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While its puzzle action may be a bit ordinary, credit to the developer for trying to make the story mode entertaining
While it does a decent job of mixing concepts from the likes of Bust-A-Move with a bit of Connect 4 and some Puzzle Fighter I couldn’t quite say that Popplings feels terribly fresh in play. It’s actually a bit of a challenge, at times, to feel like you’re really in control of your own destiny as your board fills up, but the more pieces there are the more likely you’ll get a chain going and then drop holy hell on your opponent. It can be a reasonable challenge to make your brain and fingers (or thumbs) work quickly, but I’d say it’s just middle of the road conceptually and in execution. Where I do see a value add that I appreciated though was in the game’s “story mode” where you’re taken on a bit of a weird and silly ride, as the “lore” behind the game and its grand design to be re-established as a means to prevent fighting gets established. This did at least make me laugh a bit at the absurdity of it all, and since the characters themselves are very much in on the weird joke it makes for some great comments along the way. If you’re looking for something a bit different, to a degree this will deliver, but it poses no real threat to the best more action-oriented puzzlers on the Switch.
Justin Nation, Score:Good [7.3]