Super Splatform is a game for perfectionists and masochists
You've probably not heard of the original Splatform, a retro title released for the Commodore 64 in 2002, but the jumping platformer was ahead of its time in many ways. More than a decade ago, we couldn't have guessed that such games would suddenly become all the rage once the App Store opened for business. Now that they have, a new version of the game titled Super Splatform is here to make its presence felt.
In Super Splatform, you play as a nondescript blob making its way toward a goal over a series of floating platforms. If you fall, you die. It couldn't get any simpler than that. At the end of your run, you are graded based on how many jumps it took you to find the goal platform, but this is where the game sinks its evil claws into you.
If you're a perfectionist -- the kind of person who can't stand to have one side of their computer keyboard a different distance from the edge of your desk than the other -- you're going to both love and hate this game. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, there is a counter that shows you exactly how many jumps you've taken, as well as the number you need to obtain the best score. It was somewhere around my 10th playthrough of the brief first level that I realized just how much time I'd be spending with this game. Spoiler: a lot.
Once the levels begin to incorporate splitting pathways, the possibilities for finding the perfect path through the maze of platforms begin to multiply, as do the chances that you'll pull your hair out while searching for the optimal route. That's OK though, because that's why Super Splatform is a great game; it's easy to pick up, takes literally seconds to learn, but can keep you busy for hours. With no pesky in-app purchases or other nonsense to worry about, it's a bargain at US$1.99.
