The gem-swapping puzzle genre has such a lengthy and illustrious history that it’s easy to dredge up an old idea and make it seem fresh for a new platform.
Gem Breakers for Android borrows heavily from Super Puzzle Fighter, a classic arcade-puzzler from the mid '90s. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bring across any of that series’ charm.
Pale imitationFunctionally, it gets things reasonably right. Coloured gems drop from the top of the screen in groups of two. When grouped into clumps of four or more of the same colour, they merge into one large block.
Unlike other games in the genre, these blocks don’t disappear until special catalyst blocks are introduced. This lets you build up huge chains of blocks before finally zapping them out of existence.
It’s as satisfying as it ever was, but Gem Breakers fails to embellish the formula with any personality of its own.
Super Puzzle Fighter introduced a competitive element, along with special attacks and plenty of visual fireworks when you did well. There’s none of that here, with a fairly pedestrian progression up the levels your only reward for doing well.
Gem brokenWhen you get to around level nine or ten, things get stupidly fast, too. In fact, it becomes nigh-on unplayable, curtailing the game’s longevity as a result.
The quickening pace also shows up the game’s slightly iffy touch controls. You swipe left, right, or down to manoeuvre the blocks accordingly, with a tap of the screen rotating them. Unfortunately, it never feels as reliable as it should.
It’s too easy to rotate the blocks when you wanted to move them, or to send them crashing down when you meant to move to the side. This is especially problematic when things get hectic.
Gem Breakers brings a fondly remembered puzzle mechanic to Android for the first time. Unfortunately, while it’s a reasonably solid facsimile, it lacks the panache and water-tight mechanics of its inspiration, marking it out as deeply average even in the Android’s fledgling puzzler library.