Sparkle Unleashed

Honestly don't know what qualifies as a "good mindless game" but this one didn't do it for me.

This is a colourful, a challenging and an excellent marble game in the Sparkle series, despite the fact that what I disappoint the most is that the balls act like a property of its game developers' native tongue. [spoiler]P.S. Their native tongue is Finnish, which is an agglutinative language.[/spoiler]

[h1][b]Sparkle Unleashed[/b][/h1] [h3][b]Time Played:[/b][/h3] 4.5 Hours [h3][b]Last Played:[/b][/h3] 17th of January 2026 [hr][/hr] Waiting for Terraria 1.4.5 Volume 17. Without getting into too many of the details, I've a certain affection for 10Tons as a developer, given Crimsonland, another game of theirs, helped me through the 3 worst days of my existence. Thus, with high hopes, I went into this one. [h3][b]Yay:[/b][/h3] + Just the title screen enthralled me. + Fully-voiced intro cinematic. + The music, while much more involved than I thought it would be, and more “epic adventure” than “tranquil garden”, greatly enhanced the experience. + Not just a reskinned Zuma, as you don't fire from a central point, and I also don't remember that game having power ups. + Yes, this is to state that powerups are found in this. +...and some can be upgraded. + In spite of an initial “oh no” about alt-tabbing, I am pleased to report it does so fine. + I loved some of the level names, like “The Forgotten Well”, and its successor “The Sodden Trunk. + Mixing is fine, though, this likely signals it's a bit on the loud side, so for those that don't turn their volume up until it's just audible, be wary of ear damage, and maybe adjust things down. + Has what I call “Nova-stalgia”, wherein something brand new to me triggers that emotion, given this seems exactly like something I would have played in the first two years of having my Steam Account. [h3][b]Meh:[/b][/h3] ~ Hard to accurately-place orbs in some angles. ~ Game never tells you “shoot” can be held down to show a lead, but as you can move your cursor where you want to blap an orb in, that's not necessary. [h3][b]Nay:[/b][/h3] - Trails only roll back on themselves when they match with the ones after the gap. - This means you can have powerups blocked by non-moving orbs. - If you slot a shot into a trail where one of those items is, as well, you don't get it, making many lost because they over-lapped a trail. - The “Frost” powerup also does not roll things back at normal speed, making it near-useless. - The game is way too long in my opinion. Had they found a way to keep things fresh, this would not be an issue, but only a handful are “survival” levels in-campaign, which has 108 levels total, but most of the maps reappear several times, after just the 2Xth/nd stage. - New elements/orb types also stop being introduced around this point, leading to massive amounts of repetition. - The Achievements only serve to worsen this, as you need to beat the entire game again on both hard, and nightmare...yes, all 108 levels for a total of 324, in order to get them all. - 5 Stars on even the first survival map is seemingly-impossible, yet you also not only need to do all of them for another achievement, but people have said it's broken, bugger, or otherwise does not unlock, even after meeting the requirements... [hr][/hr] [h3][b]Verdict:[/b][/h3] While this has not sullied my image of 10Ton[ne]s, I definitely feel this game could, and should, have been a quarter of the length, even for non-achievement hunters. No, they could not have added every power up, but many of those could have been saved for Sparkle 2. Thus, while I very much think the Nova-stalgia kept it from the lower two ranks, as is, it was... [h3][b]Placed in:[/b][/h3] 3: Merit-Mixed.

Помню играл в Sparkle 2, и скажу, что эта игра гораздо уступает второй части. Хоть уровни каждый раз повторяются, сложность с каждым разом повышается. Приятная игра в целом.

This game's gameplay, difficulty curve, and power ups/combos really keep you on your toes. I'd recomend this game to people who like puzzle/strategy of this sort.

Juan (one) of my favorite games ever!

es un buen juego y muy entretenido, llega al punto de engancharte, el problema es la mala programacion con las bolas de colores, pierdes muchas veces porque los colores que tocan son demasiado random y te tiras un rato sin que salga el color que necesitas, pero por lo demas el juego es muy entretenido

Very solid entry in the Sparkle series!

I really enjoy this game! I can never get enough of marble shooting games! If you like Zuma, or Luxor, then you are bound to like this. Much like those games, but so much more. The music is nice and not annoying. As you progress you get to unlock extra bonuses that give you extra firepower or the ability to freeze balls. Another benefit is that it plays in full 16:9, so it fills the screens unlike some of the others. I hope the developer makes more variations and sequels to this game.

this sequel to sparkle 2 is horrible. don't pay $8 for this game when you're not gonna get any replayability from this game and because of the new mechanic making you locked to just moving in a line, it makes things unnecessarily hard to just pick up that i wish some of these new mechanics for the orbs (balls) were in sparkle 2 in the first place. seriously, get sparkle 2 for the better experience, more fleshed out game.