glass cinematographic: Sugar Rush for iPhone and iPad review: Candy Crush meets Bejeweled Blitz

Sugar Rush for iPhone and iPad review: Candy Crush meets Bejeweled Blitz

Sugar Rush for iPhone and iPad is sure to grab your attention if you fancy playing either Candy Crush or Bejeweled Blitz. The general game play is easier but the concept and the reliance on your friends to give you lives is very much like Candy Crush.

While Candy Crush has different objectives in each level, the main objective of Sugar Rush is to pop candy clusters of like types as fast as you can in 60 seconds. The larger the cluster the more points you score. Special candies will also appear and do things such as clear out entire rows or pop all the candies around it.

As you pop candies in Sugar Rush, you'll notice the bar at the bottom fill up. The faster you pop, the quicker it fills. Get it all the way to the end and your multiplier will increase and you'll get a Sugar Rush bonus. It's similar to the way you get on fire bonuses in Bejeweled Blitz.

Sugar Rush also allows you to use the coins you earn to buy boosters that you can use each round. For those familiar with Bejeweled Blitz, the concept is pretty much the same. Cash in your coin each round to use boosters that can freeze time, give you more special candies, increase your score multiplier, extend your game play time, and more.

You'll get 5 lives to start you off, sound familiar? Each game you play will take a heart away. When you're out of lives you can either buy more to continue on (real money) or you can ask your friends on Facebook to send you lives. One plus I've found with Sugar Rush is that your lives replenish much faster than they do in Candy Crush, making the wait for another life more bearable.

Specials will pop up for you to take advantage of periodically such as a fairy that will turn all the pieces on the board into hearts. Popping all of them will shoot your score up rather quickly. To buy these special boosters, you'll need to use your tickets that you've accumulated. You can also buy tickets as an in-app purchase if you want to accumulate them quicker.

Sugar Rush connects with both Facebook and Game Center.

The good

Simple game play could make a good alternative for those who find Candy Crush too challenging
Short 60 second rounds makes for quick pick up and put down game play
Lives replenish quicker than games such as Candy Crush

The bad

Candy Crush fans may find the game play not challenging enough
Tickets can be quite pricey if you choose to buy them in-game

The bottom line

Sugar Rush is easy to pick up and put down on a whim so for users who don't want to get involved in a lengthy episode of Candy Crush, Sugar Rush can tide you over.

The game play is fast paced and easy to get the hang of. Special candies and other bonuses can keep you entertained for a short period of time but not much beyond that. I also didn't find a lot of friends playing it quite yet so asking friends for lives if you run out may be a challenge.