There aren’t many games out there that offer a fresh and new idea in Facebook gaming, but Spoing springs to mind as a new contender.
There aren’t many games out there that offer a fresh and new idea in Facebook gaming, but Spoing springs to mind as a new contender.
The premise of the game is simple: propel your ball to the end using a series of slingshots. You can control the angle and the distance of the ball by pulling the slingshot back. If you make it to the next slingshot, then you get to do it all again until you reach the end. If you miss, the ball shatters and you start over again.
The goal is to make it to the final slingshot as quick as possible. The faster the time, the more experience and points you get. Players need a set amount of points to unlock the different levels of play. The higher the level, the more difficult the slingshot acrobatics.
The points can be acquired individually, but the game also takes into account the points earned by friends that also play the game.
If you think the game only consists of slingshotting up and down, then you’re are sadly mistaken. Slingshot acrobatics can send your balling flying into S-curves and more with too much or too little force sending your ball careening into oblivion. You can have slingshots moving in different directions and players sometimes have to create their own slingshots.
Spoing also initially provides a trajectory indicator, so you have an idea of where the ball will be going. As you progress, the game eliminates it and lets players wing it, but brings it back once a ball has been destroyed. This is definitely a good idea as players only have a set number of balls, but can earn more as they gain experience points.
Another interesting aspect of the game is the music. Instead of having a soundtrack, players create the music every time they use the slingshot. The slingshots act as a piano key and each time you advance is creates a sound. If you can go fast, you can get a pretty good tune going…just don’t go too fast and bust your balls.
The game provides fun and unique gameplay that separates it from many of the other puzzle-type games. It can be addictive as you try to shoot the balls from one slingshot to the other. It’s refreshing to see a game that is both fun and unique. There is practically no learning curve and beginning stages are easy enough to allow players to get familiar with the controls.
There are a few drawbacks that can be quite annoying to people hesitant about downloading things to their computers. In order to play the game, you are required to download a special player. I downloaded it and have had no viruses, worms or trojans infecting my system.
The other drawback is it takes 30 minutes to earn a ball to play again. This seems like a long time especially since it takes five minutes or less to regain energy or stamina in many other games. I think lowering the time to 10 minutes would be appropriate. After 25 minutes, I have already forgotten the game exists.
Spoing has the potential to be a great game and already provides fun and unique gameplay, but they are going to have to switch to Java or something instead of using a separate player. I will definitely keep an eye on this game and hope to see it expand and flourish.
