THE DESCRIPTION:
To play Fire Drop, “earn wisdom” by clearing lines of fire cauldrons in 3 stages of 15 levels each. Once you’ve cleared stage 1, you have to purchase Fire Drop Deluxe to do stages 2 and 3.
THE GOOD:
Fire Drop is fun and addictive, and game play is relatively simple. To play Fire Drop, tap three or more adjacent cauldrons of the same color to destroy them. Larger combos of fire cauldrons earn bonus points. Score is based on the number of cauldrons you can destroy at a time and the number of empty squares in the screen when the time is up, 50 points each. You never die; you just have to keep replaying the same level until you succeed. If you mis-tap more than three times in a row, you have to replay the level. If the fire cauldrons reach the top of the screen, you have to replay the level. You get a bonus if you destroy a certain number of cauldrons at a time. The difficulty of the levels ramps up gradually. At level 13, another color cauldron (purple) and bombs are introduced, but they seem to make destroying the cauldrons easier. You can use tokens from jackpots to slow down game play.
THE BAD:
Fire Drop only contains the first fifteen-level stage; after that, you need to spend $1.99 to get Fire Drop Deluxe. The developers are banking on you being addicted enough after the first 15 levels to keep going. During game play, it’s easy to mis-hit. It’s relatively easy to mis-tap in general, just because the size of the average finger relative to the size of the cauldrons. Even with relatively small fingers, mistakes were frequent. The scoring system is somewhat meaningless; there are bonuses, but other than that, the score has little effect on game play. The fact that there is no death in Fire Drop is convenient because you do not have to start over, but when you are playing the same level for the tenth time in a row, it starts to feel like you are stuck in Fire Drop purgatory!
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Fire Drop is sneaky – you get much less game play than advertised because you have to upgrade. It is, however, really diverting, so it could be worth the $1.99 they ask.
