A nonsensical name. Annoying music. So-so art style. Gluddle has all of these. So why write about it? Because this iOS game also sports rock-solid, highly addictive gameplay.
Gluddle plays sort of like a pinball board that you can build yourself. The object of Creative Heroes' physics-driven puzzler is to destroy the robots of the Supervision, who keep ominous watch over the globular title characters.
The action starts off simply, with the player aiming and launching the Gluddles directly at the Supervision bots. But soon, you'll have to freeze Gluddles in place for subsequent ones to bounce off, break up obstacles and use wormholes to knock the Supervision out.
While Gluddle uses some of the familiar launch-and-destroy mechanics of games like Angry Birds, it evolves them in fiendish ways. The bull's-eye-festooned Supervision bots can freeze your Gluddles in place before you do. Since you can't remove these Gluddles like the ones you freeze in place yourself, they become permanent obstacles when that happens.
It's this changeability that makes Gluddle so hard to put down. You can engineer your own way to an elegant solution to each level or clutter the screen with Gluddles to create crazy ricochets. While the game could use a bit more presentational charm, the core of the experience is clever and well-realized.
Gluddle [$0.99; Apple App Store]