Gravitation Defense is a game in which you have to defend Earth from a barrage of asteroids, missiles and space debris. Earth has a fairly strong gravitational pull that can send some of these objects into orbit, but you can push them away by tapping the screen. Each tap drains a little of your power meter, which replenishes over time or by one of the power ups that may come into contact with the planet. Power ups also give you a chance to increase your multiplier or simply regain some health if you’ve sustained some damage. You get two modes but this is the extent of the game; it feels very flat, one dimensional and repetitive.

Plus, the two modes aren’t particularly different from each other. Gravitation mode changes the role of your taps by giving them an anti-gravity emitter to send objects away. It’s a little more complicated which means you may just be using up your power meter prematurely. Thus, we preferred the Impact mode if only because it made the levels easier to survive through.

Graphically, the game looks rather cheap and tacky looking. We’ve seen better space backgrounds in F graded games, and have certainly seen better objects. The game tries to achieve a geometric style but its execution is well below games such as Spirit; it doesn’t have the visual/particle effects that we’ve come to expect from games of that style. There is one positive though; the music is some of the best we’ve heard especially from a small studio; you can hear some of it on the video.

Overall, this title suffers because it’s just not very fun. The best example we’ve seen of this sort of gameplay is Osmos, a rich and varied game which has some great orbital gameplay. Here is a game that doesn’t have quite the aesthetic or gameplay compelling enough to give it a go, much like a simple free flash game that you may only play for five minutes or so. We believe the game would benefit greatly from additional enemies; perhaps even additional weapons to help you along the way. But the most pressing issue is one of making it look like something worth £1.19. Pass it up and spend your money on something else.

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