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Bubble Witch Saga - Anyone remember Snood? This is Snood with a cartoony witchy skin and a few new rules. You can swap out the next bubble for the one “on deck” behind it, you have “spiders” that the falling bubbles bounce off of like a pinball table and determine your score, and you have a limited number of moves for each level. Oh, and you can pay money for power-ups or a stock of the particular color bubbles you want, so where I didn’t think it was possible to build a Snood clone where you could bribe your way to victory, I was wrong. (I’m more inclined to try to beat levels “honestly” and just suck up the recharge time when I run out of “lives”, but I suspect I’m nearing a point in the game where that becomes entirely luck-based and they didn’t bother making any attempt to balance it, because they want you to buy things.)
Puzzles & Dragons - I feel like this must have been originally a Facebook/browser game that got ported over to mobile devices, because it pings the server too damn much and deliberately warns you every time that you need a strong connection. Ostensibly a mon-battle rpg, you take your team of color-coded monsters into identical “dungeons” (each is really just a series of battles), and then play a match-3 tile-shifting game to make them attack and to heal yourself. I found it difficult to tell which dungeons I could handle with my current party, which leaned very heavily on my “rare” high-level monsters won from a randomized bonus game.
Bejeweled Blitz - Is it weird that I think I prefer the clone Jewel Quest 4 to the original brand? This version has you collecting coins (or paying for them) to unlock bonuses and rare gems, but the actual play board is basically static; you’re just competing with the leaderboard to see who can spend the most bonuses to get the highest one-minute score on that board. Not much to it, really. (This also seems very interested in pinging the server and using up my precious mobile data.)
Final Fantasy: The Crystal Defenders (Lite) - This is the free demo version of the Final Fantasy tower defense game that’s been out for a while, and which I never wanted to pay for before I don’t really like tower defense games. I appreciate being able to try out a level or two for free, because it only confirms that even if you use FF Tactics A2 classes, monsters and models, I still don’t really like tower defense games. (It seems pretty standard for the genre; it’s just a strategy/tactical game style I don’t really enjoy.)
Mini Ninjas - This plays like a side-scrolling Temple Run without the need to tilt your phone. Your ninja speeds through the level, jumping and slashing (by tapping different parts of the touchscreen) and grabbing coins and power-ups. The goal is to run really far and collect enough coins to buy more and exciting power-ups. Or you can buy those for real money, if you prefer. I found it more frustrating than actually fun; even on my 7” tablet, the obstacles weren’t that easy to see and the controls aren’t as responsive as an old-school console gamer would want.
Fruit Break - Another Bejeweled variant from the makers of Jewel Quest. It’s…okay? There’s a somewhat different rule set, in that you want to get medals down to the bottom of the screen to finish the level, and there don’t seem to be any special effects from matching four or five tiles besides a few extra points. (Though it may charge up the “special attack” button? It’s not really clear. My kingdom for a readme file.) And it forces you to play in landscape mode, which is annoying.
Final Fantasy All the Bravest - Apparently this title just doesn’t work on the Galaxy S5 or the Galaxy Tab 4. I suppose I’ll give it a proper review if they ever patch it.
Puzzles & Dragons - I feel like this must have been originally a Facebook/browser game that got ported over to mobile devices, because it pings the server too damn much and deliberately warns you every time that you need a strong connection. Ostensibly a mon-battle rpg, you take your team of color-coded monsters into identical “dungeons” (each is really just a series of battles), and then play a match-3 tile-shifting game to make them attack and to heal yourself. I found it difficult to tell which dungeons I could handle with my current party, which leaned very heavily on my “rare” high-level monsters won from a randomized bonus game.
Bejeweled Blitz - Is it weird that I think I prefer the clone Jewel Quest 4 to the original brand? This version has you collecting coins (or paying for them) to unlock bonuses and rare gems, but the actual play board is basically static; you’re just competing with the leaderboard to see who can spend the most bonuses to get the highest one-minute score on that board. Not much to it, really. (This also seems very interested in pinging the server and using up my precious mobile data.)
Final Fantasy: The Crystal Defenders (Lite) - This is the free demo version of the Final Fantasy tower defense game that’s been out for a while, and which I never wanted to pay for before I don’t really like tower defense games. I appreciate being able to try out a level or two for free, because it only confirms that even if you use FF Tactics A2 classes, monsters and models, I still don’t really like tower defense games. (It seems pretty standard for the genre; it’s just a strategy/tactical game style I don’t really enjoy.)
Mini Ninjas - This plays like a side-scrolling Temple Run without the need to tilt your phone. Your ninja speeds through the level, jumping and slashing (by tapping different parts of the touchscreen) and grabbing coins and power-ups. The goal is to run really far and collect enough coins to buy more and exciting power-ups. Or you can buy those for real money, if you prefer. I found it more frustrating than actually fun; even on my 7” tablet, the obstacles weren’t that easy to see and the controls aren’t as responsive as an old-school console gamer would want.
Fruit Break - Another Bejeweled variant from the makers of Jewel Quest. It’s…okay? There’s a somewhat different rule set, in that you want to get medals down to the bottom of the screen to finish the level, and there don’t seem to be any special effects from matching four or five tiles besides a few extra points. (Though it may charge up the “special attack” button? It’s not really clear. My kingdom for a readme file.) And it forces you to play in landscape mode, which is annoying.
Final Fantasy All the Bravest - Apparently this title just doesn’t work on the Galaxy S5 or the Galaxy Tab 4. I suppose I’ll give it a proper review if they ever patch it.
