Sparkle 2

This game is called Sparkle 2. Not Zuma

Its not called Zuma at all.... no sir no Zuma here

Except it is Zuma. I mean its so much like all of the Zuma clones on your tablets and like Zuma itself on the consoles, that for the first few minutes you wonder is it really worth continuing. Its the sequal to Sparkle.

But just sometimes with games you find that clones and remakes can actually be much better than the originals and this is definitely the case here.


So its your standard fire orbs into rows of moving orbs to make matches of 3 or more of same colour. When you match those orbs disappear and the line of remaining orbs rolls back which might make more matches. Your goal each time is to clear the waves of rows of orbs before they can reach the end of their little paths. Your orb firing device or slinger has the colour of the next 2 orbs showing and you can switch them to give yourself more of a chance of a match

Its simple and straight forward and repetitive.

There is a storyline of needing to collect 5 keys, which is completely redundant but at least gives you some reason to play the next level as you try and reach each part of the map.

But Sparkle has added a few nice extra touches to out Zuma its parent



Every 4 or so levels you get awarded a slinger power up of some sort. You can choose which one you wish to apply to your Orb slinger. You start off with 1 power up allowed, but as you progress through you can end up adding 4 separate power ups to your slinger. These do make a small difference to the game play but nothing too radical. You might say choose to have faster orbs and every 20th one be a fireball or some similar combination.

During the levels, every time you match 3 sets in a row you get a mini power up icon appear and by shooting that you will be rewarded with a variety of effects to help you get through the challenge. Some of them make a huge difference too. You will soon have your favourite and learn to avoid a couple of the more useless ones.

There are 3 different types of gameplay too with your standard Zuma clone, an endless mode which you try and stay alive as long as you can and a challenge mode.

The game itself is relatively easy at its normal setting with only the later levels providing any real challenge, but its quite hypnotic and very addictive. There are 90 levels before you beat it in the regular game and its only really when you get past lvl 75 that you are ever left having to repeat one because its beaten you. The good thing is that you get as many goes as you like to beat any level. Its a game that wants you to be entertained not frustrated.

The devs have also done a great job on the various control schemes.
On the Vita they utilize the touch screen allowing you to tap where you want your orb launched and this works very well indeed. Clicking on the slinger alternates between the orbs on board too
On the PS4 they have implemented a similar touch launch thing with the controller whereby you use the touch pad to move where you are aiming and then press the same pad to launch. This looks like it should not really work, but it was very easy to pick up and a dream to use too. In fact I would say the control scheme is the stand out feature in Sparkle 2.
They have made it look gorgeous on the PS4 too with the texture on the orbs quite stunning and although the Vita game is colourful its the PS4 version that really shows off the eye candy (as you would expect)


Its the perfect game for playing on your Vita when on the train or on the bog or any time you have a few spare mins!

Superb controls and an easy to pick up and play game, it makes for a title you will have a blast on regularly when you have a spare few mins.

The trophy's are in the main doable apart from a couple of tough ones, but they will take some time.

So yes its a clone but its a very good clone and with the added extras is certainly worth the few pounds it costs to buy.

8/10

Nice review mate

So if I like zuma and have a vita and playing while pooping it's the game for me? lol
Nice review mate.

yeah

its better than zuma and the vita is ace for 10 minute game blasts

this game fits right in with that stylee

Good work mate!

When you add artwork I will move it to official as the publisher sent us the code.

I will also send the link to this review to them too!

Cheers for the review buddy

artwork added matey and say thanks to devs/pubs as I really liked this. Blending new ideas and a clone with some of the ideas of the clones already on the ipad makes for a terrific pick up and play vita title

Nice one, good review mate.

Nice review mate. Zuma is a great game so no doubt I will love this