Ghosts and Apples | Nintendo Switch Review

Ghosts and Apples, developed and published by 7 Raven Studios, is a frantic puzzle game where you need to combine ghosts of the right colour to turn them into apples and complete the level. It is currently only available on the Nintendo Switch, and for the purpose of my review I was playing it in handheld mode.

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Upon starting Ghosts and Apples you find yourself in a magical and most certainly haunted house. You play as a puppet known as Jack Redrum because your soul is trapped inside him and you will have to venture into the paintings scattered around the house to enter the various levels. As you traverse into the levels you're introduced relatively gently to the basic aim of the game. Effectively, you need to turn ghosts into apples by taking the various colourful ghosts and sorting them by colour. Once you combine three or more together they explode and disappear. Usually the levels start with 4 colours already on the playing field so this acts as a base for you to build upon.

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There are two control schemes that you can switch between in game depending on which you prefer. Using the Joy-Con controls will have you using the up and down buttons to choose where the ghosts go on the left side; and X and B to have ghosts go to the right side. Alternatively, you can use the touch screen on the Switch which I found arguably easier personally. When using the button controls I found myself getting quite flustered and missing a lot of ghosts, however the touch screen controls take away a little bit of that frustration because instead of having to juggle four buttons you're only having to deal with the two areas themselves.

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The initial levels serve as a really good tutorial and a nice gentle introduction to have you learn the game. However very quickly the difficulty ramps up and throws you in and the challenge increases meaning you may find yourself needing to retry some levels just to pass them. If you complete a level you will gain some apples and if you perfectly complete a level you’ll get a coveted golden apple. As you progress in the game you’ll find yourself having to revisit prior levels to get enough apples to open up new levels and even further on, you’ll actually need to perfect some earlier levels to gain more gold apples. This was the most frustrating part for me as sometimes I just wasn’t seeing every match on every level because the levels could get quite hectic at times. Ghosts and Apples certainly displays itself as a fairly simple game, however there is a real challenge to be found within as you try and co-ordinate yourself as well as you can co-ordinate the colours.

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The graphic and sound design was really nice with all the levels having a hand-drawn type style to them with a very typical cartoon, halloween-esque feel to them accompanied by bright coloured ghosts providing a great contrast against the dark levels. The sound effects were also excellent providing a fantastically spooky backdrop to the hectic levels.

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Ghosts and Apples was a lot of fun. It will provide ample challenge for just about anyone and provide a few hours of entertainment as you go through the various paintings collecting apples and unlocking the various achievements within the game. For anyone who likes to 100% games and go back to previous levels and make sure that you have a perfect score, Ghosts and Apples will fill that hunger. It could very easily appeal to just about anyone of any age and with the alternative control scheme, I could see the game becoming easier for younger children. However after a certain point I wonder whether a lot of kids would have the patience to go back and perfect previous levels just to progress.

Lj’s Rating: 3.5 ghoulish apples out of 5.

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For more information on Ghosts and Apples please use the following links...

7 Raven Studios - Developer | Publisher | Facebook | Twitter | Website

Many thanks to 7 Raven Studios and PressEngine for the Review Key.

Ghosts and Apples | Nintendo eShop

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