Spheer is a game unlike any other on RPGM2. Wait, let me start over. If you're a fan of puzzle games, Spheer is your second coming. Nah, that's not quite right either. *Ahem* I'm gonna try this one more time.


I've not played many RPGM2 games, nor have I worked with the software too much. Coupled with that, this is my first review. So reviewing Spheer was a bit difficult, as I had no idea how jerbils did what he did. So I'm just going to base my review on the game that was there.

Spheer is a simple concept on the surface. The main "character" is a "spheer" that rolls around different levels and collects shiny electrodes. There are 40 electrodes per level, and 8 levels. But it's not as simple as it may first appear.

This genre of game may appear to be familiar to those who have played Marble Madness or Super Monkey Ball. But there is one crucial difference. Taking into account the programming capabilities of RPGM2, this is not a fast paced action game. It's slow, methodical, and filled with puzzles of all types. There are puzzles where you have to think logically. There are trial and error puzzles. In fact, the puzzles are the main draw of Spheer. Some are easy. Some are frustrating. But they are all elegantly designed, and go a long way towards keeping the player interested in the game.

There are three different modes as well. Challenge mode is where you will spend most of your time. This mode lets you start out at level 1, and unlock new levels all the way up to level 8, the final level, by completing each level in order. Free play lets you play levels 1 through 7 in any order you choose. This allows you to practice each level before you take it on for real in challenge mode. To be honest, I didn't play this mode at all. I wanted to play each level in order, and build up to the end. Lastly, to break up the gameplay a bit, there is multiplayer mode, which can easily be played by one person. It's a pass-the-controller setup where each person takes turns playing a unique level (there are six, all different from the ones in the main game) and collecting all the electrodes. This is more action-based, as there is a timer, and the object is to get a quicker completion time than your opponent (or, if you are playing by yourself, to beat your own quickest time).

That's the game in a nutshell. For a game like this, though, words cannot do the gameplay justice. You need to play it for yourself. And I'm pretty sure you will after reading the scoring breakdown. Shall we?


The game has a nice clean, uncluttered look about it. Each level is shaded a different color, which helps differentiate the levels from each other. The puzzles are nicely varied, and the camera system is implemented well. It needed to be, though, due to all the different angles you need to constantly switch to during the game. All in all, a fairly flawless presentation. The only minor gripe I have is the music. The music gets way too repetitive WAY too quickly, seeing as how each level can take up to a half an hour or more to solve. But this cannot be avoided, and as I am not familiar with the music available in the software, I'll trust that jerbils picked the best music for each level.

The main feature of the game is the puzzles, which, as previously mentioned, are laid out nicely, and which I'm sure took a strong amount of creativity to come up with. Also, multiplayer mode was a nice addition to break up all the brain-bending on the main levels. There are also "Supa Secrets" to find, which apparently open up another mode. I was not able to find these, but it's always nice when a game has unlockable secrets to discover. The only feature I have a minor gripe with is the save system. It would have been nice to be able to save within a level, as some of these are quite lengthy (level 2 especially). As it is, if you want to exit a level to try again later, all your progress is lost. But this is a minor issue, and mainly has to do with my short attention span more than anything else.

There were a few places where I was sure I'd found a bug when I got stuck, but this was soon rectified by playing the level a bit more, and realizing that I had just not fully figured out the order in which to do things. So as far as I can tell, the game is bug free. And with the little writing there is (the tutorial and the ending), it is impeccable in terms of grammar and spelling. Nothing was here that kept me from solving the game.

I'll admit, I played this in a few chunks weeks apart from each other. The game just seems to be more enjoyable that way (to me, anyway) than to cram all your playtime into one sitting. The puzzles were all fun and well implemented (I especially liked the "speed pads"), and gave the game its unique character. I had a lot of fun playing this, and figuring out all of its puzzles. The only things that hampered my fun with this slightly were the odd controller setup for the antigrav sections (but I soon mastered it), and the fact that a level as grueling as level two was placed so close to the beginning of the game. It almost made me want to give up a few times. But I spent some more time with it, and came to realize it was due to my own shortcomings, not a design flaw, that made the level so hard. Still, something is to be said for starting a player off easy, and working up to that level of difficulty.

Overall, a great feat of programming, and an extremely fun game to boot. If I've not overstressed it enough, if you're looking for some rigorous brain food, this game has it in spades. This game has all the right qualities to be considered an RPGM classic.