(R)evolve Review

By , on June 17, 2014
Last modified 10 years, 6 months ago


(R)evolve
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Tight Super Hexagon gameplay
  • Evolution adds a nice twist
  • Fun high-score chasing

CONS

  • Spikes in difficulty quickly end runs
  • Invasive advertising if you don’t purchase the app
  • Early slow stages become repetitive

VERDICT

(R)evolve is a light hearted take on the Super Hexagon formula, while this may broaden its audience it unfortunately reduces its appeal to genre fans.


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We are not huge fans of silly formatting in game titles. However, even we have to concede that (R)evolve is an apt name for a game that has you revolving a tiny planet to give the creatures living on its surface a chance to evolve before they are struck by asteroids.

You begin with a single plant on the surface of a tiny globe spinning in space. Holding the right of the screen spins the planet clockwise, while doing the same anywhere on the left will see it move in an anti-clockwise direction. Incoming meteors threaten your fragile flora but you are able to help it avoid danger by rotating the world.

It's a straightforward and addictive formula that owes a lot to Super Hexagon. Though it is more forgiving than this six sided counterpart, stay in the game for long enough and the similarities will become clear as you try to survive just that little bit longer to beat your previous high-score.

Things start off slowly, with only a handful of space rubble approaching the atmosphere. This can make early stages quite dull, but stay alive and things get more intense. Streams of rocks fall in swirling patterns around the world and you must weave back and forth to keep your lifeforms out of the way.

To make things harder, the longer you survive the more life appears for you to protect. More creatures mean a greater surface area for you to try to shield, making corkscrewing your planet safely through the increasingly dense showers of debris ever harder.

Keeping the organisms alive enables them to evolve. They change from plants into gelatinous creatures, before they eventually produce guns that they use to help you destroy incoming danger. It's a satisfying addition to the dodging mechanism, that encourages you to prioritise saving the more advanced life.

(R)evolve is a fun take on Super Hexagon’s endless twisting formula. It may lack its predecessors stylish aesthetic and addictive desire to get just a little bit further, but its more forgiving difficulty and cute creatures should make it accessible to a wider audience.

Screenshots

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