Rapid Review: Spirit HD - Sucking Up Enemies

On the iPad there is a bigger area to draw your path, a larger perspective of the play area, and even more enemies. You really have to careful where you draw with so many different enemies on the screen as you may accidentally run into one. On the iPhone version it’s tough to maneuver precisely because you only have so much room to draw, but the problem is definitely rectified on the iPad.

The game lets you play in either portrait or landscape and each offer a rather different game style. Like the iPhone version you will still have instances where your hand blocks part of the screen so you can run into enemies on accident. With more enemies on the iPad screen the number of accidents can increase.

The normal mode is one where you can last longer making it through more waves, and is the heart of the game. The extreme mode amps up the challenge tenfold so the screen is literally packed with enemies. It’s difficult to even find space to draw black holes to get rid of some of the enemies.

There are multiple types of enemies each with their own skill set and attack strategy, and usually you have to face multiple types at once. There is never a dull moment with constant action that is always running smoothly on the iPad. The style looks great, and watching the enemies sucked into the warp holes is plenty satisfying.

The controls are smooth like you would expect from a line drawing game, but the spirit doesn’t always follow right where you finger went. Sometimes it’s off just a bit which will result in running into an enemy. This happens too many times to really have fun with this game, and with the same mechanic over and over the problem compounds.

Spirit HD is definitely better than the sub par iPhone version, but still is frustrating at times. It’s worth considering for $2.99, but there are better ways to spend that money in the App Store.