“The deadliest weapon of all is the rage that your enemies use to suppress you.” That is the motto if you will for Smash Spin Rage, the newest game from Iddiction, that is a typical dungeon crawler except for one aspect…you’re literally just a ball and chain. Yep. You play essentially a ghost or spirit controlling the ball and chain that tied him down in a dungeon till he died and now you’re stuck in limbo fighting your way back and you’re angry. Smash Spin Rage is a great choice of words as you will be doing tons of spinning, smashing and raging (good and bad) against your enemies.
A Tornado of Steel
Smash Spin Rage provides an interesting deviation from typical dungeon crawler action packed games since you are just literally your weapon…and what a weapon it is. Since you are just a ball and chain the controls are a bit odd and do take some getting used to with bouts of frustration but it is still unique and really fun at times. Basically you’ll spin your finger on the screen around and around to swing your chain around against enemies and inanimate objects alike. You can also sort of fling yourself against your enemies if you want and kind of do whatever you want as the physics attached to the ball and chain are actually pretty good and responds accordingly to your motions. There are also “special” attacks you can use such as if you hold your finger down you slam down on the ground and you can also engage super spinning rage mode which turns you literally into a whirlwind tornado of steel. Powerups are also scattered throughout the levels which can heal you or engage your spin rage mode.
The Monster Smash
While the storyline makes it seem you’ll be fighting the men who destroyed your town and killed you, you really end up facing hordes and hordes of monsters as you fight through limbo to restore what you once were…with some pretty wild variety. Most of the basic enemies you’ll face are skeletons that appear from the ground but you’ll also find yourself face to face with monsters made up completely of rock, ghost type monsters, huge mastodons, spirits/wizards that shoot magic and for good measure there are 21 boss monsters to fight. And let me tell you, these boss monsters are intense and actually do require some careful thinking on your part and don’t be surprised if you keep dying…and dying and dying. In general all the monsters take quite a bit of hits so never underestimate even just one monster as they can quickly overtake you. While the monsters are fairly hard to beat and take quite a beating, remember you have your two “skills” at hand; the spinning rage attack and your slam down. These attacks will make the monsters easier to take down and if you remember these words you’ll thank me later.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
While it may not seem like it just looking at the screenshots and reading the general description, Smash Spin Rage tries to be very prolific in its story. In fact Smash Spin Rage is the first game in a planned trilogy that is “epic” according to Iddiction. We’ll see about the epic part but I do like the gameplay so it may hold true. Now for the story aspect in Smash Spin Rage, I’ve mentioned bits and pieces of it above but basically the story is about a village or kingdom being conquered and your character gets captured and perhaps killed. You are now stuck in limbo trying to get back to the real world and perhaps come back. You are full of rage and only your lust for revenge keeps you going. In each level you need to find five runes which are scattered throughout and could be in objects such as pillars or barrels or in your own enemies. Kind of a weird story but it works I suppose. What really is nice about the story though is in the presentation. The begging cutscenes look very nice and occasionally after a level you will get more bits and pieces of the continued story through cutscenes. Either way I am pretty excited that this is a planned trilogy experience and think it will hold up.
Beautifully Gritty
Another stand out feature in Smash Spin Rage is the graphics and physics engine. To me the graphics are not something you would typically see for a mobile game but more of a PC game. I suppose I’m used to the recent trend of “cutesy” cartoon graphics or N64 style 3D but Smash Spin Rage blows whatever preconception I had out of the water. While there is only really three styles of levels ranging from depths of a dungeon to swampland the detail and realistic graphics are top notch. I’ve also touched a bit on the physics engine above but think it deserves another mention. Not only does your own ball and chain weapon respond quite well to the physics of being swung, thrown and smacked around but enemies and your environment does as well. Enemies, especially lighter ones like skeletons, get thrown about when you slam into them only to get back up and come back at you. Objects respond the same. Barrels get thrown about or burst and have their shattered pieces explode around you. Even better is that there are a lot of just environmental features like pillars or tree stumps which don’t really have purposes but are destructible. I love pointless destruction as it seems to give more weight and power to your character.
Pay For Your Life
As much as I like Smash Spin Rage there is one issue that is glaring. It is hard. Unfairly hard. Your health is fairly low and most enemies seem to be able to kill you in a few hits or less. You do get three free revivals but you revive with low health and sometimes your enemies are already at the spawn point and kill you within milliseconds. After your three free revivals each one after that costs 50 gold. This doesn’t sound like much but as much as coins appear in game they don’t really add up to that much. Especially when you find yourself spending the 50 gold over and over after being spawn killed. This is where the pay to win essentially comes into play. Better weapons are available but cost way too much to realistically earn in game and it seems that without paying for extra coins or a better weapon you’re doomed to hit a difficulty wall. Overall though Smash Spin Rage is a really fun game to play until you spend all your coins and you find yourself stuck and the graphics and unique twist on a dungeon crawler is well worth a try.
