Just like a sneaky goblin this game completely slipped under my radar. I was actually looking for the Horus Heresy Talisman game (review of that in the works) and just happened upon this inoccuous looking title. At a paltry 68 pence, it seemed worth the punt and so I gave it a download. I've been playing it most of this week and have had my ups and downs and now I feel i'm in a position to write a review. So here we go.
Snotling Fling is a game that pretty much does what the title suggests.Flinging Snotlings from a Doomdiver catapult in an effort to kill Empire troops occupying buildings of varying stability . Think of it as a 3D angry birds and you wont go too far wrong. Your view is from behind the catapult and this can make it a little difficult to judge the distance at first but you'll soon get the hang of it. In fact it's fairly intuitive and after a brief tutorial for the first few levels the game is happy to just let you get on with it.
So there is no no extensive hand holding which is nice and unlike Freeblade it's not constantly throwing adverts at you and trying to hawk you resources. In fact aside from briefly introducing you to the idea of using the games currency (Teef of course) to power up your shots it will leave you alone and although the shopping cart is always there I have encountered no paywalls as of yet though a couple of levels have proved most challenging.
Another thing I must mention is the attention to character that has been paid. Everything is spot on, Very Orky, from the character models to the little bit of text that precedes each mission, some of which certainly bought a grin to my face. When you pull the Snotling towards you it will pull faces and stick its tongue at out at you. Should you leave any Empire Troops standing they will taunt you, and waggle their arses at you. Its all quite a lot of fun and made me very nostalgic for the Old World as this tongue in cheek approach is something I just couldn't imagine in Age Of Sigmar's ultra serious sci-fantasy universe.
So you pull back the Snotling and let fly aiming for the Empire buildings to try to bring them down. The stacks of building are fairly unimaginative, certainly nothing approaching the strategy and variety of the Angry Birds game, this means that the game is pretty straightforward. A simple knowledge of physics will have you toppling the Imperial cottages in short order. Of course things do not stay that simple.
As the game progresses throughout its levels the Imperials will learn to build better structures and your standard Snotlings will just not cut it (though they do continue to feature) and you will need something with a touch more punch. Enter the Fanatics, Tap a Fanatic mid flight and he will cast free his balls (oo-er) for added destruction. During my brief time with the game i have also encountered Fat Snotlings that smash through blocks a fair bit easier than the standard ones, Exploding Squigs (tap screen to explode them like a bomb) and of course the inimitable Doomdiver which launches over the battlefield till you tap the screen sending it diving down to explode, it can be a bit hard to judge but you wont mind restarting a few times. It loads fairly quickly too, which is essential if the game is to provoke the 'one more go' feeling.
Further adding strategy and challenge to the game are the golden skulls, one hidden on each level, hitting this and completing the level will grant you additional Teef if you are running a bit low (not that i ever did) As an aside the result of the game is an Ork glyph, ranging in completion and Colour (a simple bronze, silver, and gold). Trust me it will take some time to get Gold on all levels. There is plenty of gameplay here There are also explosive barrels dotted about and wizards on Hippogriffs that will destroy entire buildings if you hit them.
I had played just under sixty levels when the game decided to delete all my data. This was probably partly my own fault as i neglected to connect to my Google Account but it was still frustrating. Still it is testament to the game that i didn't really mind playing the levels again and I am already up to level forty after a short amount of time. I believe there are around eighty levels all in and from what i have seen the developers (Wicked Witch) are going to be adding more. Even if they don't there is a fair bit of replayability to be had.
So that is Snotling Fling. Worth every penny of its tiny cost and a cracking way to kill ten minutes It's fairly short lived, albeit with a decent amount of replay value and more importantly although it does support in game purchases I have found it quite possible to play through the game without spending any additional money at all. Its characterful, fun, and very accessible with a decent amount of challenge and a dash of that 'one more go' element. Although it is by no means as accomplished as Angry Birds and graphically rather basic. Worth your time even if it is only in short bursts.
7/10
Flying high:
Cheap, with no hidden costs
Bags of character
Easy to play
Doesn't keep selling you things
Great for short bursts
FUN
Crash and Burn:
Graphically Basic
Not as strategically deep or sophisticated as Angry Birds
Pretty short
In summary: Short blast of cheap fun,It will take ages to get all the gold skulls and glyphs and i forsee a fair bit of play out of it yet. Recommended.
Al
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