Springworld Challenge - Rating 2/5
Springworld Challenge is a scroller platform game in which you are the driver of a car with unique and special abilities. The car comes equipped with rocket boosters that enable the car to do some pretty amazing stunts and tricks including flying, driving upside down, and climbing some pretty steep terrain. Each of the tracks is timed and it is necessary for the player to complete any given track within a certain amount of time in order to unlock the next level.
Each level gets progressively more difficult and some levels even switch to a top down space theme. Many of the levels are very tricky and the game does tend to challenge the player. It is important to try out the controls and adjust which rockets to use in order to reach your goal. Some levels require the user to achieve several goals by passing through flags located strategically throughout the game map.
Game play is a little difficult and the keyboard does not seem to help any. The keyboard buttons are "W" "A" "S" "D," "Spacebar," "Ctrl," and the arrow keys. While using this keyboard configuration it was difficult to control the car on many of the tracks, although, this is probably the best setup for this game. It seems that fewer keys would have made this game much more fun to play. However, the use of these keys did make the game a bit more challenging.
Another problem with the way in which the game played was the switching between top down view and side view between levels. The game would have greatly benefited from choosing one platform or the other. It was almost like playing two different games at the same time which made the game very confusing and greatly took away from the game itself.
The graphics in this game were not horrible; however, they were not great either. The graphics in Springworld Challenge do not look professionally done and the overall presentation of the game would have benefited from a little more attention to detail and maybe a more rounded design in the overall production of the game. In some instances the tiles of the tracks could clearly be seen to overextend over their intended placement and made the tracks look like they were thrown together in a hurry.
The sounds in Springworld Challenge are just okay, however, they do lack a certain depth one might expect from a commercial game. The music is a blast though with its hip hop sound which gives the player a certain feeling of being immersed in the game. Nevertheless, music alone cannot make up for good sound effects and this game needs a sound effect upgrade.
Springworld Challenge is not the most inventive game and has the look and fill to the Ragdoll Toss type games seen on other gaming sites for free. It is not likely that I would buy this game because of the overall feel and look of the game as well as, the lastability factor involved with the game itself.