To be honest, as an old player who has played since the Symbian era, I am actually quite picky about match-3 games. Recently, I saw someone on the forum recommending this Candy Candy Daily. I downloaded it and tried it for a few days. I felt that I could talk about its advantages and disadvantages with my friends and compare it with the classic Candy Crush Saga.
Let's talk about the advantages first. It's really easy to get started with this candy, and the level design also has its own little thoughts. It doesn't give you a lot of restrictions at the beginning like Candy Crush Saga. The first dozens of levels basically let you get familiar with how to eliminate various candies. The special effects are quite eye-catching, especially the scenes of exploding candies during the match-up process. Although they are not as delicate as those produced by major players, they are indeed quite relaxing to watch. The number of levels is said to be 388, which is enough for light players to play for a while. Moreover, it is free and has no in-app purchases, which is very friendly to people who don't spend money, unlike Candy Crush Saga where you get stuck and want to drop your phone if you don't spend money at the end.
However, the shortcomings are also quite obvious. First of all, the core gameplay basically copies the framework of Candy Crush Saga, and even the design ideas of some special candies are very similar. To be honest, after playing match-3 for so many years, when I opened this game for the first time, I almost thought I had made a mistake. Although it is officially said to be "as fun as Candy Crush Saga", I personally feel that this is more like taking a shortcut. There is almost no innovation, except for changing the cartoon style and replacing the candies with more adorable crystal hard candy shapes. In addition, the level difficulty curve is not very reasonable. It suddenly became extremely difficult when I played around level 50. There was no transition period, and I was stuck for two days before I passed. The prop system does provide a variety of props, but many levels cannot be passed without props, which kind of forces you to use props. Another point is that the matching time occasionally lags a bit, maybe because the optimization has not been done enough.
Compared with Candy Crush Saga, the advantage of this game is that it is free and there is no compulsory krypton gold (it is really hard to not have krypton gold after Candy Crush Saga). The picture is fresher and brighter, suitable for players who like cute styles. The disadvantage is that the level design lacks creativity, the difficulty jumps too much in the later stage, and the overall imitation traces are too heavy. After all, Candy Crush Saga is King's classic work. From the level balance to the number of special effects, it is very mature, but this one is still far from it.
In general, if you have never played Candy Crush Saga, or just want to relax in match-3 occasionally, this Candy Crush can be used as a substitute. But if you are an old player like me who came all the way from playing Zynga's Bejeweled, you may feel that it lacks a little soul. It's not bragging, it's a qualified pastime, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes a classic. By the way, I am running Android 5.0, so it should be able to run on mainstream models.
Finally, I feel that there are too many "tribute" works in the mobile game market now. Sometimes I miss those thoughtful games on Nokia N-Gage. But having said that, I can play casually for a while in the spare time without having to worry about being tricked into making money. This at least shows sincerity. 😊