It’s hard to predict what’s going to make something stand out on the App Store. In the case of Gluddle, it was the screenshot above faintly recalling some Lemon Jelly album artwork. It’s quite the stylish game, to my eye.
It’s more physics-based fun, in this case launching bouncy balls (‘Gluddle’) to knock into targets (‘The Supervision’). Handily, you can freeze a Gluddle in mid-air whenever you like, to bounce subsequent Gluddle off. Less handily, The Supervision can also freeze Gluddle if they stay in their gaze too long.
As usual, levels slowly become more complicated – by the likes of black holes and transporters. And of course there are targets on time and number of Gluddles used.
What’s nice is that not all of the levels are highly orchestrated. There are levels with targets such that there’s only really one solution, but also more free-form levels. These have much higher targets, letting you freeze Gluddle all over the place and improvise your way to completion.
This plays neatly on the chaotic nature of the physics, where a small change to the launch angle can result in a very different path for your Gluddle several bounces later. It’s like throwing a bouncy ball very hard indoors and seeing what it smashes. Fun, in other words.
The only sticking point is the price. Peanuts in absolute terms, yes, but three times the price of many equally good one-screen physics-based games? It’s a tough market out there.
Version: iPhone
App Store: £1.99