When developer First5 Games were looking for a fresh method of movement for their new platforming game, they found inspiration in those old Wacky Wall Crawler toys you’d get for a dollar out of supermarket vending machines as a kid. You know, the ones with all the sticky legs? I used to tear off their limbs. I consider Cling! payback.
The hero of Cling! is an eight-legged capsule toy named Edgar. Edgar took a wrong turn on the way to his new owner. That wrong turn results in 90 levels filled with obstacles and danger, because you can never just turn around in situations like these.
Instead we are treated to some truly unique “pegforming” action. Edgar navigates pegs to move where your finger is placed on the screen. Take your finger off the screen and Edgar lets go, soaring through the air or falling, depending on his momentum. It’s pretty simple, at least until the moving peg walls, spike pegs (you can grab but you can’t touch ’em), electric barriers, and jumps requiring more accuracy than I possess 1 out of 20 times. I know this because I unlocked an achievement for completing a level after dying 20 times. I was mildly pleased.
Playing Cling! takes a bit of getting used to — this is not a means of mobility that I am accustomed to, and if I put the game down for a couple of days I have to learn it all over again. It’s not intuitive in that way, but sometimes alien is good. It makes for a more challenging and rewarding experience.
Fun fact: The CEO of First5 Games is named Dustin Clingman. I fully expect their next game to be called Man!
Cling!
Genre: adventure
Developer: First5 Games
Platform: iPad
Price: $0.99
Get Cling! from the iTunes App Store
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