Review

Gameplay 79%

Charm King is a traditional Match-3 puzzle game where touch an element in the grid, and switch spaces with another one up, down, left or right. If you line up 3 or more together, the elements will disappear. If not, they will go back to their original places. The objective of the game is not to reach a certain score, but to collect a certain number of charms, treasure or bubbles that you’ll find in the levels. And there are also rocks on spaces to destroy, and oil lamps you need to light up. All by making matches next to them. You have a limited number of turns to get all the charms you need. If you run out of moves, you can buy 5 more or start over. What makes this puzzle unique, is what happens when you line up more than 4 charms. If you match 4 elements, magical arrows will appear at the sides of the lines, and “enchant” the charms you need to collect, making them worth double, so when you make a match 3 including it, you’ll get 4 charms instead. If a magical arrow takes effect on an already enchanted charm, it will disappear and you’ll collect 3. If you make a Match 5 in a “T” or “+” shape, the magic arrows will affect the row and column those elements are on. But if you manage to line up 5 charms in the same row or column, the 3 elements in the center will launch arrows, enchanting a lot of charms in the grid. To aid you in your quest, there are some boosters you can equip before starting a level. There’s a magic wand that enchants all charms in the grid, and an arrow rain that collects charms, takes out obstacles and lights up lamps. You can buy these with in-game’s currency or win it by collecting cherries you get by beating challenges and then claiming a price by trading 10 or 20 cherries.

Graphics 81%

Charm King features good looking 2D graphics. The charms are shiny with a colorful cartoony look, and the whole game looks like a children’s fairy tale book ilustration. There’s not much animation going on, but what is there when you make line up elements looks nice, with magic sparkles, glowing enchanted charms and flashes of light when the matches are made. The backgrounds are static, but they look OK and change every few levels according to the area you are in the Wolrd Map. Overall, Charm King has offers an above average visual experience, but it isn’t really on par with the most popular high quality puzzles. Nothing to really complain about, but it could’ve used more animations and show the game’s characters a little bit more

Production Quality 76%

Charm King has a gameplay mechanic that’s a little different than most match-3 puzzles. The way it power ups elements in the grid makes for an original experience, and players of the genre will welcome this unique way of playing. At the beginning, the game adds a new obstacle or element in the grid to deal with pretty often, so it doesn’t get old quickly; and it’s pretty challenging. But after a while, you’ll see it doesn’t have truly unique gameplay elements, and it starts to geel like other games in the genre, but without the fancy “bomb” charms and similar stuff that takes out lots of elements in the grid with a few moves. The boosters and special items are few, and you have to play for a long time before getting one, if you don’t want to spend real money. The game is pretty enjoyable without power ups, but sometimes it feels like the levels are designed so you have to buy stuff. You’ll have to be extremely lucky or a very good player to beat Level 30 and beyond without using boosters.

Launch Video

Summary

Charm King is definetely recommended for casual users and hardcore puzzle players that are looking for a good match-3, but with a few tweaks in the gameplay so it doesn’t feel like the same copy of the populars “line up 4 or more elements to get a bomb” apps. It can become quite challenging, but it’s simple controls and unique “charm” in its visuals and overall design may make you try again a couple of times. It’s worth playing at least until you feel like you can’t beat a level without buying power ups. Pros – Nice colorful visual art, with a fairy tale book look – Easy controls, yet challenging level design Cons – You’ll have to wait several minutes to get a new life – You’ll need to play a long time to get boosters without paying – It would’ve been to change the music when you get to a new area in the map

Game Help Guru Rating 78%