Spoing Review

Spoing is the story of a cave-dwelling little spike ball name Spoing. Spoing, like any self-respecting spike ball, loves his rainbow diamonds. One day, much to his dismay, Spoing's rainbow diamonds are stolen. Now he must traverse the caves he calls home in search of his rainbow diamonds and the thief that stole them. On his way, Spoing needs to be slingshotted from platform to springy platform avoiding obstacles, enemies, and fatal falls.

Slinging Spoing along his journey is tricky, but the subtle controls make it possible to guide him where he needs to be. Slingshotting is only part of the process. By tilting the iOS device to the left or right Spoing's trajectory can be adjusted ever so slightly, giving him the last touch he might need to get to that next platform.

The environments vary from cave to cave and the gorgeous environments artfully invoke the feeling of climbing up through dark dank caverns. While dodging spiders, lizards, falling rocks, and other dangers it is easy to get lost in the beautiful gloom of Spoing's caves.

Rainbow diamonds won't be the only diamonds to look for either. There are all kinds of diamonds to find on the way, and each of them will pause the completion timer for one or four seconds depending on their size. This will allow you to clear each cave with a faster time and gain more rating points and experience points for doing so. These points will allow you to unlock each subsequent section of the cave, of which there are five. If you don't have enough points to open the next section, you can go back to earlier levels to earn more points.

Things start out fairly simple, slinging from platform to platform, but levels become more challenging as you begin to place your own slingshot platforms. Every two green diamonds collected can be used to place the two individual points needed to form a new platform where Spoing can land. Using these platforms will help Spoing reach new parts of each level and get through the levels faster. They can be tricky to place quickly though; often leaving Spoing in a free-fall. If Spoing does manage to find his way to the end of the cave though, he'll find one of his beloved rainbow diamonds waiting for him.

Flinging this little guy around caves and narrowly avoiding death at every bounce can make for some intense moments. Still, the slinging and flinging can get a bit repetitive. The games visuals manage to keep things interesting enough through the the game's shorter levels, but in longer levels the tedium can begin to set in. Luckily, periodic save points forgo the need to start a level over from the start at every overshot.

There are plenty of reasons to love this quirky little game, but getting faster times and more points will keep players slingshotting for every last diamond.