Spitlings - Review of the work by Massive Miniteam

Spitlings - Review of the work by Massive Miniteam

Spitlings It is one of the last couch game, a genre that after having inexorably disappeared in the course of the last videogame generations due to the insistent push of online, has in recent years regained its lifeblood thanks to the rich and varied universe of indie productions, thus approaching titles such as the well known Overcooked and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Despite Spitlings fails to completely rival the two games mentioned, we are first of all an undoubtedly interesting title that if played with a few friends can become really fun. The developers of Massive Miniteam and the publisher HandyGames they released Spitlings for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia and PC. Therefore, all platforms except mobile devices.



A simple but effective platform

It could be said that Spitlings does not have a plot, but more something that pushes our "protagonists" to escape from their home. In fact, as explained by the silent opening cutscene, in the course of a day like many others, our protagonists realize that they are suddenly in danger. The only thing left to them is look for an escape route, but their home is already overrun with enemies ready to take them out. However, not all Spitlings know what is happening and it will therefore be our task to go and save them. In fact, in each level of this nice platform, situations will arise during which we will be sucked into a bonus level, if we wanted to say it to the "old-school", in which we should perform certain tasks necessary to be able to unlock some new skins.


If you wanted to analyze Spitlings at its core, it could certainly be argued that it is pure fun. The player will be a Spitling, a cube capable of spitting up and down. Our blocky protagonist will move around a world full of bouncing enemies and should they touch us, our digital alter-ego will die, forcing the player to restart the level from the beginning. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it is, even if the only thing you need to be careful of is the division of the enemies. When hit by the spitting of the Spitling, they will in fact divide into other small opponents, until they are so small that they disappear. The only real difficulty of Spitlings is learning by heart i enemy pattern, which however are not particularly difficult, so the mental effort is almost minimal.


In addition, spitting is also used for move vertically, since sometimes it will be necessary to jump over obstacles, and since our cubes cannot jump, we will have to use our shots to be able to move. What's the difficulty? Well, the hits are not infinite and we will have to move in predefined spaces so as to recover and not run out of "ammunition", even if it must be said that it's really hard to finish all the spitting at our disposal. But not only that, since sometimes we will have to float. How? Passing some bubbles inside that they will allow us to move vertically (and horizontal, of course), but once inside we will no longer be able to shoot at the enemies, and the moment we exit, there will be a small leap, with the opponents who will often and willingly be there, ready to clash with us.


The strong point of Spitlings it is, as you can imagine, multiplayer. The multiplayer mode it is available both online and locally, and allows you to enjoy the "countryside" with your friends. The choice was made in the design stage so as not to make multiplayer a mere "let's play a game all together", even if it is possible to create crazy games, thanks to the modifiers available; but be careful, in this mode the real difficulty of the game is shown. Yes, because no one can be left behind: if a friend of ours dies, everyone will have to start over. Coordination, pattern knowledge and skills are a must to survive all together. The downside is that it can start to be frustrating to repeat the same things over and over, in the event that you always die in the same place, risking to alienate or bore the players.



Technical gaps

On closer inspection, it seems that “simplicity” is the key word of the entire project Spitlings, with a well-defined 2D graphics component that always makes it clear where to go and what to do. The opposite is found, however, in the cutscenes. These are designed with a comic style and exaggerated features, just to give emphasis to what is happening to the little spittle cubes. As for the audio sector, the songs within the title are quite catchy and fun. They manage to be the perfect soundtrack for Spitlings, as they accompany the player level after level, without ever getting tired. The sound effects are also quite a lot funny and cartoon, but above all well done. Too bad for too much basic simplicity that can be seen in every aspect, but maybe they did not want to exaggerate so as not to fill the game screen with elements that could have distracted the player.Spitlings - Review of the work by Massive MiniteamAt this point, the time has come to ask the fateful question; is it worth it? If you have people with whom to play the adventure together, then you are in front of the title for you. Otherwise, it would be a practically useless purchase. Although the work has a single player mode, as already mentioned,  the production unleashes all its fun only when played with people sitting next to you… or at least on call. Its price is affordable and is available on virtually every single platform. Perhaps its too much simplicity makes it a mere pastime, but the gameplay certainly appears of quality. In short, we are not in front of an unmissable game, not even from a graphic point of view, but it closely resembles the true concept of "plug-and-play", where a game was started, connected the pad and we played for hours and hours just to have fun together in total carefree, without necessarily having to concentrate on the plot.


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