Full Review

Sometimes it's nice to leave the adrenaline pumping, high speed, obstacle avoiding, death defying games for a while and play something with a slower pace. What's more relaxing than the ambient sounds of running water? And what if you had control over that water, tilting your iPhone around to pour it into the seeds of flowers and roots of trees to rehydrate the land? Well that's where Sploosh comes in. It seems sometimes cacti get a little too greedy and suck up all the water, sending flower seeds into hibernation. The solution is, of course, to poke each cactus till they burst in a cry of anguish and then direct that water to those that need it more.

It's been a while since we've played a game with full tilt controls but it makes you wonder why more games don't. Rotating your iPhone will change the gravity and send the water splashing down to the ground, or running along curves as you guide it to the tree at the end of each level. Sometimes you need to pool the water and then flatten your iPhone, which will enact a sort of zero gravity mode where the water turns into blobules that you can guide into harder to reach areas. Sploosh doesn't make use of the greatest water physics, in fact a lot of the time instead of water, it feels like you're controlling a more viscous liquid, like a syrup, but this doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the gameplay.

Stars are awarded at the end of each level for accomplishing various tasks. There's a star for hydrating the majority of the level for instance. Any surface the water touches will grow grass, and each level has a different percentage that needs to be reached for this star. There's a star for waking up all the flowers in a level, there's a star for completing the level in a certain time, and another star for beating that time. It's an interesting balance in that game takes such a laid back approach that the stars aren't that important, yet hydrating the level and waking the plants is something that you want to accomplish while playing anyway.

With a colorful yet muted palette and affective audio ambiance, Sploosh offers a physics puzzle experience that's worth a play. Like all physics puzzlers, things can get frustrating in the later levels, but you'll find yourself returning to this world of exploding cacti and water rotation when ever you need to slow things down and have some fun.

App Store Info