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Spellet by PuzzleSocial (iOS) Review

James Ku / Jun 22nd, 2012 No Comments

Spellet by PuzzleSocial

Spellet is PuzzleSocial’s first foray into the iOS market. Billed as “A Game of Strategy and Action”, Spellet is a puzzle game that, as its name suggests, involves spelling and pellets (well, letters and balls more like, but we’ll let that slight discrepancy slide). The game starts off fairly simply in early levels by having you simply tap one of four tubes to shoot a ball into the playing field from the tube you selected. After being shot out, the ball will bounce off corners at right angles and pop balloons, which must be popped in a certain order to form a goal word. Later levels quickly ramp up the difficulty, however, throwing in gameplay elements such as rubber bands that may be placed on the field to change the ball’s course, bells that cannot be popped but contribute letters when passed through, and balloons that the ball must not hit in order to form the goal word. A built-in hint system helps out players if they get stuck, ensuring you can always make progress through the 100 levels of puzzle gaming that Spellet provides.

Gameplay

Ball movement in Spellet when top right gun is tapped.

While I have no qualms about the puzzle mechanics themselves (in fact, I find them rather novel and clever), I do have a problem with their labeling of Spellet as “A Game of Strategy and Action”. Action would (in this reviewer’s mind, at least, and in the minds of other gamers as well, I’m sure) imply that some measure of reflexes would be required to be successful at the game. This is simply not the case in Spellet, however; once you place rubber bands on the playing field and tap a gun to fire the ball out of, the playing field of Spellet cannot be further altered. Despite the misleading labeling, Spellet does have its share of bright moments. The bouncing and spelling mechanics of this puzzler force the player to visualize the ball’s movement, which is pretty easy at first but quickly becomes fairly difficult to keep up with as one progresses through the levels. You can’t help but feel a sort of smug sense of satisfaction when you finally solve a difficult puzzle in Spellet considering there’s only one solution to every level.

Graphics

Considering PuzzleSocial released this game just a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see low-resolution sprites everywhere in the game. Spellet simply lacks the polish and crispness of puzzle favorites like Bejeweled and Peggle, which reflects negatively on the overall quality of the game.

Sound

Sound effects in Spellet are passable and correspond with what you’d expect to hear: launching the ball from one of the guns results in the sound of a gun firing, popping a balloon reults in the sound of balloon popping, and so on. There’s no music at all in the game, however, and as a result the game feels eerily silent and utterly devoid of any personality whatsoever.

This one's in the bag.

Replayability

I mentioned before how I didn’t agree with the second part of the label “A Game of Strategy and Action”. Well, I don’t quite agree with the first part either, for one main reason: the hint system. You can ask for hints regarding which gun to launch the ball out of and the placement of rubber bands… and there’s no penalty whatsoever! There’s no score to keep track of or brag about in Spellet, so it’s understandable that there’s no score penalty for using hints on a level, but there should at least be some sort of indication to tell the player “Hey, you used X number of hints on this level” to encourage the player to try to complete the level again at a later time with fewer hint usage. Games like Scribblenauts use a timed hint system, where the player must try to figure out a puzzle on their own for a set time before they can receive hints. Once again, however, even this type of hint system is not used in Spellet, so it is up to the player to refrain from using hints unless absolutely necessary… something which this reviewer will admit to failing to do numerous times during my time with Spellet. Basically, the hint system takes away any player desire for replayability since there’s no indication of hint usage if and when the player decides to go back and try to complete earlier levels.

Overall

Spellet isn’t a terrible game; in fact, I really did want to like it. Its interesting gameplay and immensely satisfying puzzle mechanics almost won me over, but the inexcusably low-resolution graphics, complete lack of background music, and penalty-less hint system show a lack of polish that would have gone a long way in making the game more enjoyable.

Overall Ratings – Spellet (iOS)

Gameplay:	7/10
Graphics:	4/10
Sound:	5/10
Replayability:	2/10
OVERALL SCORE:	65%

Overall Score for this review is not an average of the review ratings.

Bio
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James Ku

Contributor at Gaming Illustrated

James Ku has never been particularly skilled at any video game (except Dance Dance Revolution, to which he attributes his preferred username as well as his somewhat respectable legs), a quirk that has nevertheless failed to quell his passion for games of every creed (yes, he loves Assassin's Creed) and race (Need for Speed Underground 2 is his personal favorite). He is currently studying Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma.

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tags: ios , review

Spellet by PuzzleSocial (iOS) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Sound

Replayability

Overall

Overall Ratings – Spellet (iOS)

Gameplay:

7/10

Graphics:

4/10

Sound:

5/10

Replayability:

2/10

OVERALL SCORE:

65%

James Ku

Latest posts by James Ku (see all)

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