Play Out Of A Sticky Situation - Our Review Of Sticky
by Staff Writer
February 11, 2011
There’s a whole new meaning of sticky situation with the new action puzzle game Sticky. You control a little orange blob, Sticky, and slingshot it around the screen at the various evil black globs. Part of the surface is orange goo, and Sticky sticks to it, and uses it to launch at the black globs.
The game begins with a story where Professor Bunsen and Dr. Globule are looking to make a new energy source, and create Sticky. Sadly afterwards their machine explodes releasing black globs which overtake Dr. Globule, and turn him evil. It’s up to Sticky to beat back the black sludge, defeat Dr. Globule, and save Professor Bunsen.
The gameplay is simple enough as you simply pull back on Sticky, and release to launch him at the black sludge. Your goal is to defeat them all before they reach the sewer pipe to spread out beyond the laboratory’s surrounding area. There are four different environments with 10 levels each that give you different orange goop layouts, and enemies to deal with.
Enemies come in different varieties including regular, ice, huge, bouncy, rocky, and more. When you defeat special enemies you get access to power-ups which give you those special abilities. The power-ups though sometimes do more harm than good as certain ones don’t work with particular level layouts, or can send you off the mark while black globs slide past you.
The game mechanic and style is relatively simple because launching Sticky is easy, and there never feels like an overload of enemies. The problem is that you can only see part of a level at a time so it’s tough to aim at enemies you can’t see, and you can lose track of them too. Also, when you’re bouncing in the goo, sometimes you move an inch when you want to launch across the screen to where the enemies are.
You really need to bounce from top to bottom and vice versa, but you can’t travel as far or as fast that way. A zoom would help, or if the goo was less sticky to allow you to move laterally easier. When there are enemies in your sight it’s nice launching into them, and then watching Sticky bounce up and down to make a combo.
The game has a nice art style though no retina quality graphics, but it’s still nicely designed especially the various emotions on Sticky’s face depending on how you launch him, and what he hits. Then there are the various transformation animations depending on the special power you use, and what enemies you hit. The level design is very well done to offer a lot of variation with shifting amounts of goo as well as gravity which always changes your shot trajectory.
The included story is a nice addition so that you want to continue through that mode, and there is also endless survival mode for each of the four environments. Sticky is a game that seems to have the makings to be good, and it’s one you just want to like because of the little orange guy. Then you start playing, and you experience little challenge, and frustrating control mechanics. The game has a few crashing problems from time to time on start up or when accessing Crystal.
Sticky ($0.99, iPhone) is simply not worth picking up with many better more enjoyable choices in the App Store.
The game begins with a story where Professor Bunsen and Dr. Globule are looking to make a new energy source, and create Sticky. Sadly afterwards their machine explodes releasing black globs which overtake Dr. Globule, and turn him evil. It’s up to Sticky to beat back the black sludge, defeat Dr. Globule, and save Professor Bunsen.
The gameplay is simple enough as you simply pull back on Sticky, and release to launch him at the black sludge. Your goal is to defeat them all before they reach the sewer pipe to spread out beyond the laboratory’s surrounding area. There are four different environments with 10 levels each that give you different orange goop layouts, and enemies to deal with.
Enemies come in different varieties including regular, ice, huge, bouncy, rocky, and more. When you defeat special enemies you get access to power-ups which give you those special abilities. The power-ups though sometimes do more harm than good as certain ones don’t work with particular level layouts, or can send you off the mark while black globs slide past you.
The game mechanic and style is relatively simple because launching Sticky is easy, and there never feels like an overload of enemies. The problem is that you can only see part of a level at a time so it’s tough to aim at enemies you can’t see, and you can lose track of them too. Also, when you’re bouncing in the goo, sometimes you move an inch when you want to launch across the screen to where the enemies are.
You really need to bounce from top to bottom and vice versa, but you can’t travel as far or as fast that way. A zoom would help, or if the goo was less sticky to allow you to move laterally easier. When there are enemies in your sight it’s nice launching into them, and then watching Sticky bounce up and down to make a combo.
The game has a nice art style though no retina quality graphics, but it’s still nicely designed especially the various emotions on Sticky’s face depending on how you launch him, and what he hits. Then there are the various transformation animations depending on the special power you use, and what enemies you hit. The level design is very well done to offer a lot of variation with shifting amounts of goo as well as gravity which always changes your shot trajectory.
The included story is a nice addition so that you want to continue through that mode, and there is also endless survival mode for each of the four environments. Sticky is a game that seems to have the makings to be good, and it’s one you just want to like because of the little orange guy. Then you start playing, and you experience little challenge, and frustrating control mechanics. The game has a few crashing problems from time to time on start up or when accessing Crystal.
Sticky ($0.99, iPhone) is simply not worth picking up with many better more enjoyable choices in the App Store.
