Review: ‘Bin-Glo’ Does Not Glow

The premise behind Bin-Glo , which was posted to the App Store back in June of 2011, is that you pull a spring back to shoot a ball at a bunch of numbered bubbles in order to hit the bubbles listed on your “card”.

, which was posted to the App Store back in June of 2011, is that you pull a spring back to shoot a ball at a bunch of numbered bubbles in order to hit the bubbles listed on your “card”.  Add in a number of different modes, some dance music, a dull neon-ish UI, and there’s your game.  Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?  Well, the irony is that the game’s concept isn’t really that bad.  It’s just the execution that is.

From the start, I knew there were going to be problems when the game prompted an Open Feint login screen.  The Open Feint service was shut down in December of 2012, and prior to that, all developers using the service were asked to remove the API from their games to avoid confusing their players.  After skipping the now defunct Open Feint options, I continued on my path of disenchantment as I perused the game’s menus.  It’s clear not a lot of thought was put into the colorful yet very simple pseudo-neon looking user interface.  The addition of dance music only adds to the banality of the experience.

Confusion settled in when I tapped the Play button and was presented with the mode select screen.  There are two main game modes, Classic and Maze, and then there are about 20 “Crazy Modes” that modify the gameplay of the two primary modes.  Fortunately, only the default Normal mode in the Crazy Mode list is available from the start, so I only needed to choose between Classic and Maze with the Normal mode modification.  Still with me?  Actually, after looking at it for a minute, I realized how it was set up, and the confusion dissipated.  However, in general, it’s a good idea to ensure your players are not confused at all when first starting to play.

The only real difference between Classic and Maze is that Maze adds some walls to the playing field, making it more difficult to achieve the goal.  Thus, Classic is the better mode with which to start.  Unfortunately, because of poor controls and a major bug with said controls, neither mode is desirable.  You’re provided with a spring on the left side which, when pulled back and released, shoots a ball at a handful of numbered and colored bubbles (yes, the game labels them as bubbles, though they look more like glowing buttons).  The first and most noticeable problem is that the farther you pull back on the spring, the closer your thumb gets to the pivot point of the spring, and the more difficult it is to aim precisely.  As you may know, the closer an actor is to the pivot point of a rotating object, the less movement is required to rotate that object.  However, the sensitivity of the spring does not adjust, so small thumb movements close to the pivot point result in sudden wide angle changes.  To add frustration on top of frustration, if you pull back so that your thumb is just at the edge of the screen, you will often encounter a game-killing bug that causes the spring, ball, and all bubbles to disappear.  You then must restart the level.  The upside of all of this is that you don’t have to pull back that far to shoot adequately.  But that doesn’t mean people won’t.  In fact, it’s easier to see the ball’s projected path if you do.  Simply put, leaving such a serious bug in the game is a big no-no.

Even if you can manage the control issues, the gameplay is still lackluster.  Out of the handful of bubbles in the field, one or two of them are ones on your list at the top of the screen and thus ones you want to hit.  Each time you hit one, it disappears, and a new bubble appears. A timer tries to keep you from being too methodical, but many times I completed a level without even paying attention to where I was shooting.  Later stages add fire bubbles that reduce the time left, and every fifth level is an entirely different game in which you compete against an AI “shadow” opponent in seeing who can pop specific bubbles the fastest.  A series of numbered bubbles scroll along the top, and the one that’s highlighted is the one you need to find and pop amongst about 10 other bubbles on the field.  This mode broke the bank for me.  The AI was always faster in general than I, scoring twice as many bubbles.  After trying a few times, I finally gave up and moved on to try the other modes.

Maze mode (a misnomer as the walls do not really create a maze – they’re just barriers laid out perpendicularly to the path of the ball) was mentioned above, and the rest of the modes simply add or change one element of the game, such as increasing or decreasing the bounce of the ball or causing the ball and bubbles to move erratically.  One other feature is barely worth mentioning, as it’s used only once in a while: shaking the device will cause bubbles to move slightly, allowing you to more easily hit one bubble sitting behind another.  Finally, if you get tired of hearing the dance music (which is easy since it’s one song repeated over and over), your only option is to disable all sound, thus turning off the sound effects as well.  And of course, playing your personal music library is not an option.  All just icing on the cake.

Whether you’re a fan of bingo or pool or even of games in general, I recommend staying away from this one.  But if for some reason you feel the need for some masochistic gameplay, at least Bin-Glo is at the popular price of free.

[review pros=”Numerous game modes
Colorful graphics
Easy to pickup gameplay
Free” cons=”Major control bug
Controls are not user friendly
Lackluster gameplay
Very difficult player vs. AI level
Repetitive music” score=20]