You’re a mote, floating in space. You want to be bigger. There are other motes. Touch ones smaller than you, and you will absorb them and become bigger. Touch ones bigger than you, and be absorbed and die.
The object of the game depends on the level. On some levels, it will be to become the biggest mote on the screen. On others, you have to become a huge mote, bigger than all the others combined. Sometimes the object is to eat one special mote in the bunch.
That’s the basic gameplay. But it’s oh so much more than that. For one thing, the physics engine is perfect. To move, you have to eject little bits of yourself as rocket fuel. Each bit you eject causes you to get smaller, which works against your overall goal. What’s more, your exhaust retains its mass, so if it hits another mote, the mote takes on its momentum and moves. It also makes the other mote bigger. So you have to conserve your mass and energy as much as you can.
Now, outside of the basics, there are a number of different types of games involved. One game mode has motes flying round rapidly, and this feels quite a bit like Asteroids. On other levels, the motes are stationary and crowded, and you have to slowly nudge the big ones out of your way with your exhaust as you plan your path through to eat the smaller motes until you’re big enough to eat the bigger ones. You have to notice where you’re pushing the bigger motes, though. Push them in the wrong direction, and they’ll gobble up your small motes, or hit bigger motes and become monsters you can never eat. This mode is tranquil and absorbing. You can kill hours just nudging your mote around and watching all the interactions.
Then there are the gravity levels. On some levels, all the motes attract each other, so everything gets more complex. But my favorites are the levels which basically starts out as a proto-solar system, with a big Oort cloud of motes in orbit around a large central ‘attractor’. Again, the orbital mechanics are perfect. You’re in a real orbit with gravitational attraction, and your rocket exhaust works like it would really work in a spaceship. Accelerate, and your orbit will become elliptical. As you hit other motes, their momentum is transferred to you, which changes your orbit. You need to fly through clouds of small motes and eat them, so you have to get the orbit right.
I’ve had a ton of fun just playing this as a solar system simulator. You can fire a few jets of particles into the orbiting cloud, then just sit back and watch all the interactions. Even if you lose and are eaten, you can let the game keep going. It’s fascinating to watch solar systems develop as motes eventually become big enough to swallow the others in their orbital path, becoming planets. I think you could actually use this as a teaching tool. It’s that good.
Other levels have other challenges. Some have anti-matter motes. If they touch matter motes, they both start shrinking until one is gone. That adds a whole new level of strategy, as you can get rid of big motes by nudging anti-matter motes into them with your exhaust.
The game is a natural for the iPad. The controls are instantly intuitive - just touch the screen, and your mote fires its exhaust in the direction of your finger. Each tap causes another jet of exhaust. And the fact that you’re just touching the environment in various places make it very immersive. It’s also got a beautiful, ethereal soundtrack.
This is the first game for the iPad that i think really shows what the iPad can do as a gaming machine. It’s the best game for the iPad available right now. Buy it! It’s $4.99 in the app store.