GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 10/11/2000
- Updated on: 05/17/2006
- Released on: 09/24/2000
- Originally published on GameSpot: Spin Jam (PlayStation) Review
Ever since Tetris, the great granddaddy of all puzzle games, hit the Game Boy 11 years ago, there has been a parade of puzzle games looking to suck up your time, block by block. While the mechanics and the presentation vary, all puzzle games are by nature imitative - if not directly inspired by Tetris, then by another of its countless stepchildren. Spin Jam has both the aspiration to eat away at your daylight hours with its puzzling meddling, as well as a conspicuous resemblance to one of its block-dropping brethren.
In Spin Jam you're given a circular playing field - in the middle is a spinning gear, which you control, that is surrounded by multicolored petals. As you spit assorted colored bubbles from the bottom of the field at the gear, you must get three or more identically colored bubbles to touch, which in turn will cause any bubbles resting on the opposing side of the gear to launch outward toward the petals. Your goal is to fill each colored petal with bubbles of a matching color before the playing field is overrun with bubbles. If this sounds a bit confusing, it's with good reason. Instead of sticking with unspeakably simple game mechanics, Spin Jam takes the road less traveled by puzzle games. By opting for a more complex puzzle system, the developers have created what is arguably one of the more unique puzzle gameplay concepts seen in a while, but in doing so they have sacrificed a good deal of the flexibility that is inherent to the genre. While Spin Jam attempts to mix it up with moving petals and different power-ups, such as bubble-bursting bombs and color-changing bubbles, the inflexibility of the game mechanics is apparent. The three modes of play - story, arcade, and versus - are all virtually identical, offering zero variety.
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Spin Jam (PlayStation):
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