Sproinkus!! Sproink is a fun game!!Now for those of you who looked at the word “sproinkus” and thought “Has Velea finally lost it?”, the answer is, well, probably. But once you download and start playing Sproink, you'll find the word “sproinkus” coming in to your vocabulary much like people used to “smurf” everything in the late 70's did. The little guys are just too cute and the storyline simply too fun to not want to keep playing the levels of the game just to hear them babble at you.
Sproink is an arcade style game that combines elements of other casual games in ways I've not previously seen, which automatically made it a hit in my book. You start out with the top of the screen being covered with different colored diamonds. These diamonds fall one at a time, and your goal is to move your sproink cart back and forth across the bridge that's at the bottom of the screen trying to catch them. If you miss, one of the rows of the bridge disappears and some Sproinklings are lost. If you catch them, you use the mouse button to shoot them back up at the collection of diamonds at the top, combining the color you caught with others of the same color to make them disappear. You aim not just by lining up the cart under where you want to fire it, but by the angle that it is fired from and by how long you hold down the mouse button before firing. Once the board is cleared in this way, you are given a score of how many Sproinklings you saved (or lost), and move on to the next level. It might sound easy, but trust me when I say that it isn't easy to master at all.
As you move through levels, there are special squares and objects which fall that make the game more complicated. One of the things that falls from the sky, for example, will cause your sproink cart to shake back and forth, which makes it much harder to “steer” accurately across the bridge. Some of the special diamonds on the board are switches that if you hit them just right will clear all of one color, of automatically end the level for you, but you have to be very accurate when shooting to hit one of these levers. There are “black hole” like diamonds that will suck up whatever you shoot at it, too, which can really complicate matters. There are also small groups of usually about 25 Sproinklings that will sometimes float across in a hot air balloon trying to escape and can add to your total rescued for the level. Hit them with one of the diamonds, though, and their balloon pops, so be careful where you fire when these guys are coming across. Oh, and the bridge changes shape on some levels as well. It isn't always just a flat set of lines across the bottom. Sometimes it is curved upward, other times it is a wave, and the shape of the bridge does indeed modify how the diamonds are fired from your sproink cart. It gets complicated, in other words.
There's a storyline to the game as well. The story says that on a distant planet, Sproinkus, little sproinkling scientists made a frightening discovery. An enormous asteroid was on a collision course with their planet! They devised a plan to save as many sproinklings as possible, because collision with the asteroid was unavoidable. The project called for building an underground save haven deep below ground to save as many sproinklings as possible. The project worked, and about 5 million sproinklings were saved. It has been 300 years since the asteroid hit, and now supplies are running out. Your goal is to clear the way for as many sproinklings as possible to reach the surface. Which is where the falling crystals that you have to destroy on each level come in. Along the way there are landmarks, or milestones, on the map. These are mostly just for fun, but also seem to be where the game itself jumps a bit in difficulty. But the storyline is a fun little addition to the game.
The game is really very easy to learn, all my kids like to help me play it, making suggestions where to shoot the next diamond to. But it isn't at all easy to master. I've only made it about half way through the game at this point, and have lost a LOT of sproinklings along the way. Replayability comes from wanting to go back and play the earlier levels to try to master them and do better so that you don't leave as many little sproinklings behind. The graphics are cute and simple, and as I said at the start of the review, the sound effects are fun. It is one of the few games that I'll leave the sound on for while playing, in fact, because I do enjoy it. If you're looking for something to be able to pick up and play any time for a few minutes, or an hour at a time, Sproink very much fits that style of game. It is one that can easily hook you in, or that you can put down after playing just a level or two, and is a new twist on casual puzzle type games. I've enjoyed it very much.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
