Podz by AcePocket, Price: $14.99
Reviewed November 2004 by Tony Peak

After a certain amount of time in PPC or PDA gaming, one has to wonder if there’s simply no end to the uses of spheres in games. They’ve been clicked, popped, squished, flung, blown up, counted, scattered, and dropped countless times, yet they keep on coming in game after game. You might say that Podz is their revenge.

The year is 9xxx AD, mankind’s greatest threat are the relentless spheroid life forms, Podz… (Too many sphere games?) These ruthless spheres attack in chains heading straight for the core of all the planets we inhabit. How are they able to do this? Well, “for some reason” we built direct access into all of the planets we colonized. Sort of like a bad case of the Y2K bug I guess, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

At any rate, it falls to you to combat this threat by way of a turret system and clone Podz. Thankfully if Podz of the same color are bunched together in sets of 3 or more, they explode. To their continued annoyance, Podz of the same color also attract each other… making your job that much easier. So that’s the story in a nutshell, are you ready for the ultimate sphere challenge?

Controls are fairly straight forward, dragging the stylus around shows a crosshair on the screen to aid in aiming. When you jam the fire key, a pod shoots in that direction until flying off screen or hitting the chain and taking its place in line. Three or more of the same color explode, leaving gaps in the chain. The line is pushed from the back, so gaps can give you some much needed catch up time. Spheres of the same color will rush backwards like magnets to attach to the line, giving you a big advantage and possible chain combos in the process. Various power-ups and power-downs help to keep things interesting and challenging.

Despite being a game about spheres, Podz doesn’t skimp one bit on the quality of its sounds and visuals. I’m not just talking about another coat of polish on the shiny spheres here, but detailed and varied landscapes, cool effects, and a great soundtrack. The music particularly impressed me, It’s nice to hear something a little more advanced and engaging than the usual fare.

Podz may basically just be another action / puzzle sphere challenge at its core, but the exciting gameplay, story, graphics, and music quality really help to kick it up to something special regardless. Featuring 25 detailed levels over 5 stages, survival, challenge, and internet based high score listings, if you’re a fan of the genre, Podz should definitely be on your most wanted list.

• Do your best to make every shot count, and fast. Keep the Podz line / queue low, and take them out as soon as they come on screen if possible. Getting swamped is a sure way to lose.

• Be very cautious of the power-downs. Even one bad power-down on a tough level could easily spell defeat.

• Always, always try to make combos by causing Podz of the same color to collide. Even if you can’t make a combo out of it, always connect chains just to give yourself more time. The collision will push the whole line backwards. The easiest way is to simply shoot the needed color onto the start / end of the opposite side of the Podz gap.

• If you can’t use the Podz in your queue at the moment and need another color fast, try purposely shooting off into the distance and missing the chain. This might give you another color to work with.