If you’ve ever played the puzzle game Lemmings, then Spirits ($7.99, Mac App Store Link) should be familiar to you. Developed by Spaces of Play, Spirits, previously released as a universal app on iOS, is a strategic puzzle game in which you have to guide all the Spirits to their destination by sacrificing one of them in a number of ways.
Spirits can be used to build a bridge of leaves, create a blowing cloud, dig tunnels, or block wind currents in an area.The story behind Spirits is that the leaves are falling, and all the Spirits are just migrating home. To do that they have to use their unique abilities and travel through 42 beautifully designed levels while encountering different obstacles in any given level.
Gameplay
Spirits is quite an addicting game, which takes some strategy once you get into the more difficult levels. The spirits can die if you’re not careful during the navigation to their destination. In each level there are certain amounts of Spirits that have to reach the destination in order to advance to the next stage. Also scattered around each level are plants, which can be picked up by having a Spirit, run across it. The more plants you pick up, the better your score, and if you pick them all up, you can have a perfect score for that level.
There are also some traps such as spikes and blocks that have to be avoided. Besides the spirits who can die from the traps in each level, a spirit must be used in order to perform a specific task such as blowing the other spirits, building a bridge of leaves, etc. Once the spirit performs that task, it cannot transform back. Even though the levels can be challenging, most of them are short, even for the more casual gamer. For the Mac version, you can also share your solutions and completed levels on Twitter.
Graphics
Like the iOS version before it, the Mac version of Spirits is beautiful. The graphics are so bright and vivid from top to bottom. Most of the levels look pretty similar as far as graphics go, but it’s still very well done. Spirits has high res graphics for the Mac that adapt to any resolution up to 2560×1440 pixels. All 42 levels have been redrawn by hand for the Mac version.
The levels have a lot of detail. The textures and lighting stand out really well. You can tell the developer, Spaces of Play, put a lot of work into the graphics, and it paid off very well. It looks just as good on an 11 inch MacBook Air as it does on a 27-inch iMac.
Controls
The controls in Spirits are pretty simple. You first choose a task from each spirit, then the direction that you want it to go in. You can also speed up the level with the fast forward feature by pressing the space bar, which was added for the Mac version, which also has a nice glowing effect. Spirits for Mac also has multi-touch track pad support for zooming, scrolling and panning. The controls are easy to pick up for any casual gamer. There is a tutorial, but I don’t think it’s really needed as far as the controls go, because when you do click on a Spirit, the direction for the task shows up anyway.
Verdict
Spirits is a great indie puzzle game that has hints of Lemmings as well as other puzzle games and takes it one step further. Spirits has a more serious, darker take on the genre, and the music especially stands out. The soundtrack is fantastic! If you’ve played the iOS version, you know what to expect as far as the audio and soundtrack go. The audio blends very well with the sound effects. You can tell the developers spent a lot of time on it to make everything look and sound sharp and vividly. If you’re looking for a unique puzzle game fro the Mac, look no further than Spirits.
Price: ($7.99, Mac App Store Link)
Rating: 5/5[rating:5]
Pros:
- Simple gameplay, but still fun for the more hardcore gamer
- Great graphics and beautifully designed levels
Cons:
- Some levels go by pretty quickly
