There’s a lot of balancing games out there (check out our sponsored game Brick Yard 2 when you get the chance).
The Super Stacker series (is two games enough to make a series?) is one of the better ones. The title basically sums the game up completely – you stack things and, um, it’s super, thanks for asking.
The first game was a mostly relaxing, occasionally infuriating little game that played very well. You get three types of shapes (circular, triangular, and square/oblong) and a set number of pieces per level. You must use your balancing skills to place them all and make sure they stay stable enough to remain standing for ten seconds.
They also have cute little faces that show concern when they wobble.
The game also had incredibly chilled out music.
This is one of the first changes you’ll notice when you load up the sequel. It’s been changed to some kind of mad jazz, which isn’t as relaxing.
This doesn’t last, however, and you soon get into the game proper. Nothing has changed much, it’s basically more of the same.
There are now 40 levels, much more than in the first one, and they’re all well made. Some may be frustrating but eventually you work it out. The blocks all come in a certain order anyway, so there is a set solution for each puzzle.
And you'll end up with a happy bunch of shapes, like this.
The game has a nice sense of humour. The blocks make grunting noises when you place them, which I guess is supposed to indicate their fears of falling into the abyss below. They live in a fairly precarious world, these guys.
I kinda wonder what they get up to when you complete the level. They’re just left there hanging (sometimes literally) over a pit of certain doom. Nobody will be coming to save them.
What can they do? There’s nothing to do but chat among themselves and wait for the inevitable, I suppose. The second one of them gets tired or, God forbid, sneezes, they’re all going down.
The levels are placed in groups of 10, with the difficulty increasing with each set. You get a funny little bonus in the form of a sound effect after completing each set, which I won’t ruin for you.
What do you get once you finish the game though? Well, if you don’t want to find out just yet, skip to the section after the next picture.
The first thing you unlock is a speedrun mode. This is more of a self-imposed challenge thing – race through each set to see how fast you can do it. There are some inhumanly quick times out there.
The second thing you unlock is mental. You can run through the levels again but while getting the objects in a random order. Seeing as how many of the levels are structured in a way where you have to receive the blocks in a certain order to pass, this is going to be a tough challenge. And not one I’m that interested in, sorry. Way too frustrating.
NO! Why God, why?
There is also a create-your-own-level mode, which lets you share your own designs with other gamers. If you fancy playing a load more levels (most likely untested and uncompleteable, but possibly fun), then this is the place to go.
Overall this is a good game. The physics engine is sound, the blocks have a bit of personality and the levels are clever. And that’s all you need.
Stack ‘em up: Super Stacker 2
Written by: Richard Wilson
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