Gears of Gravity, a recent addition to the app store from Clickgamer, is reminiscent of the popular flash PC game, Spin the Black Circle. As with many flash-turned-mobile games, Gears of Gravity has its quirks but ultimately satisfies.

The object of the game is to get your ball from the starting point to the goal (a blackhole) as quickly as possible. In Gears of Gravity, this is accomplished by manipulating the gaming environment, spinning the world around the ball in order to bend the forces of gravity to your will. Changing the environment allows you to avoid the various pitfalls, such as spikes, negative energy sprays, and electrical currents, all of which will destroy your ball and cause you to restart. Be sure to collect any plasma cores contained within the level to open the blackhole at the end. You have unlimited balls with which to complete each level. There are 48 levels in all, broken down into 16 levels in each of three difficulty categories. You may start playing the first level of each difficulty level, but must complete the level before moving on and unlocking the next. Each level is timed for the duration of play, meaning that it includes all of the failed attempts, not just the one successful try.

Graphically, Gears of Gravity looks very polished, with a very attractive 3D environment that makes you feel as if you’re trapped in some sort of mechanical contraption. Pausing the game allows you to explore the entire board via two-finger drag. The soundtrack is a good mixture of ethereal and industrial music, very appropriate for this game. Controls, of course, are where things get a bit dicey. The accelerometer controls were terrible, and we found them unusable. Fortunately, touch controls are available, via left/right buttons that control the spinning of the gears and, consequently, your gameboard. These were very effective, though the buttons could be a bit larger. There were times that we were so into the game that we were no longer hitting the button, missing by just a smidge, but enough to lose control of the ball. The difficulty really ramps up quickly, as well. We made it though the first half dozen levels without much issue, then spent some time getting through the next half dozen. Before long, we were spending nearly a half hour on a level, as we just couldn’t quite get it right. This, of course, is all under the Easy mode, so the level of difficulty may be a turnoff for some gamers, though it’s better than breezing through the game and feeling cheated.

In all, this is a terrific game and well worth the $1.99 price tag. The physics are spot on and replayability is very high. Gears of Gravity spins up a very solid 4-Dimple rating.

Gears of Gravity gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating:

Video by Mobirate