Following in the tradition of other “Match 3” puzzle games such as Bejeweled, Jewel Quest, Bubblez, Candy Match, and many others with similar sounding names, Frozen Free Fall is Disney’s attempt to cash-in on the popular gaming format, and it’s also a classy iOS app in every way.
Inspired by the Disney movie “Frozen”, this match three puzzle in set in the fantasy Kingdom of Arendelle, and allows you to play a game featuring the most popular characters such as Anna, Elsa and Olaf. Additional characters including Hans, Kristoff, and Sven can be unlocked later. Whether you’ve actually seen the movie or not doesn’t matter since Frozen Free Fall is a standard match 3 puzzle with the addition of Disney’s high-quality graphical and audio enhancements. The music is great!
The addictive gameplay is identical to any other match three game really in that you slide colored items in a grid–in this case ice crystals–to create a certain number of three-in-a-row patterns in a given number of moves. Various obstacles such as immovable ice blocks hamper your progress and create variety within the respective grids. Combining the three ice crystals makes them disappear and more drop into the grid to replace them. And so it repeats until you run out of lives or you have achieved the required score to progress to the next level of more of the same.
When you complete a level, you are taken to a map where you can either repeat the level you just played or advance to another. This gives the impression that you are traveling on a quest, and gives you a certain amount of satisfaction to see how far you’ve come since you started playing the game.
A notable feature is that you can play the game in both a vertical and horizontal orientation, whichever is more comfortable. Very few match 3 puzzle apps include this feature, and it’s nice that Frozen Free Fall does that. Not only does it make gameplay more comfortable, but it allows the game to take advantage of additional space available on the widescreen format.
The ice crystals are various shapes and colors including gold pentagons, purple squares, blue circles, green diamonds, pink diamonds, and blue-white ice shards. Everything is beautifully drawn, smoothly animated, and it’s impossible to forget that this is a Disney app since animated “Frozen” characters move around and gaze at you from above and beside the playing area. It’s all very appealing visually, and is designed for that specific demographic who loves everything Disney.
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Each of the companions is more than just eyecandy. They have special power-ups which you can use to beat the levels which they are specifically attached to. Depending on which companion you choose at the beginning of each game can make the difference between winning or losing on some levels.
In-app purchases allow you to buy more power-ups which you will need to beat the more difficult levels later on. Some of the levels are extremely difficult and will take several attempts even with the right power-ups. There are absolutely no guarantees that even having all the power-up available will allow you to beat the level! Sometimes it feels like a case of luck rather than judgment whenever these more challenging puzzles are solved. It’s also a relief to never have to revisit any of them once they are completed too.
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