Spitlings is a cute but hardcore arcade game by Massive Miniteam, including hundreds of levels you can either play locally or online with friends. You’re playing as a Spitling, a cubic little monster and your goal is to spit so you can hit balls, which will then turn into smaller balls, and eventually disappear so you clear a level. When first seeing Spitlings, it reminded me a lot of this game I used to play on a website called ‘Bubble Trouble’. The basics are the same: you hit a ball, that turns into smaller balls. Spitlings just has a lot more body around it. Let’s see if this is a fun arcade co-op.
What we liked!
- Comic story: At the start of the game, you get a little background on the Spitlings. Basically, the Spitlings lived peacefully until ‘alien goo’ invaded the Towers and destroyed their home. Now you’re on a mission to take back your home and free all the other Spitlings. It’s a simple story, but the way it is told is quite nice. There are no words, just pictures in comic book style. Normally, I’m a fan of voice acting in games, but here the pictures said enough and made me pay more attention to the story! In between levels, little parts of the story will also unfold in comic book style.
- Party mode: Besides a story mode, there’s also the party mode. This is where the game gets most interesting. You can adjust the game to your own taste since there are a few things you can customize. First of all, you can pick a level. Second, there’s the number of rounds you want to play. The third option makes things a little more interesting: you can pick how many times you can retry a level. Do you want to prove yourself and beat the level in one try, or are you taking no chances and give yourself 10 tries? The fourth customization called mutators is the most fun one, for sure. You want to be super heavy, or maybe you’ll never stop jumping?! Even when you’re playing with younger friends or family, there’s a mutator for that, one where you keep respawning and never run out of spit.
- Sounds: The music that accompanies the gameplay, is just perfect. It’s adorable, just like the game, and fits the atmosphere of the game completely. Plus, your Spitlings make cute sounds as well! My ‘Spitling’, that was actually a phone, made a ringing sound, how adorable!
- Characters: There are a ton of Spitlings to unlock. I even encountered a few surprises along the way! There are your basic Spitlings that look like little monsters in all sorts of colors and forms. But, there are also some special ones, like an old phone, train, fish, and various types of food. It’s fun to unlock new Spitlings, which you can also use to play once you have them in your ‘library’.
Somewhere between
- Repetitive: Ok, so, the game is fun, but after clearing a few levels, it feels like more of the same. Of course, the levels differ and get more difficult, but it got kind of boring after a few hours. You unlock new Spitlings, sure, but all the little monsters are essentialy the same: none of them bring something new to the gameplay (besides the way they look).
What we disliked
- Boring on your own: You can either play alone or via online or local multiplayer. When playing alone, the game feels easy and without much challenge. It’s clear that Spitlings is meant to be a co-op game. I recommend playing this with friends because when you try it out on your own, you’ll probably get bored rather quickly and the game will become very, very repetitive. I was only able to play with one other player during the testing, but I think the four-player idea is the most fun since it causes the most chaos.
Head of PC team. PC, Switch, and Xbox game reviewer. Also a marketeer, concert and animal lover, and photographer in training 🙂
Steam: Mauitje
Xbox: Mauitjexo
