Moldicide (by Sprouted Interactive)

I love a good word game. Going to check this out.

I am an avid Scrabble player. So, this game caught my eye upon release. I thought it was fun and had a unique spin on the ol' same-o same-o. Seeing as it has received little love in our TA forums, I decided to post a review for those sitting on the fence about giving it a try.


REVIEW:

Moldicide is Sprouted Interactive's first offering; an anagram puzzler WITH character. It has a unique theme of stylized cartoony graphics with catchy, eerie music to enhance its dramatic sci-fi mood. The tension builds as you scramble to solve a continuous flow of word puzzles, required to arm, then fire your protective weaponry. Doing so keeps your infected co-workers (Moldies) from beating down the fragile barrier between you (the Janitor) and them.

The "cheeky" storyline keeps the action sequences from getting too monotonous by breaking a set of levels into chapters. These milestones advance the storyline where you can READ (as in a single page of) the next part of the story. Changes and upgrades can also take place; potential weapon upgrades, new (and stronger) Moldies, sometimes other events. Even another "letter of length" can be added to the anagrams; whereas you start the first chapter with four letter anagrams to solve.

The REAL fun comes in the frantic pacing of trying to select the correct order of letters to make words. Do so consecutively, without a single error, and you build chains which net you stronger weaponry. Yet, make that one mistake, and you break your chain bonus. It all sounds simple enough, but when you can't solve the compete anagram, you quickly have to dice it up into smaller, three (or more), letter words. Although helpful, you still must use each letter at least once to advance to the next anagram. This causes a panicky situation as you see the Moldies stack up against your protective barrier and start pounding it to pieces.

There is but one useable saving grace while you wage a war of words to rid all Moldies. A Kill All "Fungicide" Foam Bath (or panic button if you will). BUT, it is only charged by solving more and more anagrams. Thus, it takes time to recharge and should be used wisely. So, in consideration of the low end price point, overall polish, and hand drawn cartoons; this game is a worthy buy for those seeking a solid word puzzle challenge. ...with some Italiano pizzazz. Oh, an ah-coursea, somea-ah Espresso, Si?

Thanks for the in-depth review Doug, it serves as a great introduction for us to join the TouchArcade forum, get involved the greater conversation of mobile gaming and other game apps and answer any feedback on our first offering. We've just uploaded a 12 minute gameplay video on hardcore difficulty (the third of the four difficulties), which shows the first ten levels of the game. It should give everyone a good idea of how the core mechanic plays out.

What may be interesting to the forum (or it may be entirely inappropriate, still reading other posts to get a sense), is how we iterated on the concept and the art direction through the design process. For example, this is the design evolution of the drone. Our first sketches were very dark, grisly and "for boys". As we worked on it, we made it lighter, child-friendly and cartoony. That process itself was tricky because of silhouettes, moldie roles, colours, animation limitations, et al.

So, again... thanks for our very first review. Let us know how you're progressing. Have you met MacKenzie yet?

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Last edited by SproutedInteractive; 05-12-2015 at 10:00 AM.

Gamezebo recently reviewed "Moldicide" and gave it 4.5/5 - check it out. If you're looking for a challenging word game that will sharpen your reflexes and your mind, give it a try.