If you like your puzzlers to come with clever mechanics and impressive visuals, then SPHAZE is one that should be on your radar. The game initially launched at the beginning of July and the core idea is to rotate discs in order to align different paths which you can then send little orb-shaped robots down and hopefully end up with those spherical little guys safely in the center of the puzzle. There are all sorts of rules at play depending on the puzzle, which makes SPHAZE more of a logic puzzler as you’ll have to think ahead as to what rules are in play in any given situation, what type of obstacles might be in your way, and of course the proper path to route your robots into the goal.

Thankfully this is all made the more enjoyable thanks to the circular nature of SPHAZE’s puzzle designs. There’s something satisfying about rotating the ring segments of each level, and there’s an active element to the puzzle solving too as often you’ll need to rotate segments while your robot(s) are traveling along the paths in order to ensure they follow the right directions and end up in the goal. There’s even some non-circular puzzles thrown in to keep you on your toes, and it’s definitely not worth glossing over the excellent implementation of haptic feedback as well as a cool parallax effect if you move your device around. And as was already mentioned, SPHAZE is a gorgeous looking game with great use of color and lighting effects.

So, now that we’ve established that SPHAZE was an excellent puzzler when it launched back in July, what has happened in the time since then? Well developers Dynamic Trio and publisher SUBPIXELS went to work updating the game based on early feedback, and implemented a helpful new time manipulation feature that allowed you to speed up time when you were anxious to see how a solution might play out, or slow down time if you needed an extra chance to focus on and react to what was happening. Similar to the speed functions in a tower defense game. They also rejiggered how the world unlocking worked and made all worlds available once you finished the initial, tutorial-like world rather than requiring people to unlock them in order.

With those minor nips and tucks of the release version of SPHAZE out of the way, the next order of business was to release some brand new content and finally launch the game globally on Android after initially providing it in limited early access on Google Play. That is exactly what the developers accomplished last week, and you can head over to the Google Play Store right now to grab SPHAZE on Android. As for the new content, it is part of that new Android release and was added to the iOS version right alongside the Android launch. It features an entire new 5th world that features a new snow mechanic and 10 challenging new levels to complete. And like previous worlds if you complete all 10 levels you’ll unlock a set of super difficult Master Levels. Here is a glimpse of that new 5th world in action.

Now, you might be liking everything you’ve seen so far, but you might also be thinking “Wait, this is a paid game with IAP?" Yes it is, but don’t worry. There is a “Spare Parts" in-game currency which is used to activate hints in the game, and these are available as IAP. They’re dished out pretty liberally just by playing too, and if you aren’t really a big hint user then you’ll likely never even encounter the IAP as the store remains hidden until you’re absolutely out of Spare Parts. Additionally, once you do have access to the store you can opt-in to some video ads to earn Spare Parts for free, but aside from these there are no ads anywhere else in the game. Back when you needed to unlock worlds by completing them in order, there were also IAP options to unlock worlds instantly instead, but since the rejiggering I mentioned above those IAP don’t exist anymore so even though they’re still listed in the App Store don’t let them frighten you away.

Honestly, as long as you aren’t a chronic hint user, there’s no reason SPHAZE shouldn’t just feel like a regular $5 premium game. And while I’m not one to judge, if you’re spamming hints in a game like this, what the heck are you doing even playing it in the first place? For its $5 entry fee SPHAZE is one of the more interesting puzzlers I’ve played, and it far and away excels in terms of production value. It’s only gotten better by way of its post launch updates, including this most recent content update with world 5, and with it now being available on Android globally as well SPHAZE can reach an even broader audience who could and should check out what it has to offer. You can also find plenty of great discussion in the game’s thread in our forums where the developers are also eagerly taking in any and all feedback players have been giving.