Sparkle 2 is an addictive, easy to pick up and play match-three marble shooter. As you would expect from this type of game, the goal is to line up three marbles of the same colour to make them vanish. The marbles move through a variety of winding paths, and the goal is to eliminate them before they reach the black hole at the end.
The movement speed, number of marbles, and marble colours increases as you go, which really ramps up the difficulty later in the game. As many as four separate paths appear in later levels, which provides a decent challenge and tests your skills and patience.
Every match you make builds up your combo multiplier, with each 3 consecutive matches creating a power up. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock new power ups, such as a reverse ability that sends the chain of marbles backwards instead of forwards, the butterfly power which destroys the first few marbles at the front of the line, and the purple flame which eliminates a large chunk of marbles.
As you beat levels, new gameplay modes are unlocked. There’s a survival mode where you need to survive as long as possible, and a challenge mode that picks the stage and difficulty for you. Also, when you’ve managed to clear the story mode, you’ll be able to restart it on a higher difficulty.
Sparkle 2 does include some story, although it isn’t overly deep and doesn’t really add much to the game. It serves as more of a way to advance through levels than anything else. Visually, Sparkle 2 is very nice to look at. The animations are smooth, the colours are vibrant, and there are some impressive lighting effects. The game also features a beautiful soundtrack that really brings the game to life, and ramps up the tension when you’re close to a game over.
Sparkle 2 is a solid game with a decent amount of content with highly addictive gameplay and a great difficulty curve. The game feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch and is perfect to play on the go in handheld mode.
7/10