Here's a nice little curio. Hero Pop is an app puzzle game that uses familiar tropes in a kooky way.
It’s a typical mobile puzzler: The top section of the screen is various coloured balloons, on the bottom of the screen are characters holding their own balloons. Drag characters across to where you want them to release their balloon, and let it float up and match at least two of the same colour. When they match, they disappear, and your task is to clear space and free characters that are trapped at the top of the screen.
Imagine Tetris, except with objects floating upwards instead of down, and matching colours instead of shapes.
Hero Pop is a nice-looking game, but perhaps it lays on the cutes a little thick, with bright primary colours and gentle xylophone and flute music.
I did respect its weirdness though. The oddball setting involves a pirate ship floating in the sky, and frankly I’m not sure what it’s supposed to represent. Sometimes you’re asked to pop specific balloons, which contain doubloons. And why are the heroes all small children?
Hero Pop plays well. It's very easy to master, with good touch-screen controls and incremental challenges. You can help your odds and decrease difficulty with micro-transactions (a practice that I'm not a big fan of) and there are occasional pop-up ads.
This title might be a little too sugary for some palates, but hey, with games under constant fire for their violent and offensive content; some might consider it refreshing when a game is too squeaky and nice.
