Match Three Mastery | Sparkle 2 Review

<p>Developer 10 Tons are starting to make a name for themselves in the PS4 space by bringing over celebrated mobile titles&period; After releasing the surprisingly refreshing and addictive <em>King Oddball&comma; <&sol;em>they&&num;8217&semi;re back with the equally addictive <em>Sparkle 2&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I had never played&comma; nor had I heard of&comma; the original <em>Sparkle<&sol;em>&comma; so I didn’t know what to expect when I started the sequel up&period; I was actually a little bit let down initially when I realized that it was yet another in the ever increasing long line of match three style games&period; My fears though&comma; were quickly extinguished once I started playing&period; <em>Sparkle 2<&sol;em> is a solid game that has taken what is overly familiar and turned it into something fresh&comma; tense&comma; and undeniably fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;62085" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-62085" style&equals;"width&colon; 1024px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;match-three-mastery-sparkle-2-review&sol;sparkle&lowbar;2&lowbar;screen004&lowbar;1024x768&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-62085"><img class&equals;"wp-image-62085 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102310&sol;sparkle&lowbar;2&lowbar;screen004&lowbar;1024x768&period;png" alt&equals;"Power ups really add an interesting dynamic" width&equals;"1024" height&equals;"768" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-62085" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Power ups really add an interesting dynamic<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The first thing that will likely catch your attention is that a rather compelling narrative opens up to you upon starting the game&period; Story in video games is nothing new&comma; but in a simple match three style game like this&comma; it’s rather unexpected&period; You aren’t given much exposition&comma; but enough to have grabbed my interest&period; The story plays out with the grizzled voice of a story teller against the backdrop of some beautiful and haunting backgrounds&period; You’re never too sure about what’s going on&comma; but what you do know is that you are on a journey traveling to different places on your overhead map&comma; collecting keys along the way&period; I was encouraged to continue playing stage after stage in an effort to see where the narrative was going&period; Unfortunately&comma; the payoff doesn’t really live up to the expectations&period; I don’t want to spoil anything&comma; but there really isn’t anything to spoil&period; Suffice to say&comma; I was let down by the end&period; Games like this&comma; however&comma; are not built for story so the fact that we get anything is a bit of a treat and luckily&comma; gameplay is where <em>Sparkle 2<&sol;em> shines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Every level gives you an increasing stream of glowing colorful orbs&comma; which are traveling along a predetermined path on their way to a hole at the end &period; The player’s job is to launch orbs into the stream in an effort to link three identical colors together to eliminate them&period; The orbs keep coming until you destroy enough&comma; eventually clearing the whole board before they reach the hole&period; As you progress through the game the orbs will come in greater numbers&comma; move quicker&comma; and even come at you two or three streams at a time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;62086" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-62086" style&equals;"width&colon; 750px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;match-three-mastery-sparkle-2-review&sol;sparkle&lowbar;2&lowbar;map&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-62086"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-62086" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;05&sol;05102259&sol;sparkle&lowbar;2&lowbar;map&period;jpg" alt&equals;"A small section of the overhead map" width&equals;"750" height&equals;"418" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-62086" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A small section of the overhead map<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It sounds simple enough&comma; but <em>Sparkle 2 <&sol;em>gets really interesting with the unlockables and perks that it offers you&period; The farther you progress&comma; the more perks you can unlock and many of them really are game changers&period; The power ups and the like really make the game fun and interesting to watch&period; Once you start chaining orbs together one after another and seeing power ups flying all around&comma; you will immediately appreciate the fact that you can play this on the PS4&&num;8217&semi;s big screen instead of the small&comma; cramped screens of our phones or even tablets&period; <em>Sparkle 2 <&sol;em>is a beautiful game that feels right at home on Sony’s powerful system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Besides unlocking things like the typical challenge mode&comma; there really isn’t much more to say about this game&period; It employs a well-worn and classic formula in a way that makes you constantly tell yourself &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;one more round&period;” It’s not <em>Bioshock Infinite<&sol;em>&comma; but as far as match three style games go&comma; <em>Sparkle 2<&sol;em> is about as perfect and polished as it gets&period; If you have even a passing interest in games like this&comma; do not let this one slip off of your radar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;