Defying Gravity

Gravity Hopper is a game created by reverse

Introduction

As I may have not written a review lately, because I didn't have the inspiration, or at other times was busy in real life or making a game, I made today different, by bringing you a review of a game made by the member known as Reverse. Reverse has been a member of Sploder for over two years now, and during such time has focused exclusively on the creation of Physics Puzzle Maker games (PPGs). He has become fairly well known, having published 11 games, of which 3 have been featured. Reverse has been a bit inactive recently, having published his last game almost a year ago. That game � Gravity Hopper � is the subject of this review. What is Gravity Hopper all about? Let�s find out�

Review

Gravity Hopper is a PPG set in outer space, in which you are required to guide your round yellow player from planet to planet, dodging red floating enemies, in search of the black hole portal. I found it a simple, yet challenging game that takes players through five levels, each having something new to bring (so� lets see what the game here brings us).

A criticism I found of this game is that it contains no storyline. There are no developed characters, plot or finale, and there is no story that unfolds as you make your way through the various levels. By adding a creative storyline, reverse could have gave a meaning to the game as a whole�. however, lacked to do so, making the game less interesting when you first start playing.

When it comes to gameplay, Gravity Hopper lives up to its name. When navigating each level, players are required to contemplate the effects of gravity before making each move, to make sure the player is guided from planet to planet safely. I liked this, because is it was simple, yet still very enjoyable. As well as that, the easy gameplay allowed players to not get frustrated trying to figure it out, and let them get started playing right away, knowing the objective of the game and how to complete it.

As you advance through the levels, your player encounters a number of obstacles and traps. Every level is filled with red floating enemies (hit an enemy while traveling through space and it�s �game over�). Regular walls and bouncy walls/blocks serve in different places as both obstacles and strategically placed barriers against which you must hit your player in order to travel from one planet to the next (where such planets are not set in a straight line). The placement of all these objects was pretty good (making you take a while before each move), it wasn't great though, as some of the planets and enemies where requiring luck to get to or pass.

While a lot of games on Sploder use the PPG tool (as it's the most popular creator on the site), reverse found a way to create an original game that makes very effective use of the gravity feature. Even though reverse has created other gravity-type games, he found a way to generate a new idea that keep his ever-evolving games fresh and interesting.

This is one difficult game! Not only has no Sploder member completed the game; it can take a number of tries just to pass the first playable level. As the levels progress, reverse adds an increasing number of enemies and obstacles as well as requiring players to deal with smaller passageways that offer decreasing margins of error� however, the progression of difficulty is too high, as on a scale it would go from "level 1" as easy, and then "level 2", being hard.

Although this game was increasing difficultly at a high scale, more importantly I still found it worth playing. I can't say it's the best game game here, but it was worth clicking on it and playing it, because overall it was fun, and I personally think that is a big factor of games.

Like the gameplay, reverse kept the graphics simple. While basic graphics would reduce the quality of many games, here it works. Gravity Hopper is driven by the gravity-themed physics challenge, and actually benefits from clean graphics and an uncluttered game space, letting you focus on the objective of the game.

Pros & Cons

�Pros

-Appearance: Even without graphics, this game had an overall nice, outer space like feel to it, which I like.

-Gameplay: The gameplay of the levels individually was nice, as new concepts were brought forward in each level.

-Puzzles/Traps: I liked how you had to figure out what blocks/ planets were either there to trick you, or just there for the purpose of using them to move forward.

-Originality: The concept of a gravity-type game on sploder wasn't anything new, but I like how he found a new kind of way to use it.

-Addictiveness: Very addictive, as I could keep on playing it over and over for a while, but still not get bored.

-Fun: I enjoyed the game and even if I didn't beat all of it, it was still fun to play.

�Cons

-Storyline: Gave sort of a bad first appearance to the game, even maybe a short a brief storyline would improve that.

-Difficulty: Too hard� you can keep on trying over and over, but eventually you'll end of rage quitting, because the levels have a big difference in difficulty between them.

-Length: I would prefer it to maybe be a few more levels� so it can balance out the difficulty between the levels, and give you more to play, because five levels is on the shorter end for PPGs.

Ratings

Appearance: 9/10

Originality: 7.5/10

Difficulty: 5.5/10

Gameplay: 6.5/10

Puzzles/ Traps: 8/10

How Fun It Was: 8/10

Addictiveness: 7.5/10

Storyline: 5/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

Feature Worthy?

While Gravity Hopper is an exciting game by many accounts, it falls just short of being �feature worthy�. Recommended changes would be the addition of more levels to even out the increase in difficulty and the introduction of a storyline.