Candy Crush Saga

King.com’s Candy Crush Saga was first seen on Facebook and now it’s available for both Android and iOS devices. Since the mobile launch, people across the gaming community, mostly casual and mobile gamers are taking this game too seriously. At first, I don’t even have the slightest idea about the game. But my friends kept on flooding me with game requests over at Facebook. Majority of it came from this game and that made me curious as to why my friends are addicted to the game. Since it’s free in the mobile market, I gave it a shot.

Candy Crush Saga’s game play is very similar to Bejeweled. It’s a puzzle game with ‘match-a-three’ rule. The basic goal is to make this virtual candy disappear as they pile up on your screen. Scores are given depending on how many combos you performed within a move. The combo starts when you have four or more consecutive shots within a turn which the game calls as Sweet, Tasty, Delicious and Divine. That last combo, ie ‘Divine’, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t see any connection in that when someone eats a candy, If I were to rename that, I’ll make it ‘YUMMY!’. One of the unique elements of this game is the progress map. It’s basically a map where you can access all the available in-game menus. It keeps track the progress of your friends (that urges you to race with them at the top). You can also access the item shop here.

The mobile version of the game will let you sync your progress (game save) when you activate it on your Facebook account. This will let the players choose if they want to play the game in their PC or on the go with their cellphones and tablets (the most practical) keeping their progress intact. Similar with thousands of mobile games out there, the game also offers power-up purchases such as time freeze, changing candy colors and etc. If you find yourself stuck in a level within days, and if you have the money, you can purchase in-game power-ups in Yeti Shop so you can advance. Well in my case, I never purchase any of these and just play with patience until I finish the level.

The game won’t let you advance to episode four until you get three tickets from your friends. This is the only downside of the game whenever you’re in your momentum and the game won’t let you play to advance. The only way out of this is to wait, yes, patiently wait. But instead of waiting, you can replay every level and beat the top score of your friends! Remember that this puzzle game is all about skills. High level is nothing compared to top scores! Speaking of waiting patiently, whenever a player failed to finish the level, the life count will decrease by one and it will only replenish after 30 damn minutes! Fuck that right? Actually, there’s a turnaround for that. Keep reading and you’ll get to that.

The current version of the game consists of 17 episodes. I’m warning you, whenever you reached episodes three and above, you won’t stop playing! Episodes one and two are fairly easy and just cover the basic tutorials of the game. There’s this time when I reached level 18 (ie episode 2) and I suddenly stopped playing because it’s too basic for me. Yes! Too basic during that time and level. Then one friend of mine asked me if I’m playing Candy Crush and asked for lives. That request triggered me to open the game and play it again. When I reached episode three, I find myself being captivated by the game. It was simply addictive! I guess the thing that pushed me to play this game is the CHALLENGE. Failed levels urged me to play more. If there’s a game that would let me appreciate heavy traffic while going to work/going home, it’s this game!

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If you find yourself stuck with zero lives and don’t want to wait for 30 more minutes, advance your device clock! The clock of the mobile version was calibrated to your device’s internal clock. So if you tethered your clock into an advance time, let’s say one day advance, you’ll have an instant 5 lives![/box_info]