Yumsters!

Summary

When we did the Bubble Blast review we expressed the opinion that when it comes to games Android still had a ways to go if it wants to catch up to the iPhone. Today we’re reviewing Yumsters, an interesting game that Android game fans might enjoy. Read on to find out how it scored with us.

At first I couldn’t help but wonder what this game is all about. The app’s description is interesting, but it doesn’t give that many clues as to what actually happens in the game.
These are Yumsters! Just settle them in your mobile phone and you’ll forget the boredom forever! These adorable hole-dwelling creatures will please everyone. They are mad about fruit and even participate in a world fruit-eating cup.
Sounds like some kind of Tamagotchi. But, seeing as the app’s Market rating is a staggering 4.87 stars out of 5, we thought we’d give it a go.

Let me start by saying that Yumsters has nothing to do with Tamagotchis, which got really old really fast (mine’s been lying in a drawer for years, thirsting after new battery life). Yumsters, on the other hand, is fun. It’s one of those apps that has a great gameplay as well as a big charm factor, starting off with a squeaky but cute little tune, the nice graphics, and the images that have obviously been designed very thoughtfully.

So what’s Yumsters all about? Yumsters are snake/worm hybrids that are competing in a fruit-eating world cup (sounds dodgy, but seeing as there’s a mobile-phone-throwing world cup in Finland, I’m no longer surprised by anything). In order to build a team they travel the world aiding their kind to eat fruit. There’s Egypt, Greece, Hawaii, Japan, North America, South America, and France. That makes for a lot of levels! Sounds interesting, but what next?

Each level is composed of a sort of grid. Depending on the level of difficulty this grid has more and more spaces and holes. Fruit can appear in any of these spaces and Yumsters can appear in the holes. The fruit (pears, strawberries, blue berries, etc.) comes in different colors as do the Yumsters. The goal of the game is to get the Yumsters to eat as many fruit as possible, and, as you might have guessed, a Yumster can only eat fruit that has the same color as it. Fruit keep popping up and you have to be strategic so that it is eaten in the right sequence so that the grid doesn’t overflow (this terminates the game). Pull the Yumster from the hole towards the fruit and it will start eating it. This may take some time. Sounds easy? It isn’t!

Yumsters can only eat the fruit they can reach, which means that if a red Yumster should eat a red (strawberry) fruit, it can only reach it if the way isn’t blocked by different colored fruit. And because the Yumsters stretch to get the food they sometimes also block the path for other Yumsters. They can’t climb over or under each other, but they can “live” in every single hole. In order to get a Yumster to change hole simply tap on it and then tap the empty hole. If there’s another Yumster in the given hole these two Yumsters will switch places.

The most interesting aspect is the option to make bonus points. The further a Yumster has to stretch, the more points you’ll receive. If a Yumster stretches over several fruit of the same (right) color, he can eat all of them in one go and you get extra points again. There are also special worms located in specific countries: in Egypt you will find “Commander Din”, and when this Yumsters is eating all the other Yumsters eat much faster. You’ll also receive bonus points when all the Yumsters are eating at the same time. At the end of the level there are gold coins lying on every fruit-free space. These coins also appear throughout the game. The Yumsters have to eat all the fruit located at the top of the display. This is where the gold coins will appear; tap them in order to collect them.

That’s not all. If fruit has been lying around for a while without being eaten it begins to freeze. As long as they’re not completely frozen yet you can tap them and they’ll defrost. Once they freeze they block the way for the Yumsters. They also can’t the fruit that have butterflies sitting on them. Simply touch the butterflies and they’ll fly away. There are also bugs that will freeze the fruit or harm the Yumsters. So, despite the simple-sounding gameplay the game is diversified and keeps you on your toes.

The other features are also well thought-out: great help option, a link towards the forum, online scores and achievements. Trophies are allotted to exceptional scores: when all 600 worms are eating at the same time, or if 100 fruit were eaten in one level, or 2000, or you made over 2000 cold coins, etc.

I’m sure the 5 star rating will cause some discussion, but I thought long and hard before I decided to dole out the highest rating; I simply couldn’t find one single negative aspects. As far as I know there is no other gameplay like it, there’s a lot of action that generates motivation, it’s a lot of fun, and I’m addicted! Whether you like this game or not is a question of personal preferences and interests, but there’s no denying that it’s well done!

Bottom line: give it a go, you’ll have a blast!
 

The word I’m looking for to describe the design is "cute“. You start off with the easiest level. The design has obviously been made with attention to detail, for instance when the worms don’t get anything to eat for a while they look really bored. The loading screen is Yumster logo that gets gobbled up. So, as I said: it’s really cute!

Yumsters successfully combines fun with nice graphics: a shining example of what games should be like.

I did notice one small issue: sometimes the worm can’t seem to reach the fruit which you’re pulling it towards, which makes the game seem like it’s lacking in a tiny bit of precision. That being said, this didn’t happen often enough for it to really be a problem.
 

No crashing or any other problems to report. Yumsters takes a while to load, up to 10 seconds per level. This didn’t bother me, but seems like a while.

Yumsters costs 0.99 British Pounds, just over one Euro or dollar. It’s a great game, so I say it’s worth it. Furthermore, there’s a lite version if you want to test it out before committing.