches that will open the exit portal, avoiding traps and other hazards along the way. To do this you are afforded six different powerups - so far I have found Jump, Speed, Levitate and Shrink. Might edit this review once I find the other two - that will help you reach those switches. At first it doesn't sound like a problem, but having to go back and forth across the level, finding the wood ball workshop to be light enough to boost over the gap to get the shrink powerup to then get that button at the other end of the map but oh wait... crushy trap in the way. I need to go back to change to a steel ball in order to get through.

Convoluted. That word is the bane of many games, but this type I feel suffers more from it. Ball-rolling (or whatever the actual name for the genre is) games need to have a certain flow to them in order to stay fun. Ballance did this perfectly, which each part of the level leading onto the next. The puzzles still needed to be solved, but it really felt like you were getting somewhere once you did so. In its current state, Spheritis will have you backtracking again and again, looking for where you left that stone ball workshop so that the spikes won't kill you. There are also bonus stars to find in each level, though right now I don't really see what they add other then something to have an achievement for.

Now for the "hopeful" side. Spheritis looks like it has potential, definitely. While the level designs could do with some more imagination, and the mechanics given a few tweaks here or there, I do think some of the groundwork and developer skill is evident so far. Especially given the fact that this is just one person who has made this entire game so far. I... wouldn't say buy it just yet - although at just £5.00, that's pretty cheap to be fair - but keep an eye on it. It could be a worthy addition to the genre given time.

First Look! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdtv2ojFbbQ

I haven't gotten very far (yet!), but the game is both entertaining and creative. If you like puzzle solvers this one is a good one, especially since it's one that feels less like 'just solve the puzzle already' and more like 'oohhh, what's over here?', which I feel is a good thing. It's always a plus when you're encouraged to explore just by the simple fact of being some place.