Candy Crush Saga review
Candy Crush Saga for Android proves to be as deliciously addictive as the Facebook version, featuring hundreds of levels, as well as the Dreamworld expansion, which enables you to replay completed levels while maintaining a balance of two colors of candies, so that the moon-shaped balance won't tip over, bringing Odus the owl crashing down from the Moon.
Pros
Tasty as candy: Candy Crush Saga takes the classic concept of the match 3 puzzle game and adds lots of candies -- lemon drops, blue lollipops, red jelly beans, orange lozenges, and more -- which you must switch and match on the game board in so many moves to reach a certain score, clear certain types of candies, or gather special ingredients. It's the combination of tasty graphics with the super casual but nevertheless challenging gameplay that makes this game such a hit.
Exciting gameplay: The game, with its buoyant music and easy mechanics, sucks you in from the first level -- your heart almost leaps in your chest as three or more sweets are matched and an epic explosion sweeps the game board, taking with it dozens of candies and boosting your score. Silly as this game is, it overshadows most other puzzle games on the Play Store.
Lots of extras to keep you playing: Apart from the never-ending succession of episodes and levels, you get to unlock treats like magical boosters, which help you clear the harder boards more easily. Also awesome is the multiplayer mode where you can challenge friends to compete with you for the highest score.
Cons
Becomes repetitive after a time: Once you complete the first episodes and progress to the higher levels, the game starts repeating itself, aesthetically. This is, however, inescapable for a game of this kind.
Ridiculously easy but also frustratingly hard: Strategy plays but a tiny part in this game, where winning or losing often depends on pure chance -- sometimes the right candies drop on the board and the result is an explosive combination of sweetness that makes you score points in the thousands and clear half the table in a snap. At other times, though, it seems that not even a chess grandmaster could clear the board.
Bottom Line
Delicious and addictive as it is, Candy Crush Saga trains only your thumb. There's no harm in playing it, but if you let the sugary color-matching business become an obsession, you'll waste hours on this game, and possibly tens or even hundreds of dollars on in-app gold. If you haven't played it yet, do try it. But keep in mind that there are games in the Play Store that can actually sharpen your mind and train your reflexes, while providing almost as much entertainment as this one.