MegaSpheres - Ooh! I found my marbles!

NOTICE: I usually link directly to the reviewed game, but I can't do that with this one. All links will take you to the correct page where you can scroll down to find the game. I apologize for the inconvenience! 

MegaSpheres is an unusual puzzle created by BugleGames. This is a new site for me, and a full review will follow later. ^_^

At first glance, MegaSpheres appears to be a typical click-3-make'em-vanish game, similar to Collapse. But there are several crucial differences.

1. You only need to click 2 matching marbles. (That's your first hint that this is a tougher game.)
2. Marbles don't fall straight down. They fall down and to the left.
3. New rows appear on the right and fall to the left.
4. There is no timer, which makes this a puzzle instead of a speed game.

You start out with three colors. After every 75 moves you'll get another color added to the mix.

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!

So far the most colors I've had in a game is 6, and that is TOUGH to play. It's hard because unlike Collapse, you don't have new rows appearing every few seconds. The only way to get new marbles in MegaSpheres is by clearing the marbles on the very bottom row.

Here we have a nearly empty board. I have only 3 possible moves left.

I decided to click on the group of 3 red marbles, and then the 4 blue marbles. The result is below.

I know it looks confusing. Just remember that new lines of marbles will ALWAYS fall to the left. When you're stuck with no matching marbles on the bottom row, you need to play carefully. Death follows quickly.

I had 6 colors. Gimme a break!

In MegaSpheres you get more points for matching larger groups of marbles. Because of this you will score the most points on the first level. You have the fewest colors to work with there, and you start with a full board. This means you can make a gigantic match!

Whoa. That's a lot of yellow.

If you can't tell from the above pic, I was about to make a huge match with yellow marbles. It was beautiful. ^_^

Use the first level to make the biggest matches possible and your score will shoot up. I actually made it onto the high scores!

Sweet!!

True, they reset the scores every week, and a new week had just started... But still! I'm on the high scores!!Woohoo!! ^_^


Nitpicky Things

There are 5 boxes above the playing field. They keep track of the colors, score, how many chips/tokens you've earned, how many marbles you cleared on your last move, and the total marbles you've cleared. To be honest, I don't pay attention to anything other than score and chips. But the ONE thing I really want to keep track of is how many moves I have left until I get another color. I don't need a box to tell me I have 4 different color marbles in play, as I can *see* that I have 4 different color marbles on the screen. But there's nothing to tell me how many moves I have left. :(

Also, the animations are abrupt. This is a problem because although I *know* that the marbles fall down and to the left, I just can't see it in my mind. With most games I can watch the pieces move and figure it out from there, but I can't do that here. As a result, I frequently get an unpleasant surprise when marbles resettle.


Final Rating

For a puzzle game, MegaSpheres is pretty cool. A *long* game doesn't take me more than 10 minutes, and I find it both relaxing and stimulating. (Don't ask me how that works, cuz I have no idea.)

I'd say this is a solid 4 out of 5 stars. ^_^ Give it a shot and let me know what you think!