Huckleberry Falls

Review

It all started in a small town named Huckleberry! It was a beautiful spring day; the sun was shining, and the birds were singing in harmony.  But a different sort of harmony was brewing at the town’s resting place; Undeads were crawling out of their last estate and going on a rampage towards any living creature.  It only took a few weeks to send our world into chaos. The amazing part is that some Huckleberry folk managed to survive the initial outbreak!  All will be revealed in Huckleberry Falls.

Huckleberry Falls is a match 3 game, developed and published by Fatcat Games, with over 100 levels to clear.

The game will start with your hero standing beside a plane at the bottom of a map which will scroll up as you progress within the game.  Each of the levels will be represented by a tombstone and will be activated as soon as you click on them.  As you enter a level, you’ll see a grid of squares, 9X9, with between three to five different types of zombie. The bomb machine will be displayed on the bottom left corner of your screenshot and will have different colour bombs to use on the grid.  Each of the bombs will destroy five squares each time.  However, each colour bomb has specific alignments; the green bomb will get rid of five squares horizontally, the black one will destroy squares as a plus sign for example.  As you know, you must match three of the same colour zombies to activate each of the bombs.  However, if you have four of the same zombies, an additional bomb will appear randomly on the grid for you to use.  Mind you, they have to be part of a match 3 to be activated. The other one I personally like is the three by two match.  Every time you get this combination, a mine will appear on a square and will blow up another set of zombies.  Brilliant for multiplying your points. Depending on the move, you might even receive additional XP points as well.  Early on, you’ll have to rescue a character, and after that you’ll gain access to a pendulum with six different spells to use on the grid. Each of these spells must be charged before being available to you. How do you charge them?  Very simple . . . all the red zombies killed will charge the meteor spell, while the green zombies will go towards the acid shower spell.

There are several variations within the levels.  In some of the levels, you’ll have to reach a certain number of points, collecting parcels or mushrooms, and rescuing other characters without running out of bombs, to mention a few. Each time you rescue a character, you’ll have the opportunity to make him/her join your party. Every character has five talents and you can upgrade these talents with the XP points you collect. Bear in mind that you can only add a maximum of five individuals to your party.

There are other locations on the map as you move on.  In most of these places, you’ll have to choose between three available objects to successfully to receive rewards, which are either XP or coins.  For example, to open a door, you will have to decide which of the following three objects is more likely to work; would it be a fishing rod, a crowbar or a bucket of water? The other location you can access for rewards is the sewers. There, you’ll be squashing rodents for 30 seconds with a hammer for coins.  After this hectic splatting, you’ll be able to buy new trinkets for your characters at the hobo shop (if you have enough coins, of course).

Every twenty levels, you’ll be fighting a boss, and it will take you several attempts to beat them.

Graphically the game looks good and it is very addictive.  I personally like the variation of levels, which is needed in this style of game. The soundtrack suits the game very well but can be annoying after a while. You might become a bit frustrated, especially if you restart a level for the 10th time.