LifeisXbox’s Explosive Candy World Review | If you have a sweet tooth and are looking for a game that shares your love for all things sugary and candied, Explosive Candy World may be the perfect little treat for you. With the use of a new mechanic and an uncustomary way of completing levels within the platforming genre, you will have to propel yourself around in order to reach your goals. Breaking through barriers, shooting ‘sweet spots’, and using physics to your advantage will be the only way you’ll earn progression. Various obstacles will get in your way as expected but the power of sweetness can bypass them all, given the correct approach. Explosive Candy World was developed by Marcos Game Dev plus Ratalaika Games and published by Eastasiasoft Limited to bring us quick yet precise gameplay that could take multiple attempts to successfully complete but will have you back to playing before you can put your controller down.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox One S | Review code provided by PR/publisher. This review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Fun mechanic | Instead of using the usual jump and move mechanic most platformers use, Explosive Candy World uses something completely different. It makes you use a power gauge in which you choose the intensity of your movement and direction to propel yourself to where you are aiming to land. You must be careful though as if you are unfortunate enough to not land on your feet, you could find yourself on the edge of a hasty restart should you fall to the bottom of the screen at any point. The way you navigate the levels to reach your objective I found to be quirky, allowing for a risky approach or a more careful one, depending on your playstyle.
- Multiple levels | Explosive Candy World consists of eighty levels overall that span across four different sweet-filled worlds. Each has there own colour scheme and requires you to aim for different objects to complete each stage’s goals. As you progress, I believe the game did get more difficult as additional objects are placed in your way and require more logical thinking to bypass these. For me, the rotating platforms made me roll my eyes more times than I care to admit. It was also incredibly rare for me to complete levels on my first attempt, except the beginning ones, to show that there is indeed a level of precision and patience required.
Mixed Feelings
- Increasingly complex | When it comes to titles that increase the difficulty as you progress into further levels, as you would expect, it can sometimes feel strange when that difficulty doesn’t necessarily fit the curve you would be expecting. Explosive Candy World for the most part does follow the correct pattern of levels becoming more complex. However, there were a few instances that felt they had been placed incorrectly and perhaps could have benefited from being ordered in a better way to create a more polished playthrough.
- Simplistic visuals | With the use of a highly minimal art style, the pixelated and rather bleak approach to the appearance of Explosive Candy World didn’t get me that excited. I think the game could have looked far more playful and ‘explosive’ to increase the fun factor that surrounds the theme being portrayed. The colour schemes used do match the retro approach that has been focused on but once again, I do think this missed the mark and could have been blasted with more vibrant tones. Yes, the appearance suits Explosive Candy World but this could have been improved upon to be more visually appealing.
- Retro soundtrack | Along with the visuals comes the soundtrack that adds to the retro factor seen, and heard, in Explosive Candy World. From a personal point of view, I’ve never been much of one for retro video game music and although the music did suit the game, it just was not for me. It adds another level of depth to the game to make it more playful that does take away from some of the frustrations that come with the territory and undoubtedly reminded me of classic GameBoy titles I used to play. A sure hint of nostalgia was brought to my attention.
What we Disliked
- Short ‘completion’ | In this sense of me talking about completion, I mean earning the full 1000G for the game. Sadly, Explosive Candy World is yet another title to fall into the ‘easy completion’ category. This is because not only are you not required to finish the game but you will only need to play and complete the first 25 levels… out of 80 total. It’s a shame really because I think if you at the very least make your completion obtainable by completing the full game, people experience all levels of the game and it gets played for what it has to offer as a whole package instead of for some easy gamerscore.
- Absent replayability | Although Explosive Candy World is retro in every aspect, this does cause it to have a downfall when it comes to its replayability factor – and it’s non-existent one at that. Once you complete all levels, there is no real reason for anyone to return and play this again. That’s not to say you won’t enjoy your initial playthrough that comes with its challenges and obstacles. It’s just as there are no extra objectives, leaderboards, or sneaky miscellaneous achievements to obtain during your time, I do think Explosive Candy World will unfortunately be one for the ‘play once and leave’ pile.
How long to beat the story | Approximately 2-4 Hours
How long to achieve 1000G | Less Than One Hour
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Hello, I’m Victoria. I’m from the UK and have been playing video games for as long as I can remember; back on DreamCast. I’ve pretty much fallen for Xbox since I was around eight years old and remember BioShock being my first game on the Xbox360. Although I find it thoroughly enjoyable to not only experience gameplay, I also find comfort in getting lost and engrossed in the online worlds that sometimes differ greatly from what we know. Another side of my Xbox passion would be achievement hunting and gamerscore. I thrive when I hear the little sound of one popping up on the screen and I’m always finding ways to work on my backlog when possible. Horror is my favourite genre so if you have any recommendations, don’t be afraid to send them my way!