Punch "spaghetti marshmallows" into Google and you’ll get a strange bunch of results. A favourite team building exercise, the idea is to build towers using spaghetti and marshmallows. It is popular among corporations and engineers as you’ll need to think, work together and it is great fun, not only for faceless robots in grey suits, but also for kids. So why does Pocket-lint care about this? Because someone made a game out of it.

Spaghetti Marshmallows

Format

Android

Price

£1.38

Where

Android Market

Taking inspiration from the team-building engineering challenge, Spaghetti Marshmallows simply wants you to build a tower from those two component parts so that you can get a marshmallow into a round indicator target somewhere on the screen.

Initially it is fairly simple. You string together a couple bits of spaghetti and bingo, you’ve hit the target. But it doesn’t stay simple for long, adding in various other elements to consider when building. 

First there is the wind; you can’t just build a tall straight tower. Second there are other items, like walls, which might get in the way, and might be useful for support. And then there are things like those pesky frogs.

Frogs love eating marshmallows (what, you didn’t know that?) so if you build too close to the frogs, a tongue will shoot out and eat that part of your construction.

You also don’t have a limitless supply of spaghetti and marshmallows. Sometimes you have a frighteningly short supply, so you need to think about what is going to get you to those rings.

It’s a simple game, but we love the way it is put together. The “physics” (as some might say) are ace, with the spaghetti flexing under the load. If you don’t get the support in the right place, the wind will see your tower wavering dangerously until it collapses. There is just about the right amount of bend to the spaghetti to take the odd risk as you build.

The great thing is watching your structure sway around and finding a solution. Add a little counter-balance and maybe it will be okay. But then failure is rewarded with the glorious sound of snapping spaghetti so sometimes we want to fail. I mean, no one's perfect, right?

Once you’ve completed the level you also get the opportunity to smash up your structure or carry on building.

Available as a full game for £1.38, there is also a trial “Lite” version if you want to give it a go before you part with your cash.