Game Review: Christmas Sweeper 4 (Mobile – Free to Play)

What is the laziest possible version of a free to play style that you can jam Christmas into? Why, match-3 of course! Why bother trying to make something memorable, different or interesting? Here’s the match-3 skin, stretched and worn to almost nothing, and let’s drape it over holiday visuals and sounds.

It’s so basic, so boring… that the game in question has to really be one of the best match-3 games out there. After all, players are spoilt for choice. So where does Christmas Sweeper 4 fall? Is it the must-have free to play game of the season or is just another to be consigned to the bin?

A bit of both actually. As far as ‘match-3’ games go, it’s a well made one that avoids being obnoxious with its in-app purchases and is fairly reasonable in regard to ads. Not only that, it is also very festive looking and even more festive sounding. It’s simple to pick up and play, has longevity with something resembling a ‘story’ and has multitudes of levels to match your way through.

Whatever you expect from a match-3 game, Christmas Sweeper 4 delivers. Which in turn is its biggest problem. It is exactly like any other variation you or anyone has ever played. To the point that you can predict the tutorials that take place over the first few levels. You can predict when the bonuses will be introduced and when the game will reach out its money grabbing claw. You can predict the point when the difficulty spikes so as to encourage you to start spending the freebies the game dished out at the start.

It sticks so rigidly to the match-3 gameplay style that the feeling of déjà vu is immense. However, you can’t really blame any company for doing this. The format has been perfected and proven to be successful. It isn’t broke, so why fix it? All it means is that Christmas Sweeper 4 is forgotten about as quickly as it was downloaded.

It is very festive though.