Greedy Spiders

If you frequent any of the App stores I know you've seen Greedy Spiders.  It has received consistently high marks from each of the app stores.  On Amazon and Google it is currently running for .99.  If you're quick and you've read this within a few days of me writing it, you can even pick it up for free on the GetJar application store.  So, just what is Greedy Spiders?  Well, it's sort of a cross between Cut the Rope and Angry Birds.  It has the puzzle aspects of the first game and the cuteness of the second.

When you first enter the game you're treated with very colorful graphics and a few options.  The first time you click play you'll be treated to a short cartoon introduction.  Yes, this game even has a back story!  You see, those greedy spiders are looking for an easy way to catch bugs so they disguise themselves as bug musicians in a pub and then spring their trap on the unknowing bugs!  Yeah, I know, kind of thin but also cool that the developers even put in a little story to pique our interest.  It's the little touches that make this game so much fun and easily worth the asking price.

Back to the options menu.  In here you can tweak the graphics from low to medium to high.  On my Droid Incredible the High settings seem to work just fine with only the occasional hiccup.  The low option takes away the background completely and leaves you with a nice blue.  The medium adds back in the background.  The high gives you the background and some nice extra animation effects.  I like that the developer put this in so the game can be enjoyed on as many handsets as possible.  The other options allow you to reset the game (with a warning thank goodness) and also see the Copyright notice which compared to the rest of the game's polish, is a little bland.

From the main menu you can also review the opening animation, send a note about the game to a friend or go directly to the game's facebook page.  It's also nice that the developer has made it easy for you to tell your friends about this cool new game from within the app.  It saves you having to find the url, type it in a post or compose an email.  This way you can easily fire off notes to your friends about the game and get back to playing as soon as possible.  Another note of polish, heading to mail, facebook, etc, always allows you to hit the back button and go directly back into the game.  This means that you don't have to go find it in apps again to run it, very nicely done!  One final option here allows you to switch to Sound Effects only or Music and Sound Effects or Sound off.  It's a simple toggle button directly on the main page.  Hitting your back button from here also asks for confirmation on whether or not you'd like to exit.

So, now that the title screen is out of the way, how do you play Greedy Spiders?  Pretty simple actually.  You're presented with a screen full of spiderwebs.  Somewhere in that web will be one or more spiders and one or more bugs.  Your job is to free the bugs.  You do this by getting rid of the spider web one strand at a time (or more but we'll talk about that later).  Each time you remove a strand the spider moves, and so it goes, you move, he moves.  If you manage to clear all the strands  away from all of the bugs they are freed and you win the level.  That's the easy part.  The hard part is doing it in the fewest moves possible and in the shortest amount of time.  You're graded on the amount of time and number of moves it takes you to the free all the bugs.  Your score is one to three stars and some of these puzzles will have you scratching your head for sure.  If you get stuck, they've put in a hint system that works great!  After you've tried and failed a particular level a few times you'll see a HINT button pop up on the restart screen.  You can hit the hint button as soon as you see it but if you haven't played the level for at least 5 minutes you'll be told to keep trying.  I like this system as it really makes you think before getting help.  I'm sure that Youtube or elsewhere probably already has the answers up but what fun is that?

In terms of value this game really shines!  Not only can you cut the webs with the scissors but you'll notice there are spaces for other tools on the in-game menu.  The first tool I encountered was a flame.  The flame,while it can be used only once in the level I found it on, is very powerful.  You use it on a node and it burns to the end of each strand attached to the end!  This can be very helpful for clearing out many strands at once.  It is very easy to make a mistake in this game so you really have to think ahead on your moves.  As soon as the spider reaches a point where he stands between you and two bugs on a connecting node its game over man!  I found myself restarting time and again to try just one more strategy.  Granted I've only spent the time that it took me to write this review with the game but I can honestly say that this is well worth your hard earned buck!

So what don't I like about this game?  I can't really complain about the lack of an online component because how can  you compete online?  I can though whine a little bit about the lack of achievements.  Achievements are a staple in the mobile game market now and games without them just seem to be lacking a feature.  Even if you just throw a dozen or so in there such as finishing a pack with all the stars or pulling off a particularly good sequence of moves.  It keeps an added sense of surprise in there.  My other complain is due to the small screen size and the complication of some of the web layouts it is easy to fat finger the wrong strand and ruin the level.  I've had this happen to me on more than one occasion.  Perhaps it's time to break out the stylus for this one for more pinpoint accuracy.  I'd say it would probably be more fun on a tablet simply because of the additional real estate.  Sadly I did see a post where the game was marked as incompatible with Honeycomb tablets but perhaps the developer will add the support later.

All told this is an excellent game and well worth the money!  Try out the free version if you want but based on my play I'd recommend to go ahead and spend the dollar for the real thing.  You get a great game with 128 levels and 7 different types of bugs along with the promise of additional levels coming soon. You simply can't go wrong with this one.  4.5 out of 5 stars!