Little kids are always very imaginative and full of wonder. Such is the case of the protagonist behind Bitmap Galaxy‘s game Little Galaxy as you follow (well control) him in his quest to find a new home in the stars. Little Galaxy is the epitome of a simple game, featuring one touch gameplay and a fairly straightforward premise but it still holds up and is a amazing game to play.
Around and Around We Go
The foundation gameplay mechanic in Little Galaxy isn’t anything unique really but it is a fun one that is not nearly utilized as much as it should be. Basically you are on various spherical planets and the goal is to jump from one to the other and keep doing that. Of course Little Galaxy is set in deep space so there is gravity and other celestial bodies to take into consideration…think how the gravity works in Super Mario Galaxy for instance. This gives some of the challenge to Little Galaxy as you need to aim your jumps correctly so you hit the planet and not just go out floating into space, or time them so you don’t fly into the sun. The more you play the more planet types there are and soon you’ll have dark planets that you can barely see, bright ones that blind you, etc. Little Galaxy does a lot to try and keep what is admittedly a very basic game premise interesting and new as you keep playing.
Keep Trying
While it doesn’t quite seem like it at first there are “goals” in Little Galaxy. When you first load it up you’re presented with three missions right off the bat. These are such things as get this high score or land on this amount of planets. So you complete the missions in however many spacewalks it takes you and then you’re presented with three new ones. Three harder ones. This is also how you progress Little Galaxy and get different planets. Some of these missions include getting lots of points or what is called chains and spins. These chains and spins are an important aspect of Little Galaxy as they really are the key to getting higher scores. To get a spin there are some planets that have shiny gems or whatever circling them. If you collect all of them (do a full spin on the planet) you get a spin. Keep getting spins and they stack in combos and you’ll get a lot of points. Chains work the same way but the gems are in lines between two planets and are harder to combo. Keep doing these chains and spins and missions and soon you’re once relatively boring galaxy will have tons of new features and dangers to worry about.
Space is Beautiful
What most people are really talking about in Little Galaxy is the graphics and artwork. Long story short they are amazing and very detailed. The art style really could be featured in a children’s book of this same story…hmmm hint to the developers? Anyways, each planet is drawn super well with vibrant colors. The background of just space is even portrayed excellently especially as it slowly gets more and more cloudy as your timer runs out. Overall, Little Galaxy may be a pretty simple concept but it takes that concept and makes a gorgeous game that still retains a bit of challenge and replayability.
