You wouldn't think it, but cute animals face a lot of peril in Flash games. Sometimes they're under suicidal pressure from humans. Other times, like in Biogems from Mochi Games, adorable little creatures are locked in some kind of internecine conflict... in space. And it's going to take all your match-3, turn-based battling skills to defend your puppy, kitty or bunny against bears, snakes, and bugs. All of which are also pretty cute, to be honest, but they're the designated villains here.
The match-3-as-battle method has really come into its own lately, and Biogems takes it a little bit further in terms of strategy. Both you and the dueled enemy use the same board to make your matches, so in addition to considering what the best combination is for you, you also want to avoid giving your opponent opportunities. You click on a gem and then click on another adjacent gem to swap it. Some gems attack, others heal, restore energy, up defense, load a counterattack, or fill your rage meter. Once your rage meter is fully charged, you unleash an extra powerful attack. Any row of 3 or more grants you some attack or benefit, 4 or more gives you an extra turn, and 5 or more gives you a rainbow gem, which you can swap with any adjacent gem to claim all gems of that type on the board. Some gems have shiny, metallic borders, and making chains with those gems grants you extra rubies, which you use between matches to upgrade your character.
Analysis: In addition to the strategic consideration of your opponent's next turn, the ability to shield or load a counterattack adds an additional dimension for the budding Sun Tzu of gem-swapping. If you're fully shielded and have a counterattack ready, your opponent's attack can actually be turned against him without you taking any damage. However, if your opponent doesn't attack, the shield and counterattack go away when your turn begins again, thus making it a wasted effort. Luck plays a large part in the game, as it does in any match-3 game, but it requires a keen eye to grab those lucky opportunities while the timer is counting down. The AI of the opponent is on the dim side and it's often possible to predict that he will go for the three special attack gems rather than the five energy gems.
You proceed from opponent to opponent until you reach the final boss. You can use MochiCoins to buy rubies to upgrade yourself, but that really isn't necessary, as you get to keep any rubies you earn in a lost match, and you can play previous opponents for even more rubies if you want to. This makes the game's microtransactions more of a shortcut cheat for impatient players than something that the game feels incomplete without. The high energy electronic soundtrack and effects keep you pumped up even through a few defeats, anyway. The only mystery is why these cuddly astro-pets feel the need to wail on each other anyway. If snuggly little kittens can't get along with giant squids, is there hope for the rest of us?
Walkthrough Guide
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Biogems Tips and Tricks
General Match-3 Tips:
The most important principle is to always, always go for an extra turn if possible. Even if you're full up on energy and the swap is for energy. Your taking an extra turn might open up more combos, and every extra turn you take is a turn your opponent doesn't take.
In conjunction with the extra turn tactic, if you're lucky enough to have TWO opportunities to make a four combo, choose the one on top first, as it's unlikely to disturb the other combo.
If you're not going to get an extra turn from your initial swap, try to make rows at the bottom, all other things being equal, as the shifting is more likely to give you combos.
Five in a rows give you a rainbow gem as well as an extra turn. ALWAYS use the rainbow gem right away, because the opponent will use it on his turn if you don't.
L shapes and T or cross shapes (that is, each "arm" of the T, L, or + shape is at least 3 long) give you the bonus of a "bomb" in addition to the normal use of the gems. The bomb appears at the intersection and goes off destroying the gems around it and giving you their attacks, heals, etc as well. This doesn't give you an extra turn unless part of the shape is 4 or longer.
The metallic bordered gems give extra rubies, but generally it's not worth it to go out of your way to make those combos. Only try to do so if all other things are equal.
Specific Strategy Tips:
Opponents tend to go by what they need--heals when they're low on health, energy when they're low on energy, and attacks all other times--rather than what is the best move on the board. You can sometimes take a gamble and set up a four or 5 row and the opponent won't take it, if, for example, it's a defense row and a special attack row is available. This is a gamble, of course, and won't always work.
Watch your opponent's defense and counter like a hawk. DO NOT unleash your rage attack when your opponent is fully shielded, or even worse, shielded with a counter!
Also watch your opponent's rage. In the early game, the opponent probably won't have time to build up a rage meter, but he might in the later game. If he's close to getting full rage, try to have as much defense and counter on as possible until he unleashes it.
It takes some time to build up rage. With the early enemies, don't bother, because the match can be won more quickly just by attacking constantly. With later enemies, it's worthwhile to try to build it up.
The final boss has two stages. In the first stage, he has low health and doesn't hit too hard. In the second stage, he has very high health and hits very hard. Try to hold out on killing the first stage until you have your rage meter nearly full. Then kill him and quickly use your rage on the second stage version. That'll give you a good start on killing him.
In upgrading your skills, energy is probably the least useful. I never once ran out of energy in my entire game, and I only upgraded energy once. All the others are useful, but wait to upgrade rage, because it's more useful later in the game.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Yeah, it's trite, but you get rubies for failed attempts, and there's a significant amount of luck involved, so don't get discouraged by a loss, especially against the final boss.
Posted by: joye
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August 18, 2011 1:10 PM