Sparkle is an orb-shooting game for Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna smartphones, such as the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, and even the Nokia E7 which we played it on. It's also just won the grand prize in the Calling All Innovators award. Check out our Sparkle game review on Nokia E7.
Sparkle was announced earlier in the year for the Nokia N8 and other modern Symbian^3 smartphones and is a hardware accelerated 2D action puzzle game. You'd be forgiven for thinking it looks a lot like classics such as Zuma, as the format is pretty much the same – you need to match three or more balls of a similar colour to make them disappear. To do this you need to fire balls from a central well.
The big difference with Sparkle over similar such games is that it comes with a magical fantasy theme and a host of different ways to play. The backstory is that a darkness is descending on Crowberry Woods and the only thing to defeat it can be found in the woods. You guessed it, the only way to get into the woods is by crushing the various attacks of the darkness.
There are three modes of play, Quest, Challenge and Survival. Quest is the main thrust of the game giving you the chance to fight the Darkness, while Challenge is all about individual speed tests and Survival about how long you can last from the onslaught of balls. Each game needs a different discipline and helps mark Sparkle out from its rivals.
The colour palette has a nice fairy-tale hue to it, with lots of reds, purples and darker tones. Even the music has a nice flourish to it, giving the game a feel of a Tim Burton production, somewhere between the Corpse Bride and A Nightmare Before Christmas.
On the surface, Sparkle may not seem like a hugely original game but the developers have certainly brought enough ideas to the table to make it a great game in its own right and a worthy winner of the Calling All Innovators award.
While it’s very clearly a 2D game it’s one of a growing number of games that make the most of the GPU and a fresh version of Qt on your Symbian smartphone, which is why it’s great for any device from the Nokia E7, to the Nokia N8, Nokia X7 and even Nokia C6-01.
We found that gameplay was smooth, even when the action was at its thickest, which until you find your rhythm with the game could be a good deal of the time. With a price tag of £3, it’s not the cheapest of games but there is plenty of life to be had from Sparkle.
Sparkle may not bring anything truly new to the gaming arena but we found it a pleasing and highly addictive game to play. The learning curve in Quest mode is quite gentle, so you probably won’t even realise that it’s getting harder.
DOWNLOAD: Sparkle
Size: 17.9MB
Price: £3
Check out our Sparkle game review on Nokia E7 photo gallery:
