by Lisa Jancaitis

Created on: July 05, 2008   Last Updated: May 21, 2012

• Spring Up: 3/5

Spring Up is a puzzle game that meshes two other current online puzzle games together. If you mix Zuma and Peggle together you would have a game very similar to Spring Up.

When you begin the game, you are greeted by a cordial little gnome and you learn that the object of the game is to improve your garden with various objects. To get these objects, you have to clear each level of different colored balls laid out across the screen. Using your aimer at the top of the screen you shoot matching colored balls to knock the other balls down. Once the balls have been knocked free, you must catch them with a paddle at the bottom of the screen to gain more points. In some of the balls are hidden power up objects. Catch these objects as they fall to gain point multipliers or to make your paddle grow bigger or smaller. Impeding your progress are several blockades both stationary and moving that you must navigate around.

As you progress through the levels, the game becomes more and more challenging with the addition of such things as moving objects, fans, and barricades to make clearing the screen even more difficult. At the end of each level, you are brought to your garden where there are several coins with dollar signs on them displayed on the screen. Behind each coin is a different object that can be bought with the points you have accrued in the previous levels. Objects include trees, flowers, and statues among other things. Some objects can be added to the more points you get, making your garden ever grander the farther you progress.

Although the graphics are simple, they are engaging enough to draw in any potential players. Spring Up is a great game for anyone who enjoys puzzle games; it has seventy-two levels of increasingly challenging screens to clear and fifty objects to collect for your garden. Although Spring Up is certainly at the skill level of a teenager, it would probably be more interesting to an adult. The only thing frustrating about Spring Up is the inability to speed up the progress on the screen, but it is otherwise an enjoyable game.

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