Review: Pill Popper – Diagnosis Not Promising

Everyone loves a good puzzle, and there’s no better platform for puzzle games than mobile devices. Casual in nature, they’re not necessarily fleeting. Whilst they can kill time on your commute or general travels, if they’re addictive enough they can keep you glued to your tablet or cellphone despite the proximity of a much-loved desktop or console.

Small indie studio, Flyover Games, have produced a nifty little puzzler that promises to eat into your time. But despite a solid idea and some great production, it doesn’t satisfy that puzzle itch as much as other mobile games do.

The Doctor Will See You Now

The premise of the game is simple. You need to neutralise the mood of your patients using pills. But beware, although you use an upper or a downer on one patient, the effects spread to those immediately next to them. There’s certainly a good element of strategy here; trying to figure where best to “pop your pills” to maximise future combos is certainly challenging against an ever decreasing countdown clock.

Slick, Not Sick

The first impressions is that it looks very slick. Made using Unity, it’s got sharp definition and a bevy of colour right from the opening screen to the actual game itself. The 8-bit inspired music is also rather jaunty and adds a sense of fun and urgency to the gameplay.

There’s nothing over-complicated about the user interface (UI) either. Simply click the patient you want to medicate, and Bob’s your uncle. It’s a simply, well designed and produced game. It’s a mobile game that’s pretty easy to pick up and just play and looks great at the same time.

Flatliner

The biggest problem with the game is that it really lacks dynamic and variety. After a while, you just find yourself doing the same thing over and over and nothing really changes. Even in the “Endless” mode where you get your time extended for scoring a certain amount of points, no new mechanics ever get introduced to spice things up.

The boosts you can buy with the gold coins that you’ve earned through gameplay don’t make the it any more varied either. They’re all directed towards increasing or protecting your multiplier which is only really useful if you’re incredibly competitive and really want to top the global leaderboard. Furthermore, you have to put in a considerable amount of gameplay to earn enough to buy these boosts unless you really fancy forking out actual cold hard cash to get them quickly.

Conclusion

“A solid idea…and some great production values. It’s a shame that its lack of gameplay variety will leave you as neutral as your patients.”

As free mobile games go, this is one with a solid idea behind it and some great production values. It’s a shame that its lack of gameplay variety will leave you as neutral as your patients. Once you’ve played it through a couple of times, you start to become a little bored, and over time you’re likely to forget that you even downloaded it.

But for a casual puzzle fix that won’t cost you penny, you can do a lot worse. Though it’s quite transient in holding your long-term attention, it’s certainly a diversion that is worthy of the little time it does engage you for.

Pill Popper is available to download for FREE from Google Play and iTunes App Store.