App Name: Candy Crush Saga
Developer: King.com
Cost: Free / In-app purchases
Market: Google Play
Review:
Beware! Candy Crush Saga can be a highly addictive game to first time players. If you enjoy playing swap-type puzzle games, you will get hooked on Candy Crush Saga within the first 10 levels. Each additional level is just as challenging as the other and some levels may seem insurmountable without using special candies beforehand. What makes this game entertaining to play lies within the story mode. The game’s cute cut scenes between each sugary stage and the varying types of puzzles throughout Candy Crush Saga is what makes this game separate itself from other puzzle games similar to this one. One feature that would be the icing on the cake for the mobile app version would be to enable a high score mode to take a break from an aggravating level in the story mode so that players can practice different maneuvers and strategies without wasting any lives.
The one, huge downside to Candy Crush Saga is your in-game progress is reliant upon requesting your Facebook friends to send you a “ticket” to continue your adventure. That feature should only apply if you want extra incentives such as a mystery special candy or extra moves in strategy puzzles. From a marketing viewpoint, this is an excellent idea to branch-out to forcibly attract more fans and users. From a gamer’s viewpoint, this might come as a setback, especially if most of your Facebook followers get annoyed by something as little as a FarmVille game notification.
Another disadvantage is the limited number of lives the user is given for the story mode. When first playing the game, it seems like you never worry about running out of lives. However, as you progress through the game and come across difficult levels, those five hearts will quickly dwindle down to zero within minutes. The time it takes to restore your lives is way too long and can be off-putting to some who wants to play the game for enjoyment. If you are pushed to the point where you need to get past a level, you may opt to buy more power-ups and lives to get through the game faster, although I would advise against it and just be patient.
Overall, Candy Crush Saga is an excellent game that is fun to play over and over again. The app has a lot of variety with multiple types of timed and strategy puzzles. Also, you will not have a problem with beating the story mode in a day as this game has over 440 levels (and counting). The app is free in the Google Play market and also available to play on Facebook.
