There’s a perfect storm brewing in the App Store. Not only has Disney updated a popular family-friendly app, it’s a match-3 format and it’s free. I can almost hear Mark Wahlberg narrating the game play while George Clooney looks on, smiling. (Hopefully this will have a happier ending than the movie – after all, it is Disney at the helm.) If your kids took over your iPad or iPhone when you downloaded any variation of Where’s My Water? then be prepared to lose it again with the addition of Stack Rabbit.
Follow Ben the Rabbit as he hops through gardens collecting produce and making matches. Players need to help Ben pile the blocks of veggies and fruits on his head in the order specified in the upper corner of the screen, watching out for Max the guard dog (who does more sleeping than anything else). As the levels progress players can earn or buy power-ups to help make the game a little easier. There’s no real time limits but the matches need to be solved in a certain number of turns or the level restarts. Game play is fairly simple and straightforward, and despite just a little reading here and there, it’s really an all-ages game.
Match-3 games are everywhere, and with big names (think candy and jelly) it’s easy to skip over yet another matching game when it hits the App Store. Disney has also worn out its welcome and we’re all a little burned out on the Big D. Rest assured, this game is different than the match-3 games or even the Disney apps that you’ve seen lately. What makes Stack Rabbit stand out is the 3D format – it takes players out of the flat world of 2D graphics and adds a fun and different spin to a simplistic and fun genre.
I found Stack Rabbit to be a lot of fun to play. It’s been around since October of last year but the recent update to version 1.6 added levels and renewed its spot on app store charts across the boards. Sure, there’s no really engaging storyline or rich graphics, but the levels are progressively challenging and easy to pick and play whenever or wherever. My two young kids easily learned how to play and with a little help from me got through the non-essential reading. In fact, after about 5 minutes I had to come to the stark realization that I wouldn’t be using my iPad for quite some time.
The downside are the difficulty “spikes” every 10 levels or so, which is characteristic of a Disney freemium app. We should all know by now that when Disney says “free” it usually translates into “set your iPad to disable IAPs”, and this game actually warns players of the pricey purchases at the beginning of game play. I refuse to pay for IAPs unless I’m blown away by a game (which doesn’t happen often at all) and I especially have an issue with giving Disney any more money than I already have during my children’s short lives.
To add to the fun, connect to Facebook or the Game Center to see how your friends do or send them gifts to help get through some of the tougher levels. Overall, Stack Rabbit is a fresh take on a match-3 game that showcases Disney’s wheelhouse. If you watch out for IAPs and dozing doggies, it’ll be much more fun than a ride on the Andrea Gail.