PlayFirst has been keeping us busy, releasing so many arcade puzzle games recently. Sweetopia is one of the most recent additions to the PlayFirst game library, and it’s been making my delights.
The story is presented in the style we are familiar with from other PlayFirst games. In the comic book storybook, we learn about Kate Gainsborough, who has inherited a mysterious candy factory located in Sweetopia, and is preparing to reopen it after 20 years of inactivity. But something goes wrong before the event, and a batch of Sherbet Sizzler candies comes out with explosive properties. Sherbet Sizzlers are the glowing marbles, they look somewhat like disco balls. In between them and the chain pushers, there are a number of colorful and delicious candies (such as Banana Bangs, Giant Gums and Marshmallow Melts). Kate’s job is to stop the Sherbet Sizzlers from colliding, by blasting away all the candies in all the chains, throughout the 70 levels of the factory grounds.
Sweetopia plays much like Zuma or PlayFirst’s own Pirate Poppers, but it gets more complicated than that. It’s actually more similar to Magnetica with all the different little twists on what is already an addictive game.
In each stage of the factory, Kate hops in a launcher and is transported to the area in danger. What we see is a top-down view of the puzzle area, with a twisting number of rails where the chains roll down in. Your purpose is to aim at the chain and make combinations of three candies of the same kind.
Like I said, the little twists are what make the game challenging and addictive. Aside from worrying about being fast and aiming properly, you have other things to worry about.
Ricochet shots for example, allow you to gain extra points if you hit a chain and clear a combo. The puzzle boards will sometimes have walls that block your launcher’s trajectory, and in this case there will always be another launcher pad for you to move to. In between shooting and aiming and moving, you don’t have much room for mistakes.
Some of these areas are also larger that what you initially see, and they scroll a little as you move your cursor around.
Candies will sometimes contain power-ups that you collect automatically by blasting them in a combo. Some of them include pausing the chain, wildcard candies that will match any color, even fireballs that will melt pieces of the chain. You will want to use as many power-ups as you possibly can, since the chains get faster and longer pretty early in the game. At later stages, it might take you quite a bit to complete a single board.
Aside from the Story Mode in which you save the factory from certain Sherbet Sizzler doom, you can also play through Arcade Mode in which you get only three lives to get as far as possible.
Sweetopia is a very enjoyable fast-paced action puzzler. From the colorful graphics to the little sound effects (it’s cute to hear Kate’s little exclamations as she pops the candies away) and even the music, which I found to be very fitting, since it keeps up with the somewhat hectic pace but without becoming intrusive.
Sweetopia is a delicious sugary treat just asking to be tasted. Why don’t you try it out?
Special thanks to Kirem Weers and PlayFirst for providing the full version of this game.