Use Physics And Make Your Way To The Black Hole In Supermassive

Supermassive ($0.99) by Vesa Kippola is a physics-based puzzle game that makes use of actual physics — you know, the kind you learned in school.

Remember when you learned about the three states of matter? That solid, liquid, and gas stuff? You’ll be putting those to use in Supermassive, which will challenge you to get from point A to point B in as little time as possible using these three states. Our main character can change into water, a vapor, and a rock (it looks like one) to help himself get to the black hole at the end of the level. I personally don’t understand why you would purposely want to go towards a black hole, but I suppose it doesn’t matter here.

There are three areas for you to explore, and 20 levels in each. If you are good enough at the game and can get all stars, then you will be able to unlock bonus levels for each environment. In order to collect stars (up to three), you will need to complete the stage in the fastest amount of time possible. Don’t worry — you will most likely have to replay levels multiple times to achieve this, as it is all about memorizing each level and knowing when to change form.

So what are the controls like? There really isn’t much to it — there are three buttons at the bottom of the screen that will transform you: water, vapor, and rock. Once you start changing, the character will be moving on the level, so don’t worry about that. The buttons are the only controls, and movement will depend on the form.

Liquid allows you to slide through solid objects with spaces in them, or you can just slide on surfaces. The gas state allows you to float and glide along surfaces above you, and the solid state allows you to fall faster, bounce, and stay on platforms with spaces in them (you will go through them if you are in liquid form).

The game features some decent visuals, which are all hand-drawn. There is music on the game menu and level select screens, but not really during actual levels (there’s a few background sounds). I wish that the game did have more sounds during actual play, because at the moment it just feels like it is missing something, and music would probably help.

I’m also surprised that there is no Game Center support for leaderboards or achievements. I know that achievements may be harder to incorporate for a game like this, but leaderboards would have been a no-brainer. Hopefully in the future.

Still, I am enjoying the game so far, despite the flaws. If you’re a fan of physics-based puzzle games, then Supermassive is worth checking out. You can grab it for $0.99 in the App Store for your iPhone.