Match-3 meets Path-Drawing Time Management in Dan Russell-Pinson’s latest app Furballs! We fell in love with Russell-Pinson’s first entry into the App Store, Block Drop. With its randomized level and music structure, Block Drop wowed us with its near limitless possibilities. Furballs! utilizes a similar randomized approach, but this time applies it to a path-drawing puzzle challenge.
The goal in each of the 150 levels in Furballs is to clear the board of the furry creatures before they cluster together and set off the furball meter. Matching three or more furballs of the same color disconnects them from the cluster and they drops off screen. Taking a page from the ever-popular line-drawing genre, furballs are guided by paths drawn by the player’s finger. Each board begins with a floating cluster which needs to be disassembled using the random furballs that come floating in from all sides of the screen.
Increasing the challenge is the fact that all game elements are in motion. This means that if a path is drawn to match a blue furball to two others on the cluster, the cluster may have moved by the time the furball reaches the end of its path. Therefore, players must calculate where the main clustrer will be by the time the solo furball reaches the end of its path. Gameplay ensues under this structure. Only solo furballs can be guided along paths. Once two furballs attach together, their travel pattern is randomized. If players are slow to find matches, the main cluster grows and increases the furball meter. If the furball meter reaches its limit, the stage ends. Along the way, a few power-ups and obstacles are introduced. Wildcard furballs can release any two-ball combo. Incoming comets can be guided to freeze furballs on contact. Meteors too will dislodge contacted furballs from the main cluster and drop them off screen. Satellites, on the other hand, will cling to furballs causing solos to be un-guidable and can make the cluster difficult to break up. Thankfully, we found that satellites were easily thrown off screen with the flick of a finger.
In the visual department, Furballs! is cute and pretty entertaining. While the colors are vibrant and furballs have a bit of personality, we would like to see further differentiation in level designs and furball variation. Every furball looks and acts the same although being of differing colors. The level backgrounds are also strikingly similar. We would like to see some variation to compliment the engaging gameplay. The built-in soundtrack sports the same ambient feeling as Block Drop. Of course, we hope for some level distinction to be added here with a future update. Meanwhile, players can listen to their own iPod library if they grow tired of the musical score. With just a few tweaks in the artwork and UI, we feel Furballs! could hold its own with the major players in the line-drawing genre.
An in-game tutorial is present and new power-ups and features are introduced via dialogue boxes before they start appearing. Users can submit their scores online after completing levels. The score is simply the highest completed level. Replay value is present since all unlocked levels can be replayed at any time. However, completing all 150 levels should keep players busy for some time before needing to go back and replay.
Furballs! offers a great experience that tackles both the match-3 and line-drawing genres. If you’re a fan of either, we suggest picking this title up for its current sale price of $0.99 (Lite version available). Less frustrating than the typical line-drawing title, where one mistake will cost you the game, Furballs grants some significant satisfaction points upon level completion. We found ourselves coming back again and again.
Furballs gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating:
