Since day 1 of this site, I’ve been particular: no clones. Oh, sure, I’ve delayed games that were clearly inspired by other games, including yesterday’s “Place The Arrows On The Floor”. But a pure clone, one that adds nothing to the formula that inspired it, has always been off limits to me. If you make a clone of Asteroids, forget it; if you reimagine Asteroids as an arena combat game with walls that kill you and crazy enemies and power-ups, then sign me up.
That brings me to “Cell”. Cell looks good, plays well, has piles of levels, and some gameplay ideas I’ve not played elsewhere. The game has you absorbing smaller cells to grow, propelling yourself by excreting bits of your mass (which works against growing), watching out for the larger cells, until you’re the biggest cell around. The problem is that, though I haven’t played a game like this before, others have. “Osmos”, available on Windows and iOS, predates “Cell” and (so I’m told) plays exactly the same.
I don’t know that it plays the same for an absolute certainty, however. Cell’s does claim that it has “45 levels that entertain and challenge you with gravity wells, intelligent cells and much more,” and I’m not sure Osmos can make all the same claims. Are any readers out there familiar with Osmos enough to say? So without further ado, here is a poll on the subject (complete with the ability to insert your own answer if the default ones don’t quite capture your feelings on the subject).
Writings of Mass Deduction 