[GSRRS] You Spin Me Right Round

Spin is a game created by mat7772

Baby right round like a record, baby, right round roun... Sorry about that. The song's been stuck in my head for a while for some random reason. Anyways...

In the past few months, there have been many new and fascinating PPGs being created, from both amateur & upcoming creators, and the more experienced, veteran creators. In this PPG craze, Matt also released his new game, Spin. Despite its extreme simplicity, the name, for me at least, was very intriguing and attracted me very strongly. Although the PPG isn't Matt's strength, he has made some amazing PPGs in the past. This guy, he's sort of an all-rounder; he makes amazing games for nearly all game creators, but his main strength is the Platformer. So I quickly lunged for the game and prepped myself while the page loaded for an epic challenge.

Spin was based upon a spinning pentagon. That was something I had never seen in Sploder before, which made me even more interested. I love playing games that introduce new concepts. It's quite rare for someone to come up with a brand new idea. Then of course that idea is used in nearly every single game made after it and all its pizzazz gets worn out. But to move, you basically just moved your mouse around the controllable pentagon in one direction (bleeps :P) depending on where you want to move it. But the controls, while being a great idea, were kind of annoying. They were very tedious and just really made you want to scream sometimes. Of course, that might just be me because I sort of am an impatient guy who hates it when things just don't work for me. If these controls were improved upon, it would really improve the overall enjoyment of the game. But I think, using my limited knowledge on PPGs, that that's something that no user can do unless Geoff improves it with some of his almighty powers. So Matt did well in this part. Although, I did think the first few levels were too dependant on the pusher blocks that pushed you up, but that wasn't a problem as the future levels were more challenging.

Spin included several hazards such as the fire-lava-balls and the boss in level 4, and a couple of puzzles & traps. It included obstacles like those fire balls in level 3, had intense action moments like in level 4 with the boss, and a few puzzles and traps here and there. For example, the last few platforms in level 3 were just above a lava pool, but it was placed as such (and this is a beat, uh, you can't touch) so you couldn't see the lava pool, and end up falling right into it. And then when you'd get round to that place again, you'd have forgotten the lava pool and fall in it again... ._. . Well that's what happened with me. So I guess that can be perceived as a trap. And there were those amazing WRREEECKIING BALLLS (I never hit so hard in loveee). At first, I just thought they were there as aesthetics, but then, after falling into the void pit and realising there WASN'T anything in there, I figured out the WREEECKKING BALLLS were to actually push you onto the other side. But again, that's what happened with me, and it might just be me being an absolute downie (i.e a stupid person). And of course then I spent like 5 minutes trying to not whack myself to the OTHER side of the hole... But seriously, Matt included a satisfying number of puzzles and traps, which is what I think suit this game the most.

Spin is the type of game in which one main aspect is developed thoroughly, rather than having a decent amount of everything. The main aspect here was the idea where you control the character by spinning around the pentagon. So that's why graphics weren't necessary here. Matt used very few graphics (excluding the text graphics), which might be a problem in other games, but it certainly wasn't here. In fact, I think it was a good thing. The map was mainly made up of shapes drawn using the drawing tool, which might've been hard to make graphics for, so that might be a reason as to why Matt didn't use many graphics. But whatever the reason, the game looked excellent. Plus, it's not like he made poorly drawn shapes. The shapes were made with great precision, designed to make sure that the player can move correctly without going into wrong places by accident. We can tell Matt tested this game many times, to make sure everything was placed in the correct position by the fact how when we stepped upon the pushers we were directed in the correct way, with the shapes guiding us to where we needed to go. In a few occasions, the placement felt a bit incorrect, but with this game in particular, the placement would've been extremely hard and tedious as there were many free-form shapes.

Pros:

-Brand new concept

-Simple, yet effective scenery

-Interesting puzzles and traps

Cons:

-Annoying controls

Ratings:

Puzzles & Traps - ****/5 - Great use of quick puzzles here and there to keep us alert and challenged. But I sometimes feel a few more would've been good.

Enemies & Hazards - *****/5 - This sort of game doesn't need many enemies, but the boss battle was a fun addition.

Scenery - ****/5 - Nice simple aesthetics suited this game well.

Placement - ***.5/5 - It probably would've been a challenge for Matt to get perfect, so I don't blame him, but like I said earlier, it felt odd sometimes.

Overall Gameplay - ***.5/5 - It was pretty much only the controls that bought it down to 3.5

OVERALL RATING: 4/5

Conclusion:

Spin introduced a brand new concept to the members of Sploder and it's great simplicity really made it stand out from the other games out there. Matt really continued his streak of good PPGs with this, so it's no doubt it was featured. The EGL was a bit too much for this though. There were several aspects to this game that could've been improved upon to make this even better, but until those are improved, I don't think this would fit in the EGL.

How to improve it?:

The controls would obviously be the first thing to say here, but as I previously said, that's something that I believe only Geoff will be able improve. Some more puzzles would've really been nice, and if Matt possibly spent even longer on the placement, perfecting it, then it'd be next to flawless. I'm looking forward to any other PPGs Matt makes.