The building things part of this game isn't in the same class as Imperial Island - I personally find the weird creatures rather off putting, but the gameplay is very similar and the tile designs varied and attractive.
Got very frustrated with a couple of difficult levels - Widow's Cove and Pearl Archipelago, but once I was past them the game seemed to play much easier without the same unusable cards turning up again and again. As soon as I completed the game I started it once more!
The game opens with no screens to show who the developers were, but the general appearance is so like Bumblebee Jewel they must be from the same studio. A nice feature is that you can choose between swap, chain or block, and even change your mind in the middle of a level, but I'll stick to the Bumblebees.
Based on the trial hour: A mix of swap, chain and block, but you can't choose, you're usually told at the start of each level which it will be (though once or twice it didn't seem to and I had to use trial and error - the instructions for the one mini game I've come to are also rather unclear). Tiles fall rather slowly, but you don't have to wait for them before making your next move, and there is no timer - at least in the easiest level which is the only one I've tried. There are 3 levels of difficulty. In the swap levels a match 5 creates a bomb which you can pick up and use anywhere on the board, something I've not seen before! Other levels have power ups which you can fill by just clicking on the appropriate tiles as they appear rather than having to make a match. The last grey tile to be removed can be difficult to spot, but a sparkle shows it after a while. The artwork on the boards is clear and attractive, and new designs appear at new stages of the game. The story is in rather crude black and ochre, presumably to resemble Greek pottery, and the village which you can build is also rather crude and you have no choice about what to buy or where to put it - it just appears. Not a game I'll rush to buy straight away, but definitely one to keep in Game Manager for when I want another match 3. .
After 50 minutes of the trial I was exhausted and had got to level 1 - 8. You have to make a match of at least 3 of the same colour with at least one of them open to contact with the rising white lines. So you can start by making matches in the centre and then make higher matches with one of them sticking out into the cleared space, and work outwards. Or a column of 3 starting at the bottom usually works but sometimes didn't. Having said that there's still a lot I don't understand – the baddie which you need to expose and shoot keeps retreating behind blank sticky looking squares, and I've no idea how the Skills work. I'm tempted to use a free punch card code to get it sometime as it is so different, but I can't recommend it.
Not my favourite genre, but bought this one after playing less than half the trial hour! You can either add a pearl to the end of a row or swap with any pearl in any row. Some strategy is needed – it usually pays to think one or two moves ahead, though some levels have unpredictable (and explosive) chain reactions. The levels vary, using different obstacles such as three in a box, frozen pearls, locked columns, rather than just getting steadily harder, so never gets boring. It would be nice to have the option to skip the shark-shooting bonus levels. Difficulty was just right for me - didn't get frustrated but needed all the power ups I could buy to get through level the last level (30).
I recommend this game!
+3points
3of3voted this as helpful.
Finding Doggy
Create matches to help Doggy find his way back to the farm, the only home he knows and loves.
Enjoyed the hour trial but didn't buy the game for a while. I'm now up to level 5 - 6 and seem to spend a lot of time seeing explosive tiles at the edges of the screen and not being able to use them. I get Doggy home in the end by mindless persistence, and the game is so colourful and different from anything else I have that it passes the time pleasantly. Perhaps I'll discover better techniques eventually.
I didn't take any notice of the storyline but I love the game. It's actually 2 games: when you complete the find-the-same- cards game it opens another in which you match cards which add up to 13.
I don't usually buy this kind of game, I'm not good at judging angles, but Oddball is just hilarious. Try a shot and if you hit something wait and see what happens next, sometimes you'll be amazed!