Puckerz! Review

Developer: Groundbreaking Games
Price: $0.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone

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In Puckerz!, you sling a puck around a stage, racking up points by collecting orbs. When you first launch the app, you get to choose your puck (which only makes an aesthetic difference; all the pucks behave the same) and then the level. There are over 30 levels altogether, and while they start off easy, they become increasingly more challenging.

At the start of each level, you sling the puck in the direction you want, and then it shoots all over the level, collecting orbs, destroying blocks and bouncing off walls. Eventually, the pucks slows to a stop, and you have to launch it again. There's a time limit, and you're graded on how many orbs you collect. If you get them all, you get a score of 100%. As long as you earn the minimum score, you'll unlock the next level.

While the concept sounds so simple that it may be boring, I promise that it's not. Partly what saves Puckerz! from this fate is the consistent introduction of new game elements. For example, a couple levels into the game, a new obstacle is added: a red ring that when touched reduces the level's time remaining by 10 seconds. Later in the game, speed orbs are introduced, which give your puck a boost. And there are even more power-ups and obstacles than these. Indeed, the constant addition of new game mechanics keeps Puckerz! fresh when it might otherwise have become stale.

At times, the experience reminds me of playing a pinball machine. You know that feeling you get when you launch the pinball and you're watching it go all over the place and you can't really do anything about what's going on? That's Puckerz!. Whether or not that's a good or bad thing depends on the person playing, I'd say.

Puckerz! is one of those games that's truthfully somewhat shallow, but despite this, it's easy-to-play nature gives it an addictive quality. You'll want to keep playing and playing. This is a fun, casual game that anyone can enjoy, and for a dollar, it's definitely worth downloading.