Xbox on Windows Phone Review: Gerbil Physics

In a software lineup crowded by physics puzzle games, whatsoever new physics puzzler needs some kind of hook in society to become players' attention. Gerbil Physics from Pencel Games does this by being astonishingly cute and occasionally clever. How important is that cuteness? Having played every unmarried Xbox Live-enabled game in the genre, I can assure you that Gerbil Physics' abundance of personality is most appreciated. On pinnacle of that, information technology likewise has the full-blooded of originally existence an indie game for Xbox 360, much like Shoot 1UP and IonBallEX, making it equally worth a look.

Rescuing gerbils from the darkness

Unlike well-nigh physics puzzlers, Gerbil Physics has an actual story with introduction and ending. The evil Toad Rex hates gerbils – peculiarly cute ones. He imprisons countless gerbils in blocks and uses them to build monuments to his own greatness. By demolishing these monuments, players can save the gerbils and restore happiness to the kingdom. As for the Toad King, he certainly resembles the Frog King who helped Lemmiwinks the gerbil in seasons six and 15 of Southward Park, doesn't he?

Too beautiful to 'splode

Equally I mentioned, Gerbil Physics' best quality is its abundance of ambrosial artwork. Outside of gameplay, you'll grab such heartwarming glimpses every bit a ninja gerbil vanishing into smoke on the title screen, a gerbil pirate trying to look menacing during a loading screen, and more than. Though I dear the external (not-gameplay) artwork, it'due south not perfect. Much of it displays pinch artifacts, and backgrounds meant to wait black instead show upward as gray. Considering how much of the game is focused on these illustrations, it's odd that the developers utilized a very lossy saving format for them.

During gameplay, gerbils come in a diverseness of shapes and sizes (cubes, spheres, and triangles). They blink, sneeze, laugh, and make other loftier-pitched sounds equally they await for you lot to solve the puzzles and set them free. Explode a bomb and they go flying, resulting in a multifariousness of surprised expressions. Watching these gerbils is then much more than fun than the generic blocks of Implode! and even the round protagonists of iBlast Moki.

It's non merely the gerbils that lend the game personality, either. Sit down at the title screen for a while and bombs will eventually knock the letters of the title away. The backgrounds are mostly well-drawn, with the exception of the blurry mess of a fire background that appears in a handful of levels. They all brand smart use of parallax scrolling to create a sense of depth – not something you see in also many puzzle games.

Sound-wise, I love the gerbil voices. The single piece of music fits well, only eventually grows tiresome. As with most mobile games, a few actress songs wouldn't have hurt.

Bombs away

Each level contains a unique arrangement of gerbils to rescue. The goal is to get every single gerbil (excluding alarm gerbils) to fall below a yellowish horizontal line. To exercise this, yous'll make utilise of a express number of bombs. Tap anywhere on the screen to set the bomb and its timer starts. Once information technology goes off, any nearby gerbils will become flying.

The greatest gameplay deviation between Gerbil Physics and other bomb-based physics puzzlers is that here yous don't accommodate all the bombs and and so actuate a detonation. Instead, players can tap multiple locations, with each bomb immediately starting its inaugural. This makes the gameplay feel slightly less linear and predictable, for better or worse. Some levels can be completed with a single serial of rapidly-placed bombs, for which the player receives a Wipeout rating (contributing towards a few Achievements).

Later levels innovate two extra tools to piece of work with: exploders and disintegrators. Exploders popular instantly but with less force than a regular bomb. They're useful for moving gerbils shorter distances. Disintegrators instantly remove a single gerbil structure without any sort of explosion. You'll sometimes demand them to remove stone gerbils that are otherwise immune to explosions.

Going for the gold

As with bombs, any unused tools contribute to the player's score at the end of a level. Chain reactions – knocking multiple gerbils below the line simultaneously – too award a ton of points. Reaching a sure score at the end of the level gets you a golden medal, as with most games in this genre. Replaying levels for higher scores is much easier since the version i.1 update, which brought the game'southward interface up to modernistic standards. However, that only applies to the pause and level completion menus. Gerbil Physics still lacks an instant replay push button during gameplay (unlike most other physics games), so players have to pause a level by hit the Dorsum button and so choosing to retry – an actress footstep.

Gerbil Physics launched with 72 levels (as compared to the XBLIG version'southward paltry 24), several of which come from the XBLIG sequel Gerbil Physics ii. The recent update bumped the number of levels up to a whopping 84. Some levels tin can be completed in just seconds. I even got gold medals on my commencement endeavour many times. But other times, the solution will be far less clear, requiring multiple attempts to pass, let alone get a gold rating. Some stages are just plain clever and fun. My favorite is a Space Invaders-themed level later in the game, complete with slowly descending 'invaders.'

Achievements

As you'd await from a physics puzzler, many of the Achievements deal with earning gold medals and Wipeouts. The Achievement for getting 72 gold medals would have been pretty tough prior to the update. Games similar this are bound to stump you now then, at which point a savvy player would plough to the net for assistance. But not every level's solution has been posted online, so I could see some players (similar me) getting stuck with a few golds short of the goal. Thankfully the update'south levels 73-84 contribute towards the Achievement, providing a welcome fleck of jerk room. Cheque out Arsenic17's Achievement Guide for more details.

Besides the standard 'cheevo goals, the game as well includes 7 level specific ones. These include beating a level using only 1 tool, nether a certain time, and even making a gerbil spin around a bunch of times. 'Penguin lover' proves to be the second-hardest Achievement in the game, as it requires players to crush level 72 without whatever gerbils touching the stage's penguins. Nevertheless, by following a guide anyone should be able to get it within 10 minutes or and then.

Overall Impression

Gerbil Physics is definitely one of the superlative physics puzzlers for Windows Phone. A sure roughness betrays the game's indie roots, which shouldn't be too surprising considering Pencel games consists of only three people. But those people put a lot of middle into their product, and it shows. Anyone who loves animals volition discover themselves smile at the bevy of ambrosial rodents on more than i occasion every bit they piece of work through the game. Heck, these gerbils are and then lovable they even take their ain merchandise shop. Achievement hunters volition desire to give Gerbil Physics a wait too, since the completion time clocks in around v hours of relatively painless gameplay.

Gerbil Physics costs $2.99 and there is a free trial. Get it here on the Windows Phone Store.

New changes

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Microsoft has today announced that it's irresolute up the mode in which it flights preview builds of Windows 11 to Insiders registered in the Dev or Beta Channels. Going frontward, both channels are to be considered the "active development branch," just for different kinds of characteristic testing.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-windows-phone-review-gerbil-physics

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