Mobile Reviews

Mr Snapz: The Cookie Caper Review

Mr Snapz: The Cookie Caper, the newest mobile game from Tiny Ogre Games, is a puzzle/platformer that strives to add fun and color to the increasingly bland world of desaturated video games. You play as the titular Mr Cinnamon Snapz, an unlikely hero who must travel though various lands filled with evil dentures, complex puzzles, and candy. Loads of candy.

While I’m by no means a devout mobile gamer, The Cookie Caper caught my eye because it appeared to be a simple, bright, and refreshing return to the platformers of old. But once the tutorials are through, the difficulty skyrockets, and players must guide Snapz through intricate mazes and puzzles, restarting often to obtain high scores.

Indiana Jones Snapz is the best kind of Snapz
Indiana Jones Snapz is the best kind of Snapz.

The object of each stage in The Cookie Caper is to collect enough cookie shards to create one full cookie. You can find armor and stealth upgrades to protect you from vicious gumball machines and decapitating lollipops, and locate special items that open up new pathways necessary to complete each level. The premise is simple enough, but the clock is always ticking, and the mazes tend to border on mind-boggling. On top of that, it is rather hard to actually see each cookie piece. They are small, thin, and easy to miss if you aren’t paying close enough attention. I ran straight past many of the pieces on my first few tries before even realizing that they were right in front of my eyes.

Following the standard in mobile gaming of awarding 1-3 stars depending on level performance, The Cookie Caper forces you to blitz through each level at an alarming pace if you want to obtain the maximum level of points. And, frustratingly, even if you finish the level in its entirety, if you don’t do it quick enough to gain even one star, you must restart the whole level and complete it to a minimum standard before unlocking the next stage.

Upon completing a stage, you are awarded not only stars, but jellybeans, which you can use throughout the in-game store to purchase upgrades, items, and new costumes to make Snapz look more spiffy than ever. Many of these items help you within the game, boosting speed, durability and so forth, while other items are just for fun. There is also an option to purchase additional jellybeans through in-app purchases if you get tired of collecting the candies by completing levels.

The backdrops are beautiful but make the cookie shards difficult to see
The backdrops are beautiful but make the cookie shards difficult to see

The Cookie Caper is a fun puzzle/platformer that introduces challenges that seem beyond the expected level for much a sticky-sweet game. The colors are bright and vivid, and the worlds that Snapz travels through are creative and gorgeous. However, the game is not without its flaws. First and foremost is the fact that upon downloading the game, I had to launch the application a total of five times before it would run correctly, and this problem continued to plague me whenever I minimized the game in order to complete another task on my phone. The cookie pieces are the focal point of the game, yet they look like they were added last minute, and are difficult to spot. On occasion, the game tended to glitch and I would find myself trapped in an inescapable portion of a level. And although this may be over-critical, the game loses some of its charm when the menus show up because of the poor font choices. Instead of adding to the charm of the game, text options written in Arial and Impact fonts form a strong contrast to the feel of the rest of the game.

But if you’re looking for a good little time-wasting puzzler, and don’t mind some minor design and art flaws, The Cookie Caper may just be the game for you.

Good

The Cookie Caper is fun, challenging, and addictive, but occasional flaws and crashes make it difficult to play.

6.5
Overall:
6.5