Frozen Free Fall is another one of those "three-match" games, or as I like to think about it, another Bejewelled clone. As you'd probably have guessed, the game is themed and its biggest draw is the fact that it's a licensed game based on Disney's latest (and amazing) movie, Frozen. You should go into this game expecting nothing but something to cash in on the movie's hype while also getting real cash in the form of in-app purchases. Yes, this is a freemium game. Before we get too deeply into the in-app purchases, let's go through the game's mechanics first. It is what you would expect, you're presented with a grid and you swipe each jewel to swap it with an adjacent one to get a row/column of three.
Once you've achieved that, those jewels disappear, more comes to take its place and you keep going. The special effects from matching four (a whole row disappearing) or five (you get a snowflake which you use to rid of all gems of one type from the grid) are here, along with another powered up jewel which gets rid of all adjacent jewels. There are special items which you can use at any time such as getting rid of eight jewels or getting rid of all jewels of one type, these are character "abilities" and each character have a unique ability for you to use. It is simple and easy to get into. You start off with a small grid and the game progressively gets harder, the grid size might shrink or grow and even change shape which presents a more unique play strategy.
One thing that makes the game more interesting is that instead of just playing level after level of the same stuff, it presents you with objectives in order to progress to the next level, whether it be a high score in a time limit (or move limit), getting rid of a number of particular gem types or getting items down to the bottom row. New objectives are constantly being introduced such that even very late into the game, levels feel fresh and new. Sad thing though, is that some objectives are ridiculous (usually a combination of the basic objectives) and this is where the usual money-grabbing-in-app purchases come in. See, you get lives, you fail a level, you lose a life. Lose all of them and you have to wait approximately 30 minutes to regain ONE life before you can keep playing.
In additional to lives, you can use special items to get to the next level but how do you get these special items? You get a limited number at the start but then you have to use real money to buy them. You feel this pay wall hit from around level 15 or so where the objectives just seem very impossible and rely heavily on luck. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Gradual updates have alleviated this such as getting a random power up or life each day through a luck based mechanic (you have one chance per day). You can now also get free power ups after reaching a certain number of stars. You get rated after each level, able to obtain one to three stars based on the final points score at the completion of the level.
I know I shouldn't get surprised or frustrated at this practice since it is so common behind freemium games but it's still annoying to have the developers so actively hampering your progress. Granted, the game doesn't have advertisements so they have to get money some other way. The difficultly gets really bad once you hit past 90 levels in which they give you a tight number of moves and you just have to keep playing in the hopes that you'll be lucky this one time. So if the game mechanics aren't extraordinary or addictive, what keeps you coming back? At first, nothing much but as the difficulty exponentially increases and more mechanics are introduced, it keeps you going and wanting to finish the level to get the next, even though it might frustrate you from time to time.
Plus, it sucks in all those Frozen fans. You "play" through the events of the movie but it's basically just location art. You also get to "play" as a character which means the 3D character model appearing to the left of the grid (or above, depending whether you're playing the game in portrait or landscape mode). The characters occasionally perform a gesture such as a wave of the hand or smiling. It doesn't tie into the movie too much. A missed opportunity is using the movie's music, we only get a recurring loop, which, while it isn't bad, after playing through the 285 levels, it is draining. The graphics are decent and the character models look good. Granted, if you expected high quality animation you will be disappointed, of course the models would have some jagged edges.
In terms of the jewels and shattering animations, they are smooth and pleasing to the eye. You have to consider though that it's pretty hard for developers to stuff up on something as simple as a grid of jewels. One of the great things about this game is the level of developer support. I thought I had completely finished the game at 285 levels, with the map all filled out and a congratulations notice at the end. Then, a few weeks later (because I hadn't uninstalled the app), an update comes up with thirty new levels, focusing on a "summer" version of the map, which promises heaps more new levels. This is considering that the app has been out for nearly a year, it is incredible to still have new levels regularly added. Overall, Frozen Free Fall will grow on you and it gets addictive. The concept of lives limiting each play session may seem restrictive but it has the benefit of not allowing your play sessions to blow out of time. Since it's a free app, this is highly recommended.
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