Free - to - period of play games often seem likable , but it ’s difficult to know at a coup d’oeil whether the business role model is insidious and play wrecking , or reasonable and worth pumping a few bucks into . With Freemium Field Test , we ’ll take a recent free - to - play iOS game , put it through its pace , and let you know if it ’s really deserving your time ( and money ) .
Angry Birds mania is seemingly past its blossom , although the nearly $ 350 million world-wide gross of last year’sThe Angry Birds Movieseemingly see that the enfranchisement will keep hanging around for a while . In recent age , however , rather than keep iterating upon the familiar pull - and - cast aside formula ( aside from the solidAngry Birds 2 ) , Rovio has mostly delivered an array of spinoffs that bear little resemblance to the main games .
Look , it ’s like an Angry Birds level in the course of a teaser game … except the birds are balloon now .
We ’ve hada kart racer , a bubble - crap-shooter , a pinball game - action hybrid , and evena round - ground role - playing gameof all thing , not to refer one pretty tough puzzle secret plan : Angry Birds Fight . Just released over the holiday , Angry Birds Blastthankfully tender a better attempt at adapting the wandering steel for a color - correspond puzzle overture — but like most of the serial publication spinoffs , it ’s not a terribly exciting or fascinating experience .
The pitch
Angry Birds Blast tasks you with popping chains of balloons , but this is n’t a house of cards - shooter likeAngry Birds Pop . Instead , it plays a hatful more like Candy Crush Saga , as you ’ll need to tap to vindicated bunches of like - colored balloon from the circuit board .
Here , it ’s all about quantity : you ’ll need at least two conterminous balloons of the same color to be able to toss off them away , and the more you bunch up , the near the perquisite . unmortgaged five and you ’ll get a rocket power - up that can clear an total row or newspaper column , depending on which direction it ’s pointing . Pop seven at a time and you ’ll get a bomb that can take out a cluster of balloons , meanwhile , while popping nine or more gets you a optical maser gun that eliminates every balloon of a particular color .
Things get fairly crazy once you commence firing off power - ups .
make the most of those office - ups is of the essence to fill in each phase ’s objectives . gratefully , Angry Birds Blast shakes thing up middling regularly by adding in Modern case of tasks to fill out in each stage . Sometimes you ’ll just need to pull in a certain number of bird balloons from the plug-in , or pop all of the pigs in position . In other cases , you might want to pass course for hot breeze balloon to reach the top , or down bubble that vibrate atop the space on the board .
You ’ll occasionally run into some Angry Birds - specific seasoning , such as Mrs. Henry Wood occlusion or panes of glass that must be break to let balloon through — but for the most part , about everything in Angry Birds Blast feels like it ’s been done before . Tiny turn give it a more or less classifiable feel , but at its core , this is another freemium color - matcher . And it has a fate of the same bent - ups that derive with most freemium puzzle plot .
The catch
Buy boost or watch a video ad to get an reward properly out of the gate .
Given how large of a office power - ups play in the game , it ’s no surprisal that you may buy many more of them to help you through the trickier point . you may corrupt these perk before a match using the short puritanical star coins , which are garner gradually through play ( or purchase ) , or bought during match using the mostly - premium gold coins . These hike propose quick attacks to take out problematic balloons or barriers , or add extra moves to your circumscribed tally in each stage , and can help provide a speedy benefit when the going stick tough .
As in Candy Crush and other interchangeable games , you may feel tempted to take vantage of those ready fixes ( or pay to continue ) when you run into a wall : every so often , you ’ll face a much - tougher - than - usual stagecoach that obturate your progression , and you could only bang your header against it for so long before looking for a way out . To its credit , Angry Birds Blast does n’t seem to impale in difficulty as obnoxiously as Candy Crush , at least in the first few dozen stages I ’ve played through , but I would n’t be surprised if late stages are more systematically consuming .
Also , Angry Birds Blast lets you watch out a video advertising to gain a random tycoon - up before a grade , basically deal up to 30 indorsement of real time for a boost in the next puzzle . I unremarkably do n’t mind watching ads for bigger benefits in games , such asdoubling an already - big stack of rewardsin Best Fiends forever and a day , but a individual mightiness - upat the start of a matchisn’t tremendously helpful . I ’d only bother if I kept losing a stagecoach and could n’t seem to soften through otherwise .
I ’d pay the price before ever ask a friend .
Expectedly , the plot also has an vigor system , and you ’ll burn off one of five total hearts each clock time you fall behind a match , with each heart use up 30 minutes of real - world time to rectify . you’re able to grease one’s palms back a full refill with coin or consider pestering Facebook friends for extra hearts , but I ’d never in person do the latter … and we probably would n’t be Facebook pals for long if you did .
Ultimately , I spent $ 5 on golden coins — you may pass up to $ 100 at a prison term , course — and used them gradually over the course of instruction of a couplet days : a continue here , a skinny - win power - up there . Angry Birds Blast occasionally hands out both currencies for completing mission along the way , as well as coins and power - ups for completing daily and weekly tasks , but there ’s an obvious welfare to pass some hard cash when youreallywant the perk .
The verdict
The problem is , I never care enough ; I would n’t have spent that money if I were playing just for fun . Honestly , if I strike a wall , I ’d probably just contain spiel tout ensemble .
Angry Birds Blast is a comely game , but it ’s an uninspiring one . It ’s not the kind of game I ’d ever severalize a friend about , but not because I ’d be ashamed to admit I did — only because I doubt I ’d even call up having played it . It ’s the quick-frozen TV dinner of mobile gambling , capably filling a gap as needed without being exceptional or memorable .
That ’s OK . if we were updating last year’sranking of every single Angry Birds biz , Blast would probably shoot down in the middle , right around Angry Birds Pop : another enough and attractive game that can fill up spare moments . Still , it ’s a shame that a series that was once so enthralling now settle for tolerability as its mellow measure .
