Gravity Sling Deluxe: Lots of Content and Tricky Puzzles Keep You Coming Back For More Spiraling Fun

Gravity Sling Deluxe iPhone
Gravity Sling Deluxe [rating: 4/5]

Back in the 80’s when I was younger than I am now I got a Spirograph for Christmas. For those of you that don’t know, a Spirograph was a toy that enabled you to draw mathematical, symmetrical drawings by rolling a pen or pencil across a piece of paper via a whole in different style cogs. What does this have to do with Gravity Sling Deluxe I hear you ask, well these mathematical spirals are also drawn in this game as you launch your spaceman back to dock with his spaceship. They look beautiful as they automatically generate but while this is one of the best parts of this game for me, it’s also the worst.

Anyway, on with the game!

Gravity Sling Deluxe is a puzzle inertia game where you’ll launch your spaceman into space with the intention of using the gravitational pull of various planets to spin you through space and eventually to your spaceship. The initial graphics are relatively simple, a small space ship and, in comparison, a giant of a spaceman and a few planets are sprinkled across the back drop of space and while there are nothing spectacular they are effective.

Gravity Sling Deluxe iPhone_1

For most of the early levels the planets are static and only vary by size and placement. Your challenge from here is to use the arrow emanating from your spaceman to control the direction and power of your trajectory to start the initial motion. Depending of the level sooner or later your spaceman will soon be sucked into the gravitational pull of the first planet you fly near. How much you are affected by the gravitational pull will depend on the size of the planet and how close to it you are but you will soon find yourself circulating the planet hoping to be slingshot to another planet or direct to your spaceship.

It’s during this time that the beautiful spirograph line drawings are made as your path is drawn behind you. On some of the levels a couple of rotations will soon see you landing at your target while on others you will be spinning around multiple planets over and over again as you make your way home.

It’s this aspect that for me is a double-edged sword. Sure the patterns look beautiful and rarely are two patterns the same, however once you have launched your spaceman all you can do is sit back and relax while you wait to see if your initial force and direction were accurate enough to get you back to your spaceship. For some levels you’ll find your self waiting for up to 30 seconds to see if you succeed and I often found myself doing something else only to come back a couple of minutes later to see if I was successful or whether I had plummeted head first into one of the planets or even been lost in outer space!

If you do crash, or disappear into outer space, restarting the level is very straight forward as the level is immediately re-drawn. To make things a little easier for you your previous arrow location is stored so you can easily make slight adjustments to make your route more successful than your previous attempt.

For 99 cents you get 109 levels of gravitational fun, which is a lot of levels for you money! These levels are split into groups including starting with 19 standard levels the first few of which include a brief tutorial, 30 Stationary, 30 Movers and 30 Challenge levels meaning that there is enough here to keep you puzzled and entertained for many hours.

To add even more value the game is linked to the OpenFeint meaning that your scores and achievements, of which there are 26 in total, are synchronized to the OpenFeint servers enabling you to track your high scores and achievements against other players and your friends. A nice addition that adds more value to what you already have for your 99 cents (iTunes Link). Not only that, Twitter and Facebook integration is also included.

Overall Gravity Sling Deluxe is a great way to spend a dollar, lots of content and tricky puzzles that will keep you coming back for more spiraling fun over and over again.

The Good

  • More levels than you can throw a stick at
  • Unique inertia style puzzles
  • Slick OpenFeint integration

The Not So Good

  • No influence after initial lunch
  • Some slow levels

Reviewed by: @CraigWillis

Gravity Sling Deluxe Gameplay Video

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