Sugar-free puzzler

Cricket is complex, and cricket games that set out to be simulations of the sport are therefore understandably as complex. You're likely to find several cricket games on mobiles and tablets today with varying degrees of complexity, but so far they have mostly been about translating the core experience of a cricket match, with players requiring a reasonable understanding of the sport's rules as well as twitch reflexes.

This is where Cricket Match, the latest puzzle game from Tiny Mogul Games, comes in. If you've got a passing interest in cricket, a mobile device running Android 2.3.3 or above, and fancy your average puzzler like Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled or similar games, you're in luck. If you can tell colours apart and/or count backwards from 100 with relative ease, you'll be great at Cricket Match.

The game requires the player to make chains of balls of the same colour by swiping across the screen in an effort to score "runs" off a certain number of balls (each swipe across the screen counts as a "ball"), keeping wickets in hand. Chains can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or even a combination of the three. Chains get you runs, and with each level set up like the final overs of a T20 match, the goal is to get these runs in quick time and win the match by beating the level.

There's an element of randomness (although it's a "linear" sort of randomness) to how the balls appear in the playing grid, and strategy comes into play like in a real cricket match, as the number of available balls to score from decreases and obstacles appear: do you take the easy approach, swipe across three balls and take a single, or go for a "risk" shot (more on this in a bit) in an attempt to reach your target faster?

It's incredibly easy to pick up and play, thanks to the game's tutorials. Every time a new layer of complexity is introduced, you're given the lowdown by a friendly looking character who bears a curious resemblance to a better-groomed, less-crazy, subcontinental version of Plants vs Zombies' Crazy Dave (minus the pot helmet, of course).

Bonus "stars" (required to unlock more advanced levels) are earned by completing level-specific objectives such as hitting a certain number of sixes or winning with a certain number of balls to spare. Also present are a slew of power-ups, which are introduced into the mix as you progress, while obstructions such as "blockers" appear, occupying space on the grid preventing you from making chains. You can use bombs to destroy blockers, and more.

You're likely to breeze through the early stages, but as the game progresses, the various elements come together to create increasingly difficult scenarios over the course of 60 levels.

A striking aspect of Cricket Match is its presentation. Visually it is easy on the eye, the animation is fluid, and the various interface elements work with the cricket theme very well. The audio feedback you get from big shots is quite substantial, be it the mobile-phone screen-cracking square cut for four, or the lightning-storm-inducing heave for six over what is presumably midwicket. Then there's the batsman's shred-guitar celebration which would have felt out of place in any other cricket game.

The latest build of the game appears to have resolved some accuracy issues from earlier versions. Having said that, the larger your screen is, the better your overall experience in terms of touch detection. Diagonals and "roll-backs" involving diagonals are still a little difficult to do, and can be frustrating in the more difficult levels.

Spikes in difficulty are present, and unlike, say, Angry Birds, where you can put all your money on the game's physics engine and fluke your way past levels, in Cricket Match you'll spend more time than you'd probably like finding the only solution that will work to net you that three-star rating. An earlier build had a bug that prevented occasional progress, but that seems to have been fixed as well.

The game is free, and it features no ads, but like other games with in-app purchases, a "ticket" system limits the number of times you can play. Run out of them, and you'll have to wait a while before you can get your game on again, or you can buy tickets starting at US$0.99 (or your local currency equivalent) within the app. Alternatively, you can get your friends to send you tickets by connecting via Facebook. Power-ups, such as the aforementioned risk shots and bombs, can be bought in-app as well.

Cricket Match is definitely recommended for anyone looking for a cricket-themed puzzle game for their Android device, one not involving fruits, candy, jelly or other edibles.

Cricket Match
Tiny Mogul Games