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Gravity Sling is a game in which you control an astronaut stuck in space. You pick a direction and magnitude and send him flying around the orbits of planets until he reaches his ship, trying not to crash into planets or become lost in space on the way. It’s a well made game that can make beautiful fractal shapes as the astronaut leaves a line behind him when traveling in orbit, slowly changing in color as time goes on. The game also has a nice music track and solid graphics.

What I like most about this game, though, is how they set it up. On the App Store, it’s a free download. In this free download, you get 19/109 levels to try out with a myriad of situations: one planet, multiple planets, moving planets, etc. The introductory level set gives you a taste of the game at no cost. The other 90 levels are separated into three different 30-level packs and worth $0.99 each. I love this model much more than the whole lite/full version system because, in some cases, it cuts down on the number of apps in the App Store and keeps all the reviews for the app in one place. Now, there also is a Gravity Sling Deluxe, which has all the levels already in and unlocked (and at the time of writing, it was on sale for $0.99, 66% off) for people who don’t want to deal with in-app purchases or don’t have iPhone OS 3.0 (which is required for in-app purchases). I went ahead and bought it, but then worried that it wouldn’t remember that I did all but one of the introductory levels already. Much to my surprise, it had all the data still there (most likely due to the OpenFeint system the game hooks itself up to). I found that to be awesome and I’m glad I could support the developer of such a great app.

I really hope that in-app purchases become a way to upgrade from lite to full versions of software in the future. I don’t like seeing those huge “Lite” or “Free” banners all over applications in the store. I’m happy with the way Gravity Sling’s developer has done it.

Go check it out in the App Store (regular version, deluxe version).

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