A woman, a frog, or a fly? (Sweetopia (PC))

Member Name: sottovoce1982

Product:	Sweetopia (PC)
Date:	24/11/07 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Addictive, great graphics, and your player is a girl called Kate

Disadvantages: Only some stages are challenging; the rest are very easy

Sweetopia (pc game)


A young girl called Kate inherited her grandfather's candy factory, but because she mixed the wrong ingredients, some sweets turned into potential explosives. The player should help Kate prevent those from touching, through firing sweets to get rid of groups of three or more sweets of the same colour / kind. So, it belongs to the same category of the more classic games like Zuma, but in this game the pit (golden skull) in Zuma is replaced by two chains of sweets that should be prevented from colliding. Also, unlike Zuma, the chains are not continuous; before or when you get rid of a chain a new one appears and this goes on till the circle on the left of the screen is filled.



As usual, the left button of the mouse is used to fire, and the right one is for alternating between coloured balls. The additional thing is that in certain stages you get the chance to fire balls from different places (two, three, and sometimes four) and to do that you use A and S to go forward or backwards. This ability to change the place you fire the balls from is supposed to be an advantage, and sometimes it is the only way or at least it makes things easier, but at the same time it takes time and forces you to use the keyboard too. This game also gives you the chance to make the fired ball rebound, through firing it on the wall and making it go back to the chains and this fun technique gives you more points.



There are different kinds of coloured balls / sweets. The marshmallow kind might melt on the way and so the ball will disappear before it reaches its destination, that's why you have to be close to the chain when you fire it. Gum balls take a very large space and therefore you have to get rid of them as soon as possible. In Lime Division (hall), you see the kinds of sweets that keep a space between them and other balls in the chain. And in the Orange Sector you have to get rid of small and dreadful orange balls that are difficult to aim at; you fire them and they go to a different place.



The power-ups in the game include the classic ones like stopping the balls, moving them backwards, the beam that helps you aim better (this is great as well in the rebound; you aim at the wall and see exactly where the fired ball is going when it rebounds). There are new ones like the question mark which gives you five sparkling balls that can fit anywhere, and the fiery ball which can penetrate several chains. Here comes the fun; you can make this fire ball go through a whole straight chain, or rebound on one or more walls and go back and forth to destroy many sweets, but this requires experience of course. In order to finish the game you have to complete seventy stages in the story mode, but you can also play the more basic arcade mode in which you actually lose lives.



I think the graphics are very good; somewhat caricatural, colourful with so much sparkling stuff. You see a view of all the halls / sectors in the factory to know where your position is and then you get into each one of them. The music is fine but repetitive. So, what's the downfall? I think that the game is not challenging; the first stages are very easy and only some of the final ones can be a little difficult, but still you get the chance to repeat each stage endlessly till you win, for there isn't a limited number of lives to restrict you in the story mode. You are just told that no dangerous explosion took place and then you go on playing.



<> Recommended?

I honestly don't know if boys / men will be interested in this game... I'm not being pessimistic, but even J.K. Rowling couldn't reveal that she is a woman at first, right? Playing the role of a frog as in Zuma or a fly as in Tumblebugs, which are similar games, might look much more enjoyable for boys. In addition to this, in this game you have endless chances when you don't succeed, which makes it easier, and for this reason might look like a game for girls, but I don't think it is. I certainly don't believe it is as bad as they say it is. After all, you can easily play it more than once and the power-ups in it are creative.



<> Price: $19.99 from Yahoo, and I think that you can download it for free (but with Ads) from /www.playfirst.com/.

Summary: I don't think it's as bad as they say it is.