"Best Fiends" iOS game is a hit from former developers of "Angry Birds"
Best Fiends (developed by Seriously) is an iOS game app which has been featured in the Best Games category at the App Store for a while now. And that’s for a very good reason, since both consumers and reviewers were really excited and entertained by the game; just 6 days after its release it received over 1,000,000 downloads and made it to the Top 5 Puzzle games in over 90 countries. The developers of Best Friends, Petri Järvilehto and Andrew Stalbow, used to be executive members of the Angry Birds team before they left to create this game. Just thinking of the massive success that Angry Birds had (and still have) makes it inevitable for us to hold high hopes for this fresh highly-ranked game, and I’m more than glad to say that Best Friends lives up to their developers’ legacy.
Game Description
According to the game’s description in the App Store, the plot is this: “The little creatures of Minutia lived in peace and harmony, until the night the meteor smashed into Mount Boom! A strange force transformed the slimy Slugs who lived there into a gang of greenery-gobbling goons – and now, the Slugs captured the Best Fiends’ families!”. It sounds really childish – in a really serious way.
To fight back the Slugs and reunite their families, the Best Fiends have to grow and level up, discover their special powers and prepare for the mystery that awaits them at Mount Boom.
What the player has to do is to collect all Best Fiends, level them up, discover their special powers and battle the Slugs of Mount Boom.
The action starts almost instantly as you open the game and tap the screen button, with general guidelines being given before each round. From the first few seconds you will notice similarities to Candy Crush (e.g. matching blocks), but soon you will notice that they have more differences than similarities, actually.
In Best Friends, what you must do is match blocks in order to deal damage to the slugs. The amount of damage delivered to the slugs varies, since you can deal more damage by matching blocks that have the character’s color. For instance, if you match Temper’s favorite green leaf blocks, it gives power to his attacks. It’s extremely important to note that, unlike other similar puzzle games (Candy Cush for example), in BF you have the ability to move diagonally. That’s something that will please players (with OCD), considering the nerve-breaking inability to do so in CC-like games. In addition, Bombs cause more damage and clear a wider area of blocks. By collecting blocks matching your Fiends’ colors you can have them throw Bombs and Converters in the Field as well. Furthermore, Slugs get bigger and stronger as you move ahead on the levels.
After a certain level (and every time you pass a specific number of levels) you are given a key to unlock whichever lock you choose from the ones you’re presented. This way you can unlock new cute bugs and add them to your team (more best fiends!). Afterwards you can select with which friend you want to play as, which will appear next to your first character on the field. This is a great feature which makes the game more exciting, since you can then combine more blocks that match the new character’s color, and thus deal more damage to the enemies. For example, match yellow blocks for Kwincy and he’ll throw out a Converter, which can convert other blocks to yellow. You can also collect diamonds that are hidden between blocks.
Similarly to Candy Crush, Best Fiends offers a certain amount of moves in every round, without the time limit restriction during gameplay. To restart after fail, you either pay real money (in-app purchases) or you spent thunders or you wait a couple of minutes to be able to play again.
The graphics are extremely well-done. In fact, the blocks look so juicy that makes you want to eat them! Plus the sound effects fit the game perfectly.
The only thing that could trouble players is that after every level it gets harder to win (which is normal), however the difficulty is not proportionate to your abilities but rather to how much you can pay for more moves to finish the round. Unless you are willing to pay, you should be prepared to quit the game sooner than you expect. But with the right strategy, concentration and careful thinking before each move you can advance far into the game.
In conclusion, Best Fiends is a puzzle game that will keep you entertained for a good amount of time and will offer you enjoyment and fun. It seems that Petri and Andrew really know how to create successful games!
