SpinTrip is a fun little puzzle-platformer that is set in three different magical locations: the worlds of Canoo, Groundedwoods and Dreamsky. You play as a ‘tisu (think of a blue creature that resembles a Smurf) and you have been tasked by the Sage (think of a female Yoda who floats on a cloud) to retrieve the Shims that the Gants have taken by collecting Chibs. Confused? You betcha.
Despite the ridiculous names of the characters (you can either play as Noss or Lillme, for example) the mechanics of the game are ridiculously fun and addictive. You start the game inside of a Chibwheel (basically a wheel) and roll your way through the world, collecting Chibs (small magical creatures) as you go along. These Chibs give your wheel extra powers such as the ability to leap higher, shoot at enemies or float on water. The catch being that your Chibs only work for a limited amount of time before they run out of power – ensuring that you use the right Chib at the right time makes the game more of a challenge and stops the gameplay from becoming boring and repetitive.
Having the directional slider on the left and the jump and Chib action button on the right means that the controls do take some getting used to, but starts to feel natural after a few levels. Having a Chib selection row at the top of the screen helps you to switch to the right Chib for the situation, however seeing the words “Weem – saw spin through ice!” flash in the middle of the screen after every choice is incredibly irritating. It’s also quite difficult to determine which Chib is which, and it often takes a couple of guesses to distinguish your Leaps from your Swims. I often found myself mixing up the enemies (they look like beans) with Chibs – picture me trying to roll over enemies wondering why the wheel won’t pick them up. Sigh. But once you actually discriminate between the two, the game is enormously fun and satisfying to play through.
Overall then, while it doesn’t take too long to complete and once you get past the confusing names, SpinTrip is an enjoyable platformer, which is definitely worth the 69p to download it.
