Cosmic Bump Review – A Pinball-Infused Physics Puzzler For iPhone & iPad

Cosmic Bump (universal) by Chillingo is another addition to the growing collection of slingshot puzzlers on iPhone and iPad.  While it’s easy to get lost among the numerous slingshot puzzlers, Cosmic Bump does have a little twist that makes it unique: the addition of pinball mechanics.

Three red, ball-like aliens have crashed their spaceship on a planet, and need to collect little balls of energy to power the take-off of their spaceship.  These energy balls are scattered throughout each level, and the aliens collect them by shooting each other out of a cannon with slingshot mechanics.

Players can also use pinball flippers to keep the balls/aliens in the air to direct them to the rest of the energy balls.  Once all the energy balls are collected, the level is complete with bonus points awarded if the levels are completed in a certain time period.  Three stars are awarded if only one ball/alien is needed to complete the level.

There are numerous objects with which the aliens can interact throughout the game to assist in collecting energy balls: from bubbles which float the aliens to the top of the screen, to space ships which carry the aliens left or right, to pinball flippers, fans, portals, and more.  

The graphics are cute, though Cosmic Bump doesn’t take full advantage of Retina displays, and the soundtrack is initially quirky and fun, but can quickly become repetitive and annoying.  Controls are intuitive, which makes the game familiar and easy to learn for all ages.

The inclusion of pinball mechanics in Cosmic Bump is definitely the most interesting part of the game, but it isn’t always enough to make Cosmic Bump stand out among all the other slingshot puzzlers available.  In addition, the release is full of small, but frustrating bugs – from the game crashing, to balls becoming stuck and having to reset the level, to poor/wonky physics.

Cosmic Bump features 18 Game Center achievements as well as an overall points leaderboard.  There are currently 6 total planets/chapters, with apparently more on the way, which each contain 15 levels.  For those that love the slingshot puzzler genre, Cosmic Bump is at least worth checking out. It’s yet another physics puzzlers that’s easy to pick up and play, but has enough of a twist that you won’t feel like you’ve played it already.