Spin it to win it.

Great games just need an entertaining core; fancy graphics and elaborate rules can't polish a flawed foundation. Spin Doctor easily serves up a solid center. Its action-puzzle premise revolves around spinning a stick on pegs. There's no graphical flourish, but the visuals are clear enough to let the gameplay shine.

Adapted from the '90s Mac hit, iPhone Spin Doctor includes more than 100 levels that gradually increase in difficulty. You swing the always-spinning stick around a pegboard to a goal. Hold an area on-screen with your right thumb, and the stick takes a figure-8 path around the next peg it touches. Hold both thumbs, and bounces and flips in a new manner. Push nothing, and it keeps spinning on the current peg. We understood the simple controls almost immediately, while the game's strategy gradually reveals itself.

Even the old System 7 rounded screen corners make the iPhone transition.

You'll grab jeweled pegs for extra points and avoid autonomous, spinning enemy sticks. Other challenges, such as unlocking doors by touching a switch, add difficulty and require thought. While the graphics are sufficient; and the audio effects include subtle, effective gameplay queues; they merely provide a framework for this spinning strategy. And Spin Doctor wrings a lot of play out of a simple premise.

We enjoyed the iPhone conversion, and the controls nearly always match the fluid game. But there's one big caveat; your thumbs will occasionally obstruct important moments, since the controls float over the game board. We wish that levels would scroll to keep the action centered or otherwise keep us from covering this coveted game.

 

This clever puzzler balances a simple premise and increasing difficulty worthy of its classic, Mac roots.

Spin Doctor 1.0
COMPANY: Seth Lipkin
CONTACT: www.spindoctorgame.com
PRICE: $.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with OS 2.2 or later
Differing level designs ramp up difficulty. Thumb-button controls effectively direct the action. Subtle audio queues help identify the action. Can skip past a troubling level.
Thumb controls guarantee that you’ll cover the game board at some point. Pause button and other interface menus can feel tiny and hard to tap. Player-determined objective of going for loot or straight to goal can feel anticlimactic.