This game has only the video on the App Store post and no tutorial or instructions when opening the game. The video shows the simple play of moving a ball from one place on the grid to another lining up the same color balls. 5 balls in a line pops the line and scores while opening space on the grid. Okay... seems easy enough! NOT!
First, there are two sizes of balls on the grid. When you touch the big ball, it wiggles to show selection. The small balls cannot be selected. Okay... so far.
While the big ball is selected it wiggles in place and you then tap on an empty square where there are other balls of the same color in line to place it. When it is placed more large and small balls appear on the the grid.
So, you go along and create lines of 5 balls that pop thinking you have the hang of it! YAY! And then... something different happens!
You chose and select a ball (it’s wiggling) for your move to a line that has 4 balls of the same color in a row and tap the empty square to place it and complete a line of 5. The ball doesn’t appear. It seems as though nothing happened! WHAT?! The square at the end of the line is still an empty square! HUH?! You’re puzzled and figure that you didn’t select that ball so, you go back and select it again. It wiggles when you select it but, it again doesn’t move into the empty square this time either!!!
AND, by the way, that tap you’ve now done twice that didn’t move that selected ball de-selects it... AND populates the grid with more large and small balls! That’s when you realize it has done that populate thing twice now and the grid is filling up like crazy!! OMG!
Evidently, it wasn’t you not selecting a ball to move that was wrong as you made sure it was wiggling so, there must be something to do with the square in line with the 4 balls you were attempting to complete! Examining that square and those around it, you notice the small tiny balls that don’t respond to direct tapping do become big all of a sudden. You have no idea what triggers that or if it is a timing thing... AND, it still doesn’t tell you why you couldn’t put a ball on that empty square.
Still with me?! Yeah. I went back to the video in the App Store and watched it again. It seemed staged to just demonstrate moving a ball and popping 5 in a row with obvious editing of the video to do it successfully several times. There aren’t as many balls on the grid because they obviously at the beginning of the game and haven’t made any mistakes!! They DO NOT show a failed attempt to place a ball and the resulting instant population of a significant number of new balls all over the grid!!
I try to take a look at reviews... it says there are 5. Only 2 show up and 1 isn’t in English. Okay... maybe this is a newer game. I take a look at version history and there have been updates that date back 3 YEARS! Only 5 reviews in 3 years!?! And the accumulated review is 3.7 stars. Perhaps there have been reviews like mine that speak to the need for instruction?! OR... are like the one I can read that was posted hours ago reporting that they ‘pushed buttons’ and couldn’t get the game to work?!
Next, I noticed that the Developers reference their Facebook page to get Help. So, there I go! All of the posts are advertisements of games. There isn’t a single comment or ‘Like’ on any of the posts... that’s odd. Couldn’t find any posts by players asking questions or any FAQs... nothing. (Sigh...) At this point I didn’t message them as it would be redundant since I’m writing this review.
Now... I have a couple of new questions... Do Developers get something for creating free games based on review score?! Do they get more incentives for reviews on purchased games?! Do the purchased games have instructions?! Can they hide or delete reviews?!
Here’s my final thought... if this review disappears or there is no response from Developer to assist me, I’m making a formal report to Apple about Application Reviews and their effectiveness to ensure quality of games offered.
I really do hope that the Developer helps me and I’ll be able to play the game! My review will certainly reflect that and change. Players just want to enjoy the game and Developers should give simple instructions to play their game. This is the first one I’ve come across that doesn’t.
P.S. Thanks for reading.
4.5
