February 18th, 2008 by PCG

Game Review: Sparkle

Fantasy sells these days, whether it's the cinematic successes of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or the eager anticipation that greets every new book and movie starring everyone's favorite teen wizard Harry Potter.

Fantasy also serves as the theme and backdrop for Sparkle, the latest in a long line of games to be inspired by marble-shooters like Zuma and Luxor. While Sparkle isn't as radical of a departure from the Zuma/Luxor mold as other games (Sky Patrol comes to mind), the handful of fantasy-themed twists definitely work in its favor.

In Sparkle, a darkness has fallen over Crowberry Woods (and in fantasy terms, of course, darkness refers to some vague menacing presence as opposed to something as simple as the sun going down). It's your goal to reclaim the forest one step at a time by turning back the tide of colored orbs that wind their way around the screen. If the orbs reach the hole in the ground at the end of their journey, its game over, but by controlling a spinning rune-covered orb launcher, you can shoot orbs of your own into the chain to make at least three orbs of the same color touch, which causes them to disappear.

As the game progresses, the boards get increasingly twisty and challenging, the speed of the marching orbs increases, and additional colors are introduced to make the orb chain more complex.

While Sparkle obviously borrows heavily from past games in the genre - Zuma in particular - it does bring some fun innovations to the table:

Progress is recorded on an overhead map of Crowberry Woods, and at certain points the map branches into multiple directions so you have a choice of which area to visit next. The levels themselves are all given cool fantasy-esque names like Walk of the Unwilling, Lands of Irony, and my personal favorite: Blueberry Drain - a level consisting of a spiral canal with a blueberry-colored stain lining the bottom of it.

There are numerous power-ups in the game that function like magic spells. These appear randomly on the screen, and in order to use them you must first hit them with an orb. Some power-ups deploy instantaneously and will perform useful tasks like moving the entire chain backwards, releasing bolts of light that rain down and destroy random orbs, or launching a beam of light that destroys the orbs closest to the hole. Other power-ups you get to control yourself with the launcher, such as the joker orb which matches with any color, color powder that can be sprayed on a group of orbs to make them all the same color, and a frost beam which destroys orbs in whatever direction you aim it in.

Sparkle is very similar to our free online game of Bongo Balls where you have a central stationary shooting platform and you knock out colored orbs from a moving line. The skill is to get rid of all the orbs before they snake along to an exit point.

While this sounds fairly easy, the whole game becomes harder and harder as you progress through each level. Sparkle introduces excellent powerups to the normal marble shooting game with special amulets that give greater powers.

"Sparkle Is afun experience. I think this game is a great example of a simple fun game with all the pieces in the right position. It also has a certain dark feel to it which makes it unique. Some of the sounds are a bit weird and the graphics are on the darker side. But that's all good! It's not your run of the mill stuff so it keeps things more interesting. This is a worthy follower of Zuma. If you enjoy this type of game you should enjoy this too. There is quite a lot to play and some hidden stuff to find."- shoot-em-up-sam

"Review of Sparkle - Magically addictive. The game is really nice, the music and the graphics are so beautiful, Dowload the trial, I think you will want this one on your 'buy' list." - Grinning Gamer

" Remember Zuma? Sparkle is just as fun! If Zuma is one of your favorite games (it was one of mine) then you will absolutely love this game. When you play the adventure portion of the game, you play levels that are along a path on a map. You come to crossroads where you pick the direction. Along the way you win amulets that give you different skills. There are hidden secrets sprinkled throughout the game. I've played for over a month now and still haven't found all the secrets. I look forward to finding more of them. There are 3 game modes. The adventure portion (where once you finish it, it starts immediately over on the expert level), a race the clock portion and a survival mode. The game is wonderful! The sound effects are crisp and exciting. This was well worth the money and is a game I keep returning to." - Desktop Game Collector