8. Candy Crush

Candy Crush

Developed by King

Genre

Puzzle

Awards

• Best Social Game - International Mobile Gaming Awards (2013)

Review

Candy Crush is a multifaceted game.  The player starts out on level one of a digital game board that looks like an expanded version of Candy Land.  The game provides a tutorial of how to swipe the colorful candies to get acceptable matching pairs.  The player is also shown how to create and combine special candies for dazzling, point creating effects.  As the player progresses in the game, different requirements are given to complete each level.  Players can link their account to Facebook, allowing friends to send them extra lives (players only get 5 lives to start with; one life is replenished every half hour) or boosters to help.  Players can make in-game purchases for items to help complete levels.  The game board is split into sections; in order to move from one section to the next, players can do one of three things: purchase the next section, get three friends to "help" them to the next section, or win a total of three unlocking levels that can only be played once every 24 hours.  The developers also added a "nighttime" game board where the player has to balance the number of candies of two particular colors removed from the board or an owl who sits on a crescent moon will become unbalanced and fall off, ended the game.  This is a fun game that is popular for all ages.

Opinion

This is a popular, colorful, and enticing game for all ages.  However, tweens especially can make great use of adding their Facebook account to this app which will allow them to trade lives and boosters with their many friends that also play.  Like similar games, this game can be addicting in nature because of the mindless swiping that happens and may result in excessive in-game purchases to keep playing without a break.

Ideas

I think this game is great for the younger side of the tween age group because it can engage their minds with matching and understanding the game objectives.  With the older tweens it becomes more of a social game while hooked up to Facebook, allowing groups of friends to challenge each other and see who can get the highest score on a particular level or give each other tips and tricks of how to pass more difficult levels.

7. Tiny Death Star

Tiny Death Star
Developed by Disney Mobile and Nimblebit
LucasArts, 2013

Genre
Simulation

Honors
None known

Review

"Where have you been?!" exclaims Emperor Palpatine as I return to the Death Star.  "Behold! While you were away, the Death Star has earned...1341 credits."  This app for Android and Apple platforms puts you in the world of Star Wars on the Dark Side, helping Emperor Palpatine build the Death Star level by level.  Similar to Nimblebit's earlier game, Tiny Tower, the player starts with a lobby level and enough Credits to buy a Residential level to start the tutorial.  After completing the tutorial, the player knows almost all there is to the game and starts the process of earning credits, the main in-game currency.  Most tasks in the game require a waiting period that increases as the player levels up.  "Bux", the other in-game currency, can be earned slowly or purchased with real money (a password can be required to make in-game purchases, helping to ensure any undesired purchases don't occur).  It can be used to speed up the waiting periods, making it tempting to spend money often.  There really is no storyline to the game; players just earn enough credits to keep increasing the size of their Death Star.  Even when the app is closed, credits are being earned and time still goes by.  Overall, this is a repetitive, but fun game that you can revisit frequently during the day to make sure your Death Star is running smoothly and keeping the Emperor's plans on track.

Opinion
My experience is that the older version of this game had lots of bugs and caused problems on my phone, so I stopped playing.  When I got a new phone, I revisited the app for this project and found that the developers updated it and many people, including myself, haven't had problems since.  New features were added, like connecting to Facebook which allows the player to earn rewards as their friends work on their own Death Stars.  I have found this app to be an entertaining time waster and visit it frequently in short bursts as it is a game you can put down at any time without affecting progress.  Being able to put it down is a different challenge as the repetitive tasks in the game can become very attractively mind-numbing and addicting.

Idea
While not intended to be educational, it helps players learn to manage resources by deciding if they want to use their limited resources to make purchases in the moment, or if they would like to save for a larger goal.