Ka-Bloom Review
PROS
- Refreshingly unique puzzler; cute premise, easy to pick up with a real bite to its later challenges.
- Scaling difficulty offset by upgradable 'skills'; makes it easier to complete earlier levels with 'perfect' scores.
CONS
- Swipe to cut controls inconsistent. Difficulty scaling inconsistent at times.
VERDICT
Ka-Bloom is elegant in its simplicity, but don't be fooled by its pretty appearance... it's a challenging puzzler ready to suck you in as well.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
Ka-Bloom by Strongman Games and BBC Worldwide is a strange sort of puzzler. There's a very logical solution to almost all of its puzzles, but there's also a free-form element to its play that lends itself to a naturalistic, almost intuitive approach as well. In short, hardcore or casual, Ka-Bloom is a lot of fun.
At its most basic level, you need to feed Floret a stream of various tokens to provide enough energy to explode. These tokens can only be grabbed once Floret's aura is large enough to reach them, though you have a few tricks up your sleeve to make life easier. Firstly, tokens can be chained together, dragging others along with them. Secondly, these chains can also be linked together, creating large combos that clear the screen with relative ease.
It's not all that easy though - 'negative' tokens will reduce the size of Floret's aura, making it hard to finish the stage with enough energy; and the seemingly helpful 'heart' token will slowly continue to increase the aura, filling it up too fast if you're not careful.
Another less commonly used feature available to players is the ability to swipe and cut links made to create different chains. Sadly creating a link or cutting one is often registered incorrectly - this can be especially frustrating later in the game when you've unlocked larger chains and links, leaving you with remainders you didn't expect.
None-the-less, Ka-bloom is a refreshingly unique puzzler and one that deserves being checked out if you're after something aside from the usual physics-based titles dominating the App Store.
Screenshots
$0.99
