Have you ever gone in desperation to the App Store or Google Play looking for something like Candy Crush, or something like Toon Blast, to fill the void those games left behind after you played them to death?
We have, and that’s why we’re quite excited to have discovered Cartoon Crush, from developer Zenith Codes.
This latest casual matching puzzler looks like an absolute dream, with addictive gameplay, bright, friendly visuals and a pleasing line in explosive boosters.
The core gameplay will be familiar to casual game fans. There are blocks of different colors on the screen, and you need to clear them by tapping on clusters of matching blocks. Every time you do, more blocks slide down to replace them.
While two is the minimum number of blocks you can clear, you get boosters for clearing more. These include a rocket, an exploding barrel, and a color star, and they do stuff like clearing whole rows or columns, wiping out a chunk of blocks, or obliterating every block of a particular color.
Oh, and you can combine them or double them up. Get two rockets together, for instance, and you’ll send rockets out horizontally and vertically at the same time. Combine two stars and you’ll clear the whole damn screen.
For all its simplicity, Cartoon Crush places some tactical demands on you. Clearing blocks is easy, but getting blocks together in large enough clusters to unlock boosters takes planning – and a bit of luck. It’s an addictive brew.
Cartoon Crush has over 600 levels, representing weeks of compulsive gameplay, and there’s multiplayer too, including leaderboards, daily and weekly tournaments, and a nifty friends system that lets you share lives and team up for events.
In terms of reviews, Cartoon Crush has an incredible 4.8 average user rating on the App Store, and an only slightly less impressive 4.7 on Google Play, so it comes highly recommended.