Full Of Sparks

Mobile games have turned out to be a very lucrative market over the years: you have your Angry Birds and your Fruit Ninjas but they’re old news, today’s kids want more fast paced, explosive gameplay. 



Full Of Sparks is a mobile puzzle-platformer brought to us by publishers NoodleCake. In Full Of Sparks you play a plucky little firecracker looking for “The Old One”, an unlit firecracker. I’m not entirely sure why we’re looking for The Old One or what it would even do when we meet them as I skipped most of the cut-scenes the impatient person I am. From what I can make out though, ultimately you’re looking for a way to stop your fuse from reaching the top of your head and exploding you’re little one-eyed firecracker body. I’m not sure why you’d want to stop yourself exploding if you were a firecracker it seems like that’s your only job and you’re passing up your glorious opportunity, but what would I know I’m just a simple human being.

All of this serves as a flimsy story centered around the platforming but not just any old platforming, Full Of Sparks employs a colour change mechanic. Let me explain: some platforms, objects and traps will be coloured red, yellow or green as opposed to the normal beige. You have access to three corresponding coloured buttons and pressing one will either make platforms of the chosen colour appear or disappear. This means that you need to couple logic with quick thinking in order to complete various stages. Along the way you’ll use this colour changing mechanic to avoid spike walls, rockets and perform perfectly timed bounce-pad jumps all against a (literally) built in timer, all of which adds up to create a challenging experience. 

One complaint I do have with Full Of Sparks is its lives system. Lives systems haven’t been necessary for a long time, since the time of mainstream arcades when all you did with your day was become steadily poorer and poorer filling up your local Punch Out machine and holding up a line of angered twelve year-olds. My point is that nowadays you can actually own the game and play it whenever you want without having to wait your turn or empty your piggy bank. Whatever my issues with a lives system are it does make sense for a mobile game, a platform for gaming designed to bleed the player dry with a constant barrage of micro-payments. 

Full Of Sparks has its ups and downs: on some levels you’re cutting it close on time even when taking the quickest route. I figured this out when I kept exploding over and over in the same spot, then after a little window popped up making the fuse longer for the rest of the level I learned that the finish was mere feet away. 

Puzzle-platformers tend to go down well with both casual and seasoned gamers, thanks to there simple gameplay and effective use of few mechanics - in this case colour shifting. It is rare to find a challenging and fun free game on the App Store, Full Of Sparks is by no means a long game but there is a decent chunk to tide you over if you’re out and about and need to waste some time.