Short version:
Pros:
+ Charming art-style
Cons:
- Bland gameplay
- Feels like it should be free
“Long” version:
[u]Little Sparks[/u] is a puzzle game developed and published by Offbit Studios LLC. The developer was kind enough to send me a review copy through Steam Curator Connect.
You play as a young kid who must stop an evil scientist from capturing all the fireflies.
For some context: I love insects – that is my thing – I studied to be an entomologist because I love insects so much. You know what my favorite insect order is? Coleoptera (Beetles!) - especially the ones featured in this game – fireflies (misleading name, I know). This game should be right up my alley.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2704478546
Here are my thoughts on it.
The game barely has a story – it is an excuse to put you right into its gameplay. That is totally fine.
Gameplay is where the game should shine – unfortunately, it does not. While some of the concepts could have been interesting, most feel tacky and shallow.
Your main goal is to capture fireflies with walls. You have a total of three moves per turn and spend one each time you summon/unsummon a wall. Considering you need 4 walls to trap a firefly in a single square and the fact that the fireflies move around every time you place anything, it gets frustrating very quickly. Said walls also have a set duration and I found myself having to replace walls that were about to vanish and spending my already scarce movepool.
Every time you capture a firefly of a certain color, you are granted a special ability; this can range from an extra move, to freezing a firefly in place or even luring fireflies towards a certain spot on the board. I did appreciate that, but the abilities still felt very underwhelming.
Let me put it this way… I did the tutorial and unlocked everything there was to unlock and I still feel like I am missing something – the game still feels like a prototype.
Anyways, whoever has more captured beetles of each color wins. That is all there is to [u]Little Sparks[/u].
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2728519614
The visuals, as I stated before, are “strong”. The fireflies are adorable and the game is very kids-friendly.
Audio is serviceable – the music reminded me of [u]The Sims[/u] building mode theme, but it quickly disappears and the game features little to no other sounds. Sound effects are very simple but they are not bad.
I truly despise giving games a bad score; specially when the devs reached out to give me a free key… But I have to be honest, there is little to no point in trying [u]Little Sparks[/u] – you can find a plethora of free games on Steam that offer up way more (better) content.
Final score: 3 out of 10.
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