Yumsters Review - Fast puzzle game with army worms!

Herocraft has put out a lot of good quality games for Android over the past couple years and although some had control issues at first, Herocraft has really stepped their game up. A couple of favorites from Herocraft are Art of War 2 and Farm Frenzy but we can add another one to that list called Yumsters which is a great fast-paced puzzle game.

Yumsters takes the genre of matching 3 or more of a particular item to eliminate them and makes an entirely new game out of it. Featuring 'Yumsters', which are worms, you want to keep the board clear of fruit by having them eat the same color of fruit as they are. You can move the Yumsters from hole ot hole, eat fruit in every direction, do combos, get power-up and a whole lot more.

Gameplay: As I just mentioned the point of the game is to clear as many fruit as you can. This will generally eliminate the fruit in the progress bar at the top and you win the stage. Sometime though you have to get creative when trying to meet the goals of each stage. This is where the different abilities of the Yumsters come into play. Some blow up surrounding fruit, others can each any fruit when powered up, some can bend in any direction after each fruit and more.

You can also switch the holes the Yumsters are in my tap and holding your finger down on that particular Yumster and dragging him to a hole. If it is occupied by another Yumster then they will automatically switch places. You want to get a gold ranking on each stage in Adventure mode or you can play survival mode and see how long you can last.

While trying to clear the fruit though you'll have plenty of obstacles in the way as well as problems the fruit will undergo such as freezing if they are not eaten fast enough. A fully frozen fruit can not be eaten until you get an unfreeze power-up. There are a bunch of power-ups in the game as well including 2x and saturation (fully buffs special Yumsters so you can use their special abilities). The game is finally finished off with a global leader board and achievements to unlock.

Features:

• 64 Levels
• 7 Different types of Yumsters, each with their own abilities
• 2 Game modes: Survival and Adventure
• 7 Locations
• Lots of different bonuses and power-ups
• Eat in any directions and make combos
• Achievements and global leader board
• Great graphics and sounds

Graphics and Sound: The graphics are high detailed 2D art that has a 3D look to them (not flat 2D in other words). Lots of animations between the Yumsters eating, stretching, powering up and the progress bar, fruit, bonuses appearing and more. All of this ran smoothly on the Nexus One so should run well on pretty much any device. If you have an older Android phone have no fear, there is a version for you as well!

The sounds and music are original and fit perfectly into the game. not over-bearing but not too subtle either. The background music keeps the game from becoming stagnant but doesn't become annoying either. The sound effects aren't annoying either and only really happen when you do something yourself so there are no beeps or other sounds happening all the time.

Controls: The controls are all touch screen. All you have to do is tap and hold your finger on whatever Yumster you want to control, drag your finger over the fruit(s) you want to eat and let go. You can see how many fruit you have in a combo before letting go right above your finger as you are dragging it over them.

Once in awhile when trying to do combos it'll be very sensitive when selecting the fruit and you will see the number bouncing around, for example, if you are trying to do a three fruit combo at a weird angle it will sometimes bounce between two and three fruit above your finger. I did end up missing some fruit in combos once in awhile but for the most part it worked out alright in the end.

Overall: I found myself playing Yumsters a lot in between rounds of Angry Birds. It's highly addictive and when stuck on two addictive games at the same time you tend to bounce back and forth between them. It offers up a lot of replace value not just for the achievements but with the overall scores for each stage, you always want to get that one gold star you seem to not be able to get.

It's a great mixture of fast-pasted puzzle, a little strategy, good eye candy and achievements and it will keep you busy and entertained whether between round of Angry Birds or just to kill a few hours with. The other great thing about this game is it leave room for expansion with updates which could include more levels, power-ups and Yumsters which hopefully Herocraft and their partner with this game, Kranx Productions, will do.

You can pick Yumsters up off the Android Market for $3.14 or give it a whirl for free with the Lite version. Definitely one of the better and more original puzzle/strategy games I've played in awhile.

Overall: 4.5/5

Developer Website: Herocraft

Direct Market Link: Yumsters

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