Sorry, Douglas Adams fans, Space is SMALL – Osmos for iPad Review

Okay, real outer-space, space is still BIG! That hasn't changed one whit, except for this delightfully ingenious "puzzle" game that pits you, "Brave little mote", against the hulking, goliaths looking to consume you. Your prey/enemies are easy to distinguish: those blue bubbles are FOOD, the Satan's-eye red ones will devour YOU. The only thing you have going for you is that you're (most probably) sentient. The most difficult levels are in the adversarial "Sentient", where a rudimentary AI tries to make you lunch, but NOT the way Mom brings you them Hot-Pockets®, when you do "real gaming". You propel your way through the levels by ejecting various amounts of your own body by tapping the opposite direction you wish to proceed; the Newtonian physics mainly hold, though they've tweaked the inverse-square-law a bit in the "Epicycles" levels, and (or course), nothing is "to scale". But for a fun Zen-game, look no further. Oh, you can slow time to a crawl (handy on the Nematode levels) or flick the slider to make the game-years fly! NERD ALERT: This would be a good "learner game" for grandad when yinz give him an iPad for Xmas. And SELL him the game as a game NOT as a way to get him from calling you for a ride to go to the mall, because since grandma died, all he really has are the three other guys he hangs out with. Chester seems okay, but Emmet is a disaster what with him smoking roll-your-owns while juggling that damned LiQO2 tank. The other, other one, you can never remember his name but you know he's the one who's a bit higher on the Kinsey scale than you wanna know. And the music's a plus too, very MELLOW.
Review by Rainbeaupgh on Osmos for iPad.