It's dragon popping time in Dragon Poppers
Dragon Poppers is a puzzle game where you try to clear the board of dragons by setting off a chain reaction eliminating other dragons in a horizontal and vertical pattern. The game starts out with 105 levels in the first pack, but there are over 800 levels able to be unlocked by either playing through the other levels or by using gems. Dragon Poppers is playable on iOS devices running iOS 4.3 or later.
Players pop dragons one at a time and each dragon explodes horizontally and vertically, which causes other dragons to explode. There are different colored dragons which take more to pop completely. For instance, the red dragons only take one hit to explode but the yellow dragons need two hits. This creates a challenge for players to tap the right dragons, causing the right chain reaction to wipe out all of them. Dragon Poppers features good use of sound effects, such as when you pop a dragon it makes a cute popcorn popping sound. The art style also echoes this cute theme with bright colors and exaggerated eyes on the dragons.
The difficulty of the puzzles in Dragon Poppers is frustratingly hard at times. The pacing feels weird as in one round, the puzzle is simple to solve but the next puzzle is really hard. You may spend a good five minutes trying different strategies just to get through it. There are hints that players can get, but they are limited and you have to use gems to get more hints. The power ups available in the game are more helpful than the hints most of the time.
The power ups are helpful, but they cost a lot for most players and deter people from using them very often. However, players can replay levels to get more gems to afford power ups in the troublesome level. This helps a little but players don't feel like they are progressing if they are forced to go back to lower levels. A full screen ad pops up occasionally, which is rather annoying and detracts from the gameplay. This causes players to become more frustrated with the already difficult levels.
Dragon Poppers is free on the App Store, but the difficulty level will need tweaks to make the game worthwhile for casual gamers. If you are looking for a challenging puzzle game and don't mind feeling stumped at times, try it out.
