Ghosts And Apples is a frantic action-puzzler with mighty ghosts, combining action, strategy, reasoning, and memory. You must accumulate golden apples and gems to buy the keys of every room within the mysterious house to escape. To achieve your goal, you must catch devious ghosts and swoosh them at stacks of other ghosts to clear the screen!
Worthplaying.com
Gameplay
On its face the gameplay in Ghosts and Apples looks unique but if you were to strip it back to its core it would just be another colour match game with core elements similar to the likes of candy crush and many many others. Games like this are very popular on the mobile scene due to its ‘pick up and play’ style and addictive gameplay. Ghosts and Apples takes this winning formula, tweaks it a little bit and puts a nice hand drawn art style over the top.
Players must use strategy and memory in this hectic puzzle game to accumulate apples and gems which can be used to buy keys. The player must then use these keys to unlock rooms in a mysterious house in an attempt to escape.
The player is tasked with catching ghosts and placing them at either side of the screen in stacks. Matching these ghosts by colour will reward the player with more points and the end goal is to clear the screen and catch a certain amount of ghosts to proceed.
There are over 150 different levels to play, all with similar goals. After playing around 10 levels I noticed that the speed in which the ghosts appear becomes much quicker, causing the player to make quicker decisions and this truly becomes a test of strategy and memory. I did notice that beyond this speed increase the gameplay itself didn’t deviate too much in the time that I played and some players may even find the gameplay slightly repetitive.
Visuals
Just like many other indie games on the market, Ghosts and Apples has a very unique and imaginative art style. As soon as you boot up the game you can tell that a lot of heart went in to hand drawing most of the elements and personally I think this is very inviting and fun and makes a nice change from the usual drawn out realistic generated scenery that is present in most games.
Although a lot of the game has been designed with ‘dark and gloomy’ in mind there are instances were there are some great colour pops, especially in regards to the ghosts.
One thing I will say is that the main playable character does sometimes give me the creeps!
Replay Value
Ghosts and Apples has 150 unique levels to play all with increasing speeds and difficulty. The gameplay within the first portion of levels doesn’t differentiate much though, meaning eventual repetitiveness.
In terms of replay value, players can technically play the same levels again and in some instances achieve a higher score but otherwise I personally do not see much need to replay the game after all 150 levels have been completed.
Verdict
Ghosts and Apples has many of the same core elements as many popular and addictive mobile games. This formula has been used for many years and luckily Ghosts and Apples has managed to put enough of a spin on that formula to still stand out amongst the crowd. Addictive gameplay and great visuals make for a great experience however some players may not like the repetitive nature of these types of games. This game is still a must play for anyone that wants something addictive to pick up and play.
Update: After speaking with a member of the team who worked on the game they have pointed out that there are further gameplay elements and another character later on in the game
(All subjects touched upon in this review are based on my experiences in the small portion of the game that I was able to play in my review time)
