Game Reviews

Swing Tale

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iOS
| Swing Tale
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Swing Tale
|
iOS
| Swing Tale

Swing Tale plays much like Cut the Rope, and as the world knows, there's no shortage of Cut the Rope clones (or even brand-name Cut the Rope games) on the App Store and Google Play.

But Swing Tale has a single trait that makes it fun to return to again and again - elasticity.

There's a certain satisfaction that comes with playing a physics game, and Swing Tale serves up that satisfaction in big spongy servings.

Meet the orb

Swing Tale takes place in a magical world of forests, mountains, and weird bouquets of eyeball-flowers that are apparently having difficulty blooming on their own.

You control an orb-creature that makes the flowers bloom when he falls on them. Don't question the process, it's very complicated science.

Each level of Swing Tale is littered with targets. When you tap a target, the orb-creature will lash out at it with a tentacle (if he's in range) and stick to it.

You complete a level by moving the creature from target to target (which involves slicing off his tentacles whenever necessary - don't worry, he's cool with it) and finally letting him come to rest on the flower bed.

Unsurprisingly, finishing a level is only half the story. There are also stars to collect, and acorns on select levels. Stars are necessary for opening new worlds, and quite a sum is required to do so.

In other words, collect as many stars as possible because you won't be allowed to move on if you miss more than a handful.

Cut the tentacle

Swing Tale isn't particularly original, but it's pleasant to play. The creature's elasticity makes the game less rigid and tense than Cut the Rope, plus it's useful when it's time to navigate around tricks and traps (which include, among other things, spiked walls, moving platforms, and wooden wheels).

In fact, Swing Tale's flexibility allows for the player to experiment with different solutions when tackling a stage. In turn, Swing Tale is a good physics / rope-cutting game for beginners and young players.

The only problem is that you can't skip levels except by way of a cloud that lets the creature float anywhere on-screen.

You're allotted three freebie clouds, then must buy more with cash (you collect coins in-game, but you don't seem to be abkle to spend them on anything apart from optional costumes).

Again, Swing Tale isn't overly difficult, but later levels can get a little sticky and it'd be nice to have the option to move on and return to them.

Swing thing

Swing Tale won't win any awards for amazing new ideas, but it's a fine physics game with some relaxing visuals and satisfying gameplay.

It's still hard to determine why the orb-creature is the only one capable of making his weird world bloom, but that doesn't really matter. Just do some swinging.

Swing Tale

Though familiar, Swing Tale is a light-hearted physics game with a couple of small flaws
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