Puzzle games have been really popular lately. Seems that’s all I’m trying out nowadays. This latest one is called Magic Bunnies by OrangeSheepGames. It’s a Match-3 game where you game over if any column of bunnies reaches the top. What sets this game apart is that only one bunny falls at a time, it only falls in one column, and instead of moving the bunny around, you move the column of bunnies already fallen. This is definitely a new way to do things.
What caught my attention
Other than the different take on the Match-3 formula, the colorful graphics stood out for me. All the little goodies like multiple game modes and a “Hall of Bunnies” looked interesting too. Unfortunately, I didn’t play far enough to unlock anything.
What lost my attention
Although the concept sounds unique, the actual implementation is flawed. The bunnies float down too slowly, at least in the beginning stages. You can tap on them to speed them up, but it was kind of a hassle. Shifting the columns where the bunnies fall is not intuitive. Several times I saw potential for combos but failed in its execution due to not moving the columns correctly. Moving the columns is also clumsy: you need to click on one column and exchange it with another. A clicking and dragging mechanism may have been better here. The music at first sounds great, but quickly becomes monotonous. The worst part is the number of bunnies you must clear. 50 or 100 sounds like a little, but with the speed and frustration of the controls, each game was lasting upwards to 5 minutes. I hoped it would improve, but by level 4, I was ready to give up.
Overall Impression: Bored
This game seems to have many extra things implemented to get the player interested, except for the game play, which is of course the most crucial part. Puzzle games fall generally into two categories, slow-precise planning games like Bejeweled and Sudoku or fast-paced screen clearers like Tetris and Pocket Fighter. This game is neither a thinker nor a masher, which is a bad thing in this case. I still see potential here and would love to see the developer polish the execution.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tuan (@SyradineGames) is a game developer, husband, Texan, and Longhorn. He also secretly has a passion for critical thinking and writing. He used to be an avid console RPG gamer, but lack of time has shifted his focus towards mobile gaming. He is continually scouring the interwebs for the next RPG to play and hopes one day, RPGs will be as great on the mobile platform as the games of the past. Experiencing the frustration of marketing firsthand, he believes every game deserves a chance to be written about. You can read his game dev blog at http://syradinegames.wordpress.com/
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