XNA Game Review – Smiley Smasher

by Daniel Beckett on August 27, 2010

By: Daniel Beckett

I’ve never been one for Indie games, or arcade games for that matter but recently I’ve branched out slightly from the big releases that most gamers purchase and have begun to experience the indie world. So far it seems alright.

In smiley smasher you, guess what, smash some smileys. As simple as that sounds it actually proved to be a challenging game at times. You start as a small yellow ‘cool’ smiley (the one that wears sunglasses) and your goal is to explode and hit the other smileys that are flying around the level. Once exploded smaller smileys fly out in different directions in an attempt to hit other smileys; if done correctly a chain reaction will ensue until the target amount of smileys have been exploded. As the game progresses different smileys are intoduced, all of which explode in different ways. An example of this is the “Alien Smiley” that exploded in an outwards spiral or the “Emo Smiley” which made little attempt to do anything.

Like many Indie games Smiley Smasher uses a fair amount of humor to keep players entertained. Jokes often appear before a level begins and some of the smileys which are used really show that this game doesn’t take itself all that seriously. I’ve always liked that in games, something which can make me smile as well as eating away some time when I’m bored.

I played the game from start to finish which took me around 20 minutes, during this time the game had me relatively entertained with its minor humor and simple gameplay. Simple is exactly the word to sum this game up and I don’t mean that in a negative way. The controls are simple, the goal is simple and the gratification received is simple. So, if your just looking for some simple fun as opposed to the often over-complex AAA titles then look no further than this game.

Overall Score – 6 / 10.

By: Patrick O’Rourke

For 40 MS points this game definitely isn’t priced that terribly. Its a short game, like Daniel stated it will only take 20-30 minutes to complete but it also has a reasonable amount of replay value if your the type of gamer who likes to try to top high scores.

The game’s smiley smashing premise is rather simple but it’s also original and fun. The graphics are one of my major issues with the game, it looks like an elaborately polished flash game, not the type of graphics I’d usually fork over any amount of cash for. I also wish the game was much longer and introduced different and new kinds of smileys. It seems almost like a demo at times, the developers came up with a really cool concept for a puzzle arcade game but didn’t fully realize that original idea.

Smiley Smasher was developed by an independent two man development studio from the UK, Fun Flow Studios. When you take into account the fact that only two people made this game its slightly more impressive.

I normally wouldn’t purchase a game like this but I was pleasantly suprised with how entertaining it actually was. I’d give it a much higher review score but it was just too short, there are iphone games out there considerably longer than this title. I did have fun and the game’s underlying concept is very unique, if you have some spare MS points I’d definitely recommend purchasing this little XNA gem over a new 40 MS point pair of shoes for your avatar.

Overall Score – 7/10