Saturday Casual Gaming 238: Mergical

Mergical by Betta Games

I love the concept of Merge games. It's basically Marie-Kondoing a game board and there's something wonderful about that feeling of gratification when you've consolidated dozens of similar items down to a few disparate things spread much further apart. You feel like you're cleaning, but you don't get as overwhelmed as if you were cleaning, say, a hoarder's house...

Anyway, that's all a long-winded way of me letting you know that I've been playing Mergical, a mobile game by Betta Games.

And yes, weird dolls are an important part of this game.

Mergical is a lot like Merge Dragons in a lot of ways. You merge groups of 3 together, you're unlocking parts of an island covered in clouds, you're healing land, you're collecting currencies and magic power, etc, etc. Instead of collecting and merging dragons, however, you collect and merge... people. Not sure how to feel about that. Especially since you merge dolls to get people.

Are they golems?

Am I summoning actual people who are desperate to escape?

Am I a monster?

Whatever's going on, you want to match things in groups of three, and you want to do it a lot.

I mean, this is only a couple of unlocks into the game. If it was zoomed out, it could feel overwhelming.

So far, I've only unlocked two or three sections of island, but it's enough to give me a feel, I think, for how this game plays.

Here's the good:

• The graphics are adorable - everything looks good and cute!
• The clouds are precious little hearts!
• Items progress in a way that seems to make a lot of sense (fruit tree seeds > fruit tree saplings > fruit trees > apple trees > pear trees)
• Your helpers respond when you drag and drop them or when you double tap an item for them to collect
• The challenge levels (which are located in the bottom left corner) are quite reasonable (so far)
• The "quests" (located on the left hand side) are fairly straightforward and not impossible without spending real money
• The game is very generous with its rewards, granting you gifts for time spent in-game, specific in-game tasks, and more.

But there are some problems:

• Items don't like to be told where to go - sometimes I'll tap on something to move it and it won't go where I say, other times I'll brush by something to move the screen and an item will move where I don't want it.
• It's very limited gameplay so far
• It's easy to get overwhelmed with so many items in one place
• It takes a very, very long time for seeds to sprout on their own.
• For some reason, this game wants permission to make calls from my phone. That's a big no-no, Betta Games. Fix that. It's not okay or cool. It shouldn't ever have a reason to ask that.

If they can ditch the incredibly nosy permissions they ask for, I would unreservedly suggest this as a game for your younger kids (even with some cash shop items available - just don't give your phone access to your finances and they can't charge these things to you).

6/10, could be a lot of fun.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC