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App Army Assembles - Does Spirit Roots give our readers life?

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iOS
| Spirit Roots
App Army Assembles - Does Spirit Roots give our readers life?

The community grabs their guns and gets jumping

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Spirit Roots looks lovely and cute, but underneath it's hiding a tough-as-nails platformer where one wrong move ruins everything - which we think might turn some people off.

But what do we know? We're just some fools running a website about mobile games. So we decided to give our community of mobile gaming fanatics, the App Army, their hands on the game as well.

You can read their reviews below, but we know what you really want - your own chance of getting the best and latest games for absolutely naught beyond giving us a review.

Well you can! Just join our App Army over on Facebook (make sure to answer the short questions given to you!) and each week you'll have a shot at playing a big game of that week.

And better yet, you can chat about mobile games with other fans of the platform, make some friends, and get some wonderful, stimulating conversation in your life.

Sound good? Then go join the App Army! And come right back to read the reviews of Spirit Roots!

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Jim Linford

I've come to the conclusion that those expecting a bouncy, jolly platform game with a nice art style are gonna be shocked. It’s hard as nails. You will die.

But you will want to kept playing. So far, the aim of the game is to make it home to your family. In your quest you collect souls, which look like lumines from Rayman. Defeating enemies with your sword or gun. Some enemies can't be killed by the gun as they have shields, others need to be shot a few times to kill them from a distance as they hit you with pitchforks, you die right away.

Movement wise you can double jump. Auto grab ledges and move left and right. You have many hazards and enemies that are cheekily placed they can kill you. It’s not Super Meat Boy-twitchy, but it’s hard due to placement in traps and obstacles etc.

To call it a platformer is accurate, but it’s not a platformer in the sense of Mario and Sonic. And it’s not (according to the amount I’ve played so far) an exploration game. The routes are straightforward but you have enemies to kill.

But so far I like it. My mistake for thinking it would be a walk in the park though...

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Roman Valerio - iPad Air

I've been looking forward to getting my hands on Spirit Roots for quite some time now, and though I can not say that I am entirely disappointed, but frankly speaking not too impressed either. Firstly, the game has got some serious technical issues, as the very first level of the world number two refuses to download/launch for me.

Also, as far as controls optimization and overall feel are concerned, this platformer is nowhere as polished as the most remarkable representatives of this genre, which you all know very well by yourself.

It should be noted that the game is not as easy as it might seem at first sight, especially if you are striving to get all collectibles on every single level. I died a lot and considering the fact that you have just 3 lives to complete a level and unlocking further worlds requires a certain number of collectibles, at times it felt like a real grindfest as opposed to pure gaming fun.

And though it all looks very cute and colorful, the game fails to bring anything new to the table and supposedly might get lost easily in the vastness of the App Store as soon as the launch period is over.

Paul Manchester - iPhone SE

I am already not the world's biggest fan of virtual controls, but this is one of the worse implementations I have seen. The controls are unresponsive and it leads to frustration and untimely deaths.

The game looks OK but does nothing to make itself stand out in a crowd. I also found the the foreground and background were confusing or distracting on some of the levels - this could be mainly an issue on smaller screens.

Save your money and put it towards other games in this genre with better controls and more imagination.

Mark Abukoff - iPhone XS

This is very, very similar to a number of platformers apparently aimed at children (or the young at heart). There is nothing new in the gameplay really, so honestly not much to recommend it against a sea of others that quite frankly look better.

Having said that, I was interested enough in the premise of the story that I might stick around to see if that advances, or was just a throwaway story. And for what it’s worth, I experienced no trouble with the onscreen controls.

Steve Clarke

Spirit Roots plays harder than it looks. The cute graphics belie what at its heart wants to be a fairly remorseless platformer. It doesn’t totally fail in that respect, and if you’re willing to look past some dodgy feeling controls, there’s fun to be had here.

Personally I think hardcore games should feel fair, and for me Spirit Roots misses the mark badly.

Joshua Hudson - iPad Pro 10.5

I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite some time now and I will say that I was not let down. Overall, the levels are quite lovely to look at with a whimsical art style that is colorful and pleasing to the eye.

The different worlds each have their own signature aesthetic and vibrant color palette along with individual themes from farmland to swamp to spooky dark forest. They look equally lovely on either of my devices.

That said, I am a bit disappointed that my progress does not cross over from one save to the other, and I am currently much farther along on my iPad, if only because I prefer the larger screen.

The individual levels in each world rely heavily on timing to avoid obstacle, catch moving platforms, or defeat enemies, and to me feel quite like some of my more fondly remembered platformers from days gone by. I do not seem to have encountered any of the control issues others have noted, and found the touch controls to mostly be above average, if unforgiving.

Unforgiving is a good word to describe the whole of the game, as jumping a split-second too late or swinging your blade not quite fast enough will result in brutal. Immediate death.

I've died more times than I can count so far, but my delight in the colorful world of Spirit Roots keeps me coming back for more. I may be a glutton for punishment, and to be totally honest I haven’t even made it to a boss fight yet, but I truly am enjoying every moment of this game.

Speaking of not getting to the Boss level, I do like how Spirit Roots allows you to open new worlds by collecting spirits from throughout the worlds. I have five worlds open so far, and have really liked how the themes very and contain their own particular enemies to overcome.

Overall, I highly recommend this one. It can be difficult, brutal, and cause you to grind your teeth as you fall to your doom from a sliding platform, but it does give you just enough of a sense of accomplishment to keep you coming back for more.

Olivier Boesch - iPhone X

Spirit Roots: the good, the bad, and the root platform!

This game is beautiful visually, with humor on character's movements, different universes to browse, and quite different in terms of level design to enjoy the game in the long run.

But this game is very capricious at the controls, with the jump and strike button whose balance is bad. However, we get there despite different bugs as passages in places where we should not pass. The worst is balancing the difficulty - as soon as you get hit, you are punished, you go back to the checkpoint. Three times in the level, you start all over again!

This platform game has potential, but is too punitive to appreciate. It is necessary to change this to play long and finish it. I finished the first world entirely, started the others, but I get more angry than the pleasure I get from playing…

Quincy Jones - iPhone 8 Plus

Nice looking game, the sights and sounds in it are well done. It’s a well-made platformer with pretty good controls.

There are times where you’ll die repeatedly which can be frustrating but all in all the levels are not extremely difficult but will definitely provide a good challenge.

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before in a platformer, but they did a great job with it all the same. I would recommend it to others.

Oksana Ryan - iPad Pro

I found this game very short-lived. The controls were not that easy to use and I found myself dying repeatedly. Coupled with the terrible sound effects, it’s not one of my favourite games. After managing a few levels I lost the will to carry on, which is a shame as the graphics and theme of the game aren’t bad.

I don’t want a game to be too simple, but I do expect to be able to progress through more than four levels. Perhaps the controls are better suited to an iPhone, but I found them very hard to master on a bigger screen. Sorry, but not one for me.

Ed Davis - iPhone XR

I didn’t particularly feel a connection with this game from the start. It just feels like another simple platformer. The graphics are pleasant and the gameplay feels somewhat pacey but there is nothing unique about it.

The controls are the same with any platformer on a touch screen device. They work OK, but physical controls are always better. The sound effects aren’t great and further spoil the game. There isn’t much to say about this as it is such a simple game, and isn’t a game I would consider playing all the way through.

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Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.