Splat: Simple, clean, and full of pretty colors

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You know what I really love? An equal playing field. So you’ll forgive me, I hope, if I climb onto my soap box for a moment and talk to you about a total non-sequitor. Don’t worry…it actually has something to do with this simple, old-school shooter game.

When the iPhone came out, Apple did something really cool regarding app development. They allowed anyone who could afford a $99 development kit to get into the game. It didn’t matter if you were a fifteen-year-old kid in Iowa or a tried and true game developer with a bankroll of millions. You could make an app and distribute it via the iTunes store for whatever price you chose.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m far from an idealist. I realize that money and power plays into app development significantly, from paying the best coders to purchasing spiffy designs to name recognition and marketing. The guys with cash still have the advantage, but there is still a chance for the little guy to do well.

That’s why when I come across an app like Splat… by Jason Booth I get excited. While the game isn’t as complicated or overly-produced as some other applications, it’s fun, old-school, and subtly clever. In fact, I find myself playing it more than games designed by some of the big boys.

I know this one is a fairly modest endeavor because of Splat’s “about” screen, which says “Splat was a little shooter game I originally coded over a 4 day weekend in flash…”

The concept is simple. You’re a Pac-Man looking little guy living in a little 2-D square box, constantly shooting yellow bullets. Your safety and peace-of-mind are short lived, though, as big balls of paint begin invading your personal space. If you run into them, it hurts you. So you must maneuver around the screen avoiding the paint balls and trying to shoot them. When you hit one, it breaks into multiple pieces that must be shot again until they are no longer a threat.

A fun little touch is that when you successfully destroy a paint ball completely, it leaves a little splatter of color on the background. After a few minutes, you end up inadvertently painting your own work-of-art on the background.

It’s a decidedly simple game, and if it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s not 100% original. The developer even admits (once again on the “about” screen) that he based his creation on “an old shooter called Mono…” What makes this the most fun, though, are the small add-on touches and the controls, more iPhone friendly than most games on the market.

We’ll start with the controls. They take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of them you can’t imagine coding the game in any other way. Your left thumb moves your Pac-Man shooter in any direction, and your right thumb rotates him, shooting bullets wherever you choose. There are no on-screen joy sticks, so you can touch anywhere you’d like on each side of the screen, allowing you to see the entire game area and touch however is most comfortable for you. It’s a challenge to work both thumbs simultaneously, but the game play really is quite clever and well-programmed.

In addition to straight shooting, you can also collect a number of add-ons to extend your abilities. There are clocks that, when collected, slow down all the paint blobs criss-crossing the screen, and tiny diamonds add to your constant bullet arsenal until you’re spraying projectiles in a full sixty degree angle. Plus you can grab icons that shoot bullets in all directions and other icons that extend shockwaves to clear the area.

And the play area does get crowded fast. The goal, then, is to hang on for dear life for as long as possible. It’s a futile attempt in an old-school score based game without story or boards. But dammit if I don’t work my ass off to try and beat my previous high score on a daily basis.

This one is missing the pop-culture tie in. It’s not based on a TV show or movie, there are no photo-realistic graphics, and the developer doesn’t bother to try and up the ante or complicate matters, Instead, you get a well-crafted, inexpensive game that can be played on easy, medium, or hard mode.

So if you like old arcade games…or if you like simplicity and clean coding…this one is for you. Give the little guy a chance.

Buy Splat… HERE.

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