Game Review: Circle (Mobile – Free to Play)

The aim of Circle is to tap the screen to keep your circle from touching the thin track that you move along. Make it as far as you can without letting the circle touch once or it’s game over.

To extend gameplay beyond a minute, there is also a hard mode that makes the track flash in & out of view briefly. As well as a selection of missions. The latter of the two is what adds some much-needed depth even if it’s still extremely shallow gameplay.

These range from reaching a specific score, collecting a certain number of gems or just playing the game over & over again. There are 125 of them but very little variation in them. As you play the main game, you’ll complete them with relative ease.

The only other mode are the races. These see you complete laps with your circle to earn gems, the main currency of the game. Gems can be earned in the main game, by completing races, by watching ads & with a random spin of the daily prize.

Gems are used to unlock different variations of your circle. Starting off at 50 gems & going as high as 2000 gems. There are a hell of a lot of different circles to unlock so if you’re determined to get them all without spending real money you’ll be playing this for weeks at least.

Of course, if you’re thinking about dropping some real money into the game to buy some gems they come in a number of hilariously over-priced amounts. The lowest amount costs 99p & will get you 400 gems. While the most expensive costs £6.99 & will net you 5000 gems.

So, for £6.99 you could buy the 3 most expensive circles. Each costing 2000 gems & 1500 gems respectively. £6.99 for 3 different looking circles. That is it. That’s all you get for the same price as the full-length & detailed role-playing game Oceanhorn & Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. 3 different circles costs more than Bastion (£4.99) & more than Ducktales: Remastered (4.99). Absolutely absurd.

In fact, the only one that could be considered worth paying for is the £1.99 to remove ads. However, considering how light gameplay & replay value exists even this seems over-priced.

Stupid in-app purchases aside, Circle does have something going for it. It is pretty addictive. You’ll want to have just one more go to try & make it as far as you can. What should really be only a minute or two of gameplay is extended as you keep having just one more attempt.

That alone makes it a recommendation.

Note: this review is for version 1.7 of Circle.