Toon Blast An Honest Review

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Pay To Play?

I held off on this review for a long time due to the fact that this game is old news and I assume there have been many reviews about Toon Blast but after picking the game back up and playing it, I was quickly reminded as to why I stopped playing it in the first place.

First off I want to say I hate giving anything a negative review nor do I plan on fully painting Toon Blast as a bad game but the game suffers a lot in playability due to greed and I'll more in depth about that later down the review but first let's recap what Toon Blast is.

Toon Blast is a puzzle matching game where you match colored blocks to make it to the finish line and depending on how many matching-colored blocks to stack will result in the different combos you can pull off to insure victory. The game is cute and charming and its community of players are very friendly and competitive and you can join or create teams to help give or receive more lives from other players to try and last as long as you can to proceed to the next level.

As you progress the levels become more challenging but when you finally beat that level you feel proud and ready to take on the next which is what keeps the players going and addicted to play another round and then another and yet another. Toon Blast holds a lot of promise as a puzzle matching game and is very addictive in just gameplay alone but this game suffers from the one thing that most in app games suffer from these days.

In game purchases… that's right, in game purchases which used to be a gamers key to new and exciting game content such as unlocking special characters or bonus content has rapidly become a tool for a lot of these app game developers, sorry I mean bottom feeders.

If a game developer heavily relies on one successful game and in game purchases to force a player to proceed any further in a game rather than relying on your game to keep drawing them in then that is where you have failed as a game developer. You're clever, yes as a person who can make an addictive game that will draw in players to throw money out at you and you banking off of them but are you really proud enough to call yourself a game developer?

A true passionate game developer will stand by its creation and strive to create a memorable game that will stand the test of time rather than a cash grab scheme that sucks peoples bank accounts little by little by tricking them into playing more of your game due to the fact they are addicted to it. This is why I call game developers who create games that rely heavily on in game purchases bottom feeders as they only create money grabbing games that provide very little content and will keep demanding for more of your money to keep playing rather than giving you new stuff but rather stuff that is already in the game but hardly given to you for a reason.

To the developers of Toon Blast I want to say this… I get you need to make money and I get that business is business however can you truly stand by your game these days? The game is good as it is but let's be honest.

There are levels purposely designed to either be impossible or barely possible depending on random chance. I can't count how many times I have encountered a level where the game purposely sets me up for failure only to either force me to try again or until I cave in and purchase more chances to beat the level only to not lose my crown.

I've had levels where I've spent hours carefully calculating my next move to make sure I land the best combos to lessen how many turns I have to use but again just like a casino the whole round is based on random chance and will purposely put the odds against you. I'm ashamed to say that I've tested out this theory by dedicating a certain amount of money to prove if this is true and on just one round I had spent over $20 and I've even spent more than that with other levels and yet even though you gained money from me the one thing you lost from me is my respect and the lack of interest in your game.

I can no longer support or stand by this game as entertainment as it no longer is once you look past all the pretty colors and happy-go-lucky music. Behind the paint and props is nothing more than a slot machine designed to make sure you keep putting more money in just to play and after experiencing this every time you open the game it no longer becomes fun nor is it rewarding when you finally beat a level.

Within the last few months of playing this game I've felt more ashamed and embarrassed that I kept playing and sinking that much of my money just to play one more level and what will you do when more players feel this way? Sure, there will always be more people who will come along and yes a sucker is born every minute as well as kids who don't know any better and might accidentally spend their parents money to keep playing because a dollar is a dollar right?

If you were to spend $1.25 every day of the month then I'm spending over $30 dollars and this isn't even considering how many times a player fails at a level and keeps buying more chances or in game items and the game hardly rewards you with in game items to keep a player going. And to the ones who play Toon Blast and have spent money on this game then take a look at your bank account some time and look at how much money you have sunk into this simple game that offers you nothing new in content.

I can get way more content and excitement out of a $5 indie game on steam vs what phone games can provide. To the developers of Toon Blast, please understand that your game is addictive and good on its own merits and shouldn't have to rely on in game purchases.

If a game is good enough then it will show and it will sell and Toon Blast has that potential and I ask that you will change this behavior and be a become a perfect example for phone game developers and show that good games can be made rather cheap slot machines that promise little to nothing but demands nothing but money to keep playing it.

Don't be a bottom feeder. Be a game developer and take great pride in your work, and stand by it rather than milking it for what all it's worth and using it as a fast money grabbing tool.