Fibble is a great example in the art of stacking difficulty. The game starts off in dull fashion – you control the roly-poly titular character, and one tap sends him careening around each level trying to collect stars and get to the level’s end goal. If he stops moving you’ll have to tap him again. The object becomes trying to complete each level in the fewest taps possible. It is a fun, but shockingly uneventful, first few levels.
After a while, this set-up changes rather dramatically. First, characters that help Fibble flip across gaps or toss him in any cardinal direction are added to the mix. Before you know it, the game is letting you place these characters in spots around each level and then having you complete maze-like treks for stars and goals all while maintaining as much forward momentum as possible. And it’s great.
Fibble is one part simple level creator, thanks to the ability to play Fibble’s helpful friends around the level yourself, and one part maze game. It is colorful and fun throughout. Fibble bounces off of walls like they’re filled with springs, lunges over gaps, and even speeds down hills when he has enough momentum.
The biggest problem with the game is that it ends too soon. Fibble currently only has 30 levels to romp through, and although they’re all fairly unique, that number pales in comparison to a lot of other similar games on the iPhone. There’s a screen in the app that promises more levels are coming, and I hope it’s true, because there’s a lot of gameplay left in a concept that is truly fascinating once it gets going.
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