Overview
The object of Bonsai Blast is simple. A chain of marbles are pushed down a path. Your job is to stop them from reaching the end. “But how, Brian?! How?!!!” Calm down, I’ll tell you: You shoot marbles at them! Duh! The goal being to make a chain of three of the same colored marbles. When you do that, they disappear and the remaining marbles snap together. If you’re clever, you can create multiple chains for a higher score and to help get rid of more marbles at one time.
Features
Adventure features 90 levels. Yes. 90. Each level is placed in a Zen Garden looking environment. Very peaceful. It helps calm the nerves when those marbles get closer and closer to the end of the path. A meter on the top of the screen indicates how many more marbles you have to destroy before passing onto the next level.
Survival is just like it sounds. Choose a level and buckle up. The level only ends when you finally lose. You never advance. (Bejeweled, take notice, this is how endless is meant to be). The high score and time are saved so you can strive to spend more of your life trying to beat it. Productive.
On certain levels you can switch to a different shooting position by tapping on the symbol. This helps when the shots aren’t lining up well from where you are. Some levels also require you to ricochet your marble off a wall. Other levels may require you to use a chute to guide your marble into place.
Breakdown
The Good:
I’ve played Puzzloop before this, so I knew what I was getting myself into. It took me a second to realize that the controls were different. Here, you just tap on the screen where you want the shot to go. In Puzzloop, you have to rotate your marble blaster guy, then tap to fire. I prefer the one tap controls here, because sometimes on Puzzloop the screen would get obstructed from view by my big, dumb fingers.
The game is fun, though a little repetitive. I haven’t made it through all 90 levels yet- only about 12, and I’ve found that each is a little different than the last. The degree of difficulty has been very low, but I assume it will pick up the farther I get into the game.
The Bad:
The control wasn’t as precise as I’d hoped it would be- (understandable though, because it’s a touch screen and I have big fingers). Sometimes my shot is off by a fraction of an inch, and it lands next to where it was supposed to, thus making my job of stopping these runaway marbles even more difficult.
I’m not a fan of the gimmick features, like ricocheting the marbles off of walls, or having to use chutes to guide your marbles to their destination. I don’t mind a challenge, but I like having more than one option to beat things. (Kind of like me and Excel. I know there are faster ways to make columns and lists, and I’m sure if I figured out how to do that, I’d be a happier person. But I can still get everything done doing it my way.)
Verdict
Being a fan of puzzle games, (Bejeweled, Puzzloop, Tetris, etc), I’d recommend this game to anyone who also enjoys a good puzzle game. It's fun, it's easy to play and at times it can be challenging. Is it worth three bucks? Depends on how into puzzle games like this you are. Unfortunately, there aren't any free marble shooters available. (There are the light versions of some games like Blackbeard's Assault and Puzzloop, but you only get to play a couple of levels- not nearly as exciting.)
