Gameworm Plays!- Smash Hit by Mediocre Studios

Game Worm Plays!

Smash Hit by Mediocre Studios. 

****

Smash is game released by Mediocre Studios for mobile devices. 

The gameplay is at its core a rail shooter but they put a lot of work in it to make the game its own. The first person player moves through a surreal crystalline environment of multiple rooms and obstacles. By touching the screen, marbles are thrown that shatter the obstacles in your way and also shattering blue crystals that replenish the supply of marbles. If you hit an obstacle you lose ten marbles and if you run out of marbles the game ends.

The glass and crystals shatter in realistic ways, even on levels where gravity does not operate in the normal fashion. The marbles move in the same way. Its not enough to simply aim the marble where you want it to go, you have to take into account gravity, and arc the ball towards its target. This realism dials up the challenge and makes every level unique.   

Where it shows that Mediocre really cares about its game is in its music. Every level has a unique vibe the matches the them of each room. Sometimes its energetic and sometimes slower paced, it is an constantly shifting environment that keeps the players on their toes.

While the player has the opportunity to return to checkpoints and/or the beginning in order to start over after losing or improve your score, the game pulls one on the player in how sometimes the levels are tweaked by the game to turn out slightly different. It is not simply a matter of memorizing the obstacles, quick reflexes are required. 

The only real critique is that there is no more levels after the final level and the game transitions into endless mode. 

Also, when the player gets to endless mode there are no opportunities to replenish the marbles. The level is designed to challenge the player but if the player has a low number of marbles, the endless mode ends very quickly. 

But on the best things about this game takes place outside of the game.

One of the main criticisms in mobile gaming or gaming in general is the rise of micro transactions. This especially prevalent in games such as a Candy Crush or online games such as World of Warcraft. In order to make a profit, the developers have you pay for coins or extra lives in order to progress in any significant fashion. 

Thankfully, Mediocre Studios took the high road in regards to money. The game is free in its present form and the premium version that you pay for: allows extra levels, save your progress, in game statistics and cloud save across multiple devices. Very much worth the price, especially the checkpoint system. 

There is a lot of temptation to return to earlier levels and improve your marble count for endless mode or simply to take in the atmosphere, so there is a great deal of replay value. The Worm hopes that they release a sequel or an expansion in the future as this is a very well done game and it would be nice to see more.