‘Smash Hit’ for iOS and Android game review

Smash Hits is the latest game from the folks who brought us Sprinkle, Sprinkle Junior and Sprinkle Islands. If those games tell us anything, it’s that Mediocre knows how to emulate physics in games.

In Smash Hits you throw balls at glass structures, which earns you points and keeps you moving forward. The game makes extensive use of physics for the movement of the balls and the glass and it all looks very nice. If that sounds interesting to you then you should read on for the full review.

Gameplay

The basic objective in Smash Hit is to break glass structures. You shoot metal balls by touching the screen; the balls are shot where you tap on the screen. The camera is slowly moving forward through the 3D world, which makes aiming a bit difficult as you’re hitting a constantly moving target.

There are two types of things you have to hit in the game. There are those that give you additional balls for every hit and others are just obstructions you have to get out of your way. If you fail to destroy the obstructions before you hit them, you lose some of your balls for every hit. You have a limited set of balls to play with so if you use them all or lose them then the game is over.

The game moves through different levels and with each level the level design, the obstructions, the speed, the graphics and the music changes. While you’re moving you occasionally pick up power ups that let you, say, fire an unlimited number of balls for a limited amount of time or slow down time so you get more time to shoot accurately.

The game gradually ramps up the difficulty as you move forward by throwing more complicated obstructions at you. You have to make split second decisions and aim properly if you want to survive in the game. In the free version of the game, if you die you can’t continue from the last check point and have to start right from the beginning.

If you decide to unlock the premium version of the game through the $1.99 in-app purchase, you get the ability to resume from the last checkpoint whenever you die. You also get cloud sync for your progress and statistics such as best distance, longest streak, etc. But even if you don’t pay for it, the game won’t annoy you with ads and the experience is in no way hampered because you didn’t choose to pay.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Smash Hit is stunning. It’s actually ridiculous just how polished the game look, particularly on a high resolution display. I tried the game on an iPad Air and a Nexus 5 and it looked beautiful on both devices. The level of detail on the glass surfaces, especially when they come close is just amazing. The glass looks almost photorealistic at times. There are also some nice smoke, blur and particle effects on top of that.

The physics in the game, however, are superb. From the bouncing of the balls as you shoot them to the shattering of the glass is done extremely well in the game. The way panes of glass shatter, for example, will leave you amazed with their accuracy. Shooting large blocks of glass and watching them break into multiple pieces, which then slide around realistically is also great fun. This game would have been far less fun had it not looked and worked so well.

The sound is also done well. The music is nice and the sound effects in particular are great. The shattering of glass sounds great but you also hear the sound of individual panes of glass fall and hit the ground or scatter around, along with the sound of the metal balls bouncing around. Again, like the visuals, it’s all executed remarkably well.

Verdict

Smash Hit is a really well-made and polished game. The gameplay is good and the visuals are just stunning. Even though the game is free, it’s worth paying the extra $1.99 not just for the extra content but for the game as a whole.

Rating: 9/10
Pros: Engrossing gameplay, stunning audio-visual presentation
Cons: None in particular

Price: Free with $1.99 IAP to unlock premium version
Download: iOS | Android

This game was reviewed on an iPad Air and Nexus 5.