Last month, there was Radius. a slick game with a spinning globe at the center of the screen. This month, we have Newtonica ($5) by Field System/Route24, another game with a spinning globe at the center of the screen.
This time, rather than destroying targets on the globe’s face, you’re trying to rotate the globe to make sure that falling colored gems land on matching colored parts of its surface.
Not surprisingly, this is handled by touching the globe and spinning it around, which is the only real command you need to know; however, a pinch gesture can zoom the ball out further to give you a little extra warning before the gems fall. You can’t zoom in any more than the screenshots here show to be possible, and probably shouldn’t, as the only clues you have about where they gems will fall are colored shadows on the ball’s surface.
As you progress, the gems keep falling faster and more at a time, and you have to spin the ball faster to keep matches happening.
Between 7 and 10 successful matches will ratchet up the pace, giving you a meter with 3 additional life bars to squander with unsuccessful matches; every failed match removes a life bar. Occasionally, a yellow rubber duck will cross the screen to be touched as a distraction, as well. Some unimpressive techno-ish music provides ambience of sorts as you’re playing.
It should be mentioned that Newtonica has a surprising pedigree.
