Cand[ied] Crush by Mats Wilander Forever Four red jelly beans to the right, ZAP! Five green chiclets on the left file, CLEAR! Two color bombs at the top, BOOM! Seven meringue blocks below, DESTROY! TRONDHEIM, NORWAY -- “Candy Crush.” Who will not be enamored with the world’s most loved Facebook (FB) game, drawing in 61 million gamers and favored by 79 out of 100 Metacritic reviewers worldwide as of this writing, surpassing “Farmville 2” as FB’s biggest hoopla, with user’s progress updated in all platforms from mobile to tablet? Not me. Not my cousins nor classmates. Not Trondheim City with its 100,00 funky fans flipping their Ipads, clicking their mice or simply pushing their smartphones’ buttons at least two hours everyday, never mind if tots are banned in net cafes during class hours five days a week, and teachers prohibit PC games in the school PC laboratory. So off we play again, young and old alike, guided by either Tiffi, Mr. Toffee and the chapterized Easter Bunny, hurdling certain goals per stage and creating special candies, in the process destroying liquorice swirls, chocolates (which spreads across the board if left uncleared), bombs (which end the level if they are not matched before they go off) and other blocks, at the same wondering who has reached the game’s ultimate levels or if a geek has already finished it. None, I suppose, and with it comes some reflections why. First, gamers should be at the right place at the right time. I mean the series of orange lozenges, blue lollipop heads and purple clusters, and how you deal with them, affecting few or all nearby blocks thereafter. Second, think; everything is a trade off, and when a flank of dodgers is zapped by a multicolored bomb, you don’t know what is coming. Third, don’t be distracted by the suggested plays; the game has its own mind and often just to get rid of items instead of goal completion. Fourth, make the best out of the limited moves. Everything is timed; always think ahead or you will just falter and repeat the stage or altogether drop out of the race. Fifth, help others to be able to help yourself. Sixth, chocolate is not a friend; it is a bomb ready to explode. Seventh, make King’s folly educational even just by adding colors of continents. Eight, nothing is free, with kiddos paying after the first 35 levels, with costs escalating for every booster purchase like candy hammer. Ninth, be independent as FB friends can’t bail you out of trouble forever. Tenth, the dental protest which is self-explanatory, and eleventh, “Candy Crush” as a gambling prelude, raising questions if it is already an exercise of the real thing as well as the effect of virtual money. Or the escapist world digression, if “Deus X,” “Team Fortress 2” and “Rome: Total War” already cooped on us, if there are no more friends to play with as it is already curfew time, TV cartoons are far from all-time favorites “Ben 10,” “Phineas and Ferb,” “South Park,” “Winx Club,” “Doraemon” and “The Simpsons,” and if power is already cut for one reason or another, except our solar panel lighting system which Papa charged eight hours before. Of course, we continue playing it because it is in vogue and doesn’t require much thinking, and given a choice between moving on to the next level or staying put, what will you choose, unless your intention is just to be swamped with a myriad of hues, twinkling lights, hypnotic music and comic sound effects, never mind if it would mean eggs after eggs after eggs raised to the nth power, and stakes no lower than puck bunny or an animated candy? “Candy Crush” forever!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:07:11 +0000