Sticky HD Review

Monday, August 15, 2011

Sticky HD Review

at 6:04 AM

Sticky HD Review

By Jennifer Allen on August 15th, 2011
Our Rating:

:: AVERAGE
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad

Sticky HD looks cute and fun. It is to an extent, but it’s also rather frustrating.

Developer: ClickGamer
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.19 out of 5 stars

Sticky HD is a bit of an oddity. It’s a good idea, requiring players to fling Sticky around numerous levels in order to wipe out the enemies but it doesn’t quite work. It’s just a little too frantic and the levels are too tightly designed.

The general concept works well – at first – while everything is slowly introduced. Players use Angry Birds style controls to manoeuvre Sticky. He can be flicked around by dragging a finger back in the appropriate direction, and then all that’s needed is for him to hit an enemy to destroy it before it escapes the stage. The problem lies in how chaotic it can get. A few levels in and Sticky is heavily outnumbered. This is compounded by the random nature of the controls. It’s too easy to be slowed down by the very tightly created levels unleashing an orange barrier in the way of the perfect shot. Players will spend as much time just getting around as they are trying to fend off the enemy globs. The controls are reliant on extremely fast reflexes with not much time to line up a shot; instead, it feels more a matter of luck than judgement.

It’s not that Sticky HD doesn’t offer some good ideas. Different enemy types require slightly different strategies with some leaping around while others being quite cumbersome. A collection of power ups are frequently useful too such as one that freezes oncoming enemies and another that increases Sticky’s size enabling him to roll over the foes. It’s just a little too fast paced to truly enjoy, making each level feel like a frantic battle even early on in the game. Besides the main story mode, there’s also a survival mode which gets predictably even more intimidating.

Sticky HD is an interesting idea and not bad exactly. It just doesn’t really rise up above all other options. An unbalanced difficulty curve with such a heavy dependence on luck makes Sticky equally as frustrating as it is enjoyable.