You are a scientist observing a whole new world under your microscope, and it's time to intervene with that world when bacteria start trying to take over, in Cell Kingdom, a match-3 game from Right Fusion, Inc. In the vein of Triple Town, get three of the same type of object next to each other to grow each cell into a higher level organism. The bottom of the screen indicates what your goal for the level is. Goals consists of combining cells until you get a specific number of the right color. On the first level for example, you need to create one yellow cell to continue. At the top center of the screen it shows you what the next three pieces will be so you can plan ahead.
As you progress, pesky pink bacteria will be able to move freely on the board to get in your way. If you can trap them for a turn, they will turn purple and become stagnant. The bacteria follow the same match-3 rules, and matching them is a great way to free up room on your board, and is sometimes the level goal which adds nice variation to the gameplay. Some levels give you wild cards or bombs. Drag and drop to use these, and purchase more in the store (along with basic cells) with gold earned in game.
While Cell Kingdom isn't exactly innovative, the crisp look and ease of play make this one to check out. And who doesn't like playing scientist every once in awhile?
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on the iPad 2. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.
Call me simple minded, but I do not understand this game.
oh, my gosh--me TOO!! I don't get it, either, and I'm an intelligent person! I want to give it another try to see if I'm missing something obvious. Maybe I'm just tired?
It makes sense if it works! So I did understand it the first time until some glitch (probably on my end since my laptop's been acting up today) wouldn't let me place some of the pcs. It really is just a match 3 game: not complicated at all.
I have to admit, I really don't get this game either. It's not that it's complicated, it's just that it doesn't seem to make much sense.
The last piece played is where the new merged piece ends up, makes things really hard.
I know the in-game tutorial was awful. I did my best to explain the gameplay in the review. Sorry if it was still unclear!
Nice and complex. I finally quit at the level where I need three reds. If only the cloning thing was cheaper, I think I could pull it off.
I figure if I have 8 clones available (hahahahahaha, as if) then I just need to get one green, and then I can clone greens to make the three reds I need.
It took me a few too many times to realize that
it won't allow cloning the final goal item. The clone didn't work, and then I just clicked (playing a white) and then stupidly tried the clone again, getting another white. I don't mind that happening once, but I think I did it three times. DUH!
I enjoyed figuring out the rules. I had almost given up on how the bacteria works, and then I read the intro more carefully. I don't think I would have figured that out on my own.
Whew!
Taking a break from playing to post some thoughts.
First, I really, really wish designers would not include a "relaxed" or "casual" mode that requires beating the "regular" game first to unlock. Perhaps this is done out of a lack of understanding of who plays no-stress game modes, or why. Regardless, it's frustrating. Have your "story" mode (or whatever it's called) unlock more-challenging material, not the other way around.
Second, I wouldn't classify this game -- other than completely technically -- as a match-3 game. It's rather more like... what chess is to checkers, Cell Kingdom is to go. And the eventual need, in higher levels, to think ahead exponentially more moves to reach more complex goals gives the game a difficulty curve unique in my experience.
The complexity curve, at least for me, puts this into the not-when-I-have-a-headache category of games, and also not-when-I'm-tired category. For a puzzle that really makes the gray matter work, though, this is one of the more interesting games I've played. That casual (free play?) mode may well give it full replayability, too, as opposed to many challenging puzzle games that have only one unique solution (or even a handful) per puzzle and need to be put aside long enough for the answers to be forgotten to have much replay value.
(Thus far I've played only the Browser / Flash version.)
Update