Battle Slugs ٤+

Despite the cartoony feel,this is a serious puzzle game. Don't expect to pick this up and casually plow through levels. I enjoyed the gameplay, and i hope to get better at it.

Now it's not all good. I never had any crashes but it's so slow. Add in some really bad navigation flow and I really felt like I was looking at the loading screen more than I was playing.

Spent two solid hours on this game yesterday and didn't progress past the first board on the "easy" setting. And I wasn't exactly losing either. I was "beating" the AI by a handy margin nearly every time, but apparently you have to win completely (leave no enemy slugs on the board) to progress to the next board. Look, I love tough puzzle games but the whole point of the ubiquitous three star system in these types of game is to let you make progress without necessarily mastering each and every level. Often a lesson learned on a later level helps you when you go back to play an earlier level.

On top of that you have VERY confusing menu system and multiple long load times the likes of which I have never seen in a game this simple which together make playing the same one level over and over and over again that much more excruciating.

Update: Ok, I just completely beat the first level and the game STILL won't let me play anything other than the first board over and over again. Either there's a game killing bug or the interface is beyond poorly designed, or I am beyond an idiot. If it is a bug, it's the same bug on BOTH my ipod and my ipad.

I love Battle Slugs! The cartoony graphics are cute and funny, and the backgrounds are interesting and detailed. The game is challenging - there are 25 playing fields, and three different levels of play (Easy, Medium, Hard) against the AI. It's a challenging strategy game - I just finished the entire Easy mode and unlocked all 25 playing fields, and it was tough. However, I didn't claim 3/3 stars on all the boards, so I'm definitely going back to it, before trying out the Medium/Hard modes. Best of all? There's also a Multiplayer mode.

This is definitely a game with replay value, but I have a couple complaints: 1) If I quit mid-game, my progress isn't saved. 2) Loading times are way too slow for an otherwise polished app. Sometimes I make a bad move, and I'd like to restart the board instead of Surrendering, and then having to go through two slow loading pages before I can relaunch the board.