It's A New Review... With A Twist! - Milk Tablet "Sweetened Flavour"

We've decided that over the next little while we're going to play around with some new ideas for Candy Critic. One of the ideas is to do a live review on Periscope every so often that we're calling Chris's Late Night Candy Review. As you can see above, we're also recording our live review and posting it on YouTube as well. We don't have a schedule for them yet (but as the title implies, it'll be at night), as we're still working out the kinks, but we'll be sure to announce when we're going to do a new review on Facebook and Twitter.

Click here to read the more detailed written review of this treat.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to find out when we're going to do another live review.

You can also follow us on YouTube to make sure you know about all the video stuff we're putting out.

Finally, if you can, please check out  our Patreon page, to find out how you can be a part of the Candy Critic team.

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Candy In The Media

All this month on the Candy In The Media segment of the Candy Critic blog we're going to look at candy themed games for tablets.  All of the games will be tested on my Nexus 7 tablet running Android Kit Kat.  Keep in mind that I'm not really a gamer, so my past experience is pretty minimal.  I'll mainly be focusing on how easy it is to play, how it incorporates candy, and any tech issues that may come up.  We welcome your suggestions for games you think we should try out on future posts.

This week's candy themed game was one that is fairly popular with many people, but one I've never actually tried myself.  Actually the Hidden Object Candy version of the game may not be the most popular, but the "Hidden Objects" style of game is very popular right now.  That would explain why there are hundreds of variations to this game, with all kinds of themes.  This is but one version of this game, and as you'll read later on, I don't really understand why they even bother.

The object of this game is to find random stuff.  A picture comes up on your tablet with a pile of random things loosely attached to the picture and you have to find (and click on) specific objects hidden amongst the clutter.  A few of the objects interact with the background, or at the very least are themed appropriately.  Most objects are completely random and are just floating within the picture for no particular reason.  You get a time limit to find the objects, and then you get a bonus round to fine even more.  I can see how the concept of this game may work, but I don't really think this version works at all.

My biggest problem with this game is the randomness.  The randomness of where the things are sitting on the screen, as well as the randomness of the objects themselves.  Most of the objects that you search for have no relation to candy whatsoever, they're just random objects.  While the backgrounds are candy themed, the hidden objects don't really belong in the pictures for the most part, and when they are integrated they're nonsensical. To me it seems like the candy theme of this came is just thrown in with no effort.  I'm guessing if the candy theme was pulled off a bit better, I may have enjoyed the game a lot more. As it stands I've played it 3 times, and that's probably it for me.

CC

Candy In The Media

All this month on the Candy In The Media segment of the Candy Critic blog we're going to look at candy themed games for tablets.  All of the games will be tested on my Nexus 7 tablet running Android Kit Kat.  Keep in mind that I'm not really a gamer, so my past experience is pretty minimal.  I'll mainly be focusing on how easy it is to play, how it incorporates candy, and any tech issues that may come up.  We welcome your suggestions for games you think we should try out on future posts.

This week we're looking at the first candy themed game that I ever downloaded for my tablet, Cut the Rope.  I have to be honest, when I first downloaded Cut the Rope I didn't even know that it was a candy themed game.  I just saw the cute little picture of the monster that eats all the candy and thought he (or she) was really cute.  Fortunately for me the creature was not only really cute, but the game was kind of fun and candy related as well.

The best part of this game for me is the theming.  Most puzzle games have a theme, but it's rarely more or equally clever as the games themselves (unless the games are really, really lame).  I can assure you that the Cut the Rope game is also really clever and fun, but so is the story that follows them.  You're basically trying to feed this little monster that comes in boxes delivered to your doorstep.  You have to complete puzzles that collect stars, and eventually feed the little monster a piece of candy.  The sound effects of the little critter are great, and the look of the game is perfect with the theme.  And the thing that drew me to this game, the cute little monster, is very cute and likable.

The basic design of the game is fairly simple, yet each puzzle varies in difficulty.  I found that the order of each puzzle didn't really reflect the difficulty of the puzzle.  In other words the puzzles didn't really get progressively harder as you move on.  Some of the puzzles at the beginning were very challenging, and some later or were very easy.  I did have a few puzzles were I gave up on trying to collect all the stars, and one that I even used one of the free firefly cheats to win.

As a game I found Cut the Rope to be a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the way candy was integrated.  Candy wasn't just used as a decoration, but it was part of the storyline.  My biggest problem with this game is the advertising.  It's pervasive, constant, and interrupts game-play a lot.  I have never been so disturbed by advertising while playing a tablet game before.  It's physically impossible to ignore the advertising.

CC

Candy In The Media

All this month on the Candy In The Media segment of the Candy Critic blog we're going to look at candy themed games for tablets.  All of the games will be tested on my Nexus 7 tablet running Android Kit Kat.  Keep in mind that I'm not really a gamer, so my past experience is pretty minimal.  I'll mainly be focusing on how easy it is to play, how it incorporates candy, and any tech issues that may come up.  We welcome your suggestions for games you think we should try out on future posts.

 

The first game we'll look at in this series is probably the most well known of all candy related tablet games out there right now Candy Crush Saga.  Many of us have either enjoyed this game, or been plagued by Facebook spam related to this game.  This is really the kind of game that if you're playing it, it's fun, but if your friends are playing it, it's a pain in the butt.

 The game itself is a fairly simple (and common) puzzle swipe game.  All you have to do is swipe the various candies around in order to line up 3 in a row.  Each level presents a different layout, as well as a different way to win.  In some cases you win by achieving a certain score, in other levels you have to "pop jellies", and so on.  There are also special candies that can be earned when you align the same candy into certain patterns.  For example, if you line up candies in a T formation (instead of just 3 in a row) you get a special bomb candy that destroys all the candies around it.  The instructions for the game are very straight forward, and the training levels are very clear.

Theme wise this came is pretty good.  The graphics are simple, and fun, I particularly like the fact that all the characters look like puppets.  The candy graphics themselves are really simple, but that's OK since most traditional candies are also fairly simple.  The music is a little annoying, but the sound effects are really great.  I can't really describe the sound effects, but I can say that they are very candy like.

The fault of this game ties directly into the reason many people will never even try to play this game.  If you fail at too many puzzles, eventually you run out of do overs, and you must then either wait a certain amount of time to try again, or get people to sign up for the game via social media.  This is why friends have sent you invites to play this game so much.  I think you can also buy do overs with real money as well.  I have to say that the fact that I can't just keep playing this game annoyed me to no end.  Even worse is the fact that one of the ways I can continue is to annoy my friends.  It's a fun game, great concept, but the music and the do over rules really got on my nerves.

CC