Anne’s Dream World is one heck of a place. Anne, our host, recently moved from her small village to a new place where she is bored out of her mind. Napping on the sofa, Anne’s excellent imagination spins a tale to keep her mind busy. In the dream, her quaint village is attacked by an army of jelly monsters. They set fire to huts, scare the locals and steal all the livestock.
I can’t refuse someone in need of help, so I step in to help Anne take out the slimy rabble ruining her old home. The first levels feature tutorial cards on the bottom of the screen that help you manage the basic gameplay. Each stage begins with line after line of advancing jelly monsters. The army continues down the screen from the top until they reach the bottom. If that occurs you must start over. So then the questions is, “How do you keep this battalion of baddies at bay?”
As the jellies move down, white horizontal lines travel up the screen at different intervals. They can cut off jellies that are exposed and in groups of three or more. When the white lines meet your match, they are cut from the group and explode on the ground. Awesome. The jelly juice is collected in skill jars to the right of the screen. When a jar is full, a power-up is unleashed and destroys some of the jellies in your way. It’s too bad that the skills play a passive role. It would be great if I could activate them when they are really needed. Although you can upgrade these lightning and laser-beam animations with points earned at the end of each level, the upgrade system follows a linear path, leaving you with no chance for customization.
Even with the help power-ups provide, there is still much work to do. The advancing line of monsters can help you take out more than three with their individual abilities. Most of the jelly monsters are what the fact sheet calls Civilians, but among the rows, you’ll find Bombs, Soldiers and Warriors. Bombs explode and destroy everything in a small area, but Soldiers and Warriors have a different purpose. One moves horizontally and one vertically, and any match you add them to has to be the same color. It often feels like a chess game when I’m maneuvering them into place.
Another hazard comes in the shape of a hazard cone. Roadblocks advance with the jellies and can’t be combined with any color. To get rid of them you have to cut them off using strategic grouping of jellies. The roadblocks increase the difficulty quite a bit and require you to think about your next few moves. I spent a lot of time replaying levels because I forgot to get rid of these conical creeps.
When you get through most of the jellies and roadblocks, a boss is unleashed, and you have to defeat him to complete the stage. There is a boss at every end of the level, and while you don’t attack him directly, you can damage him through your match three play. The speed of the game and the intensity of the music are bumped up, and you find yourself blindly matching three or more gooey monsters just to keep the pack from bottoming out. To make things harder, the boss can coat the jellies in a protective casing, prohibiting you from seeing what color they are. Unless you are blessed with a photographic memory, it can really throw a snag in your rapid-fire matching action.
There are three modes of play in Anne’s Dream World, but you have to work through at least 20 levels of the Story mode in order to unlock Free mode and Challenge mode. Free mode lets you play until you can’t stand it anymore, and in Challenge mode, you race against the clock to eliminate the jellies and earn the required score. It’s nice when downloadable games add content besides the Story mode; although if you play through the story, you might find the other two activities too similar.
Graphically, the game is colorful and animated well. The jellies are bright and cheery, and they charm you with their facial expressions. Anne cheers you on from the sidelines, and her pet frog is a great help in the bonus rounds. After five or so levels, a Galaxian-style arcade shooter opens up with the frog as your airship and the jellies as the aliens. When they fall your way, let your frog-laser fly, blasting as many monsters as you can. Breaking between levels for this minigame is a nice distraction from the previous rounds and allows you a few minutes of mindless gunning before Anne requests your services and your quick thinking once more.
I enjoyed my romp through Anne’s Dream World and would recommend it to office workers or moms who would like a quick break from their day. Playing the trial version might get you through your lunch hour, but to enjoy all Anne’s Dream World has to offer, the full game purchase is required. If you are a member of the Game Club, Anne’s Dream World will steal around $7 from your wallet, and in my opinion, it is totally worth it.
