Spiral Splatter Review – Switch

The concept behind Spiral Splatter is a simple one. You control a ball with your thumbstick and have to guide it through ever increasingly complex maze corridors toward the end goal, trying to get there in a certain amount of time to achieve three stars. Touching the walls will splatter (hence the name) your ball against the walls of the maze. You can speed your ball up by pressing the A button, but that increases the risk of careening into the walls. As you go, the mazes begin adding obstacles, like buttons that open gates, or teleporters that will zip you from one part of the maze to another.

The game looks really clean and crisp. Considering how little is actually happening on the screen at any given time, that’s a good thing. Everything feels very immediate and there were never any times where I felt like collisions occurred when they shouldn’t have or vice versa. The color schemes of the different levels are all very pleasant and seem to do a very good job of conveying, even subconsciously, a sense of calm urgency, driving you toward the goal.

The only mechanic in the game that I felt was frustrating was the checkpoint system. On many of the maps, at about the halfway point, there will be a line that you cross that will allow you, if you hit the wall afterward, to start back at that point, instead of having to go back to the beginning. This sounds great in theory, except that the timer doesn’t reset when you go back to the checkpoint. It just keeps on ticking from the point where you were. So, the checkpoints end up being a useless mechanic when you’re trying to achieve higher star ratings. What usually happens if you use a checkpoint is that you end up completing the map but getting no stars.

And, like many games of its kind, in order to unlock a section of levels, you have to get a certain number of stars on the previous set of maps. So, just completing the levels isn’t good enough if you want to keep going in the game, getting stars is essential. Many times, I found myself restarting the level back at the beginning after hitting a wall, even if I had achieved the checkpoint, because it would invariably get me a better time, and therefore, a higher star rating when I finally did get it done all in one go.

In the end, the checkpoint mechanic being the biggest annoyance in the game is really minor. I enjoyed the game for what it was, especially because it wasn’t trying to be anything more than what it was, which is purely a simple puzzle game and a nice distraction that you can just pick up and play for a few minutes at a time.

Screenshot Gallery


Author: Brice Boembeke
My first memories of gaming are from when I was 5 years old and my dad got a Commodore 64. It has been almost 30 years and my passion for gaming has only grown. I play a little bit of everything, but am particularly interested in the emergent and unscripted gameplay that comes from open world, sandbox-style online multiplayer games. It is a very exciting time to be a gamer, but I still feel like the best is yet to come. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *