Pop Puff and Away! Review – Sweet Puzzlin' Cupcakes

Published: October 3, 2015 9:00 AM /

Reviewed By:


pop puff and away logo

Pop Puff and Away is a cute and casual mobile puzzle game from Accidental Rebel Games. Finalist for Best Kids and Family Friendly Game at Indie Prize Casual Connect Asia 2015 and  Best Mobile Game Philippine Game Festival 2014, this game is well polished. The aesthetic is cute and the puzzles are well-designed and challenging.

In Pop Puff and Away players help Pop the Bear and Puff the Dinosaur collect their newly found favorite treat, cupcakes that are scattered about their colorful world. The game has a cartoonish chibi aesthetic and nice music and sound effects. Each level is a different puzzle in which all the cupcakes on the board must be collected, and as players progress through the chapters, new mechanics get introduced and the puzzles get more challenging.

The main mechanic in Pop Puff and Away is that when Pop or Puff step on an arrow tile they get thrown in the direction it’s pointing. Players must direct the arrow tiles so that Pop and Puff will walk in the right path to collect all the cupcakes. It plays a lot like a simpler, more kid friendly version of the board game Ricochet Robots.

Pop Puff and Away!
Cupcakes!
Accidental Rebel Games

Pop Puff and Away is simple enough to jump into for children and adults of any puzzle solving prowess. It’s certainly a casual game. While some puzzles may have players restarting levels a plethora of times, it’s unlikely they’ll feel stuck on any level for very long. Compared to other puzzle games on the mobile market, Pop Puff and Away could be considered easy. It’s a good game for newcomers to the puzzle genre or just as a casual game for those that find puzzle games relaxing.

The game does a good job of explaining the mechanics to you within the first few super-easy levels, which serve as a tutorial. The level design is quite good, finding ways to keep the simple directional arrow mechanic more challenging and feeling fresh. Obstacles placed in your way and different parameters for solving the puzzles within serve to change up the puzzles and make them more challenging. While Pop Puff and Away may not be the most challenging puzzle game, it still makes players use their brains to figure out the solutions. Finding the solution to a puzzle feels rewarding and never random.

Pop Puff and Away!
Boxes and holes present obstacles to getting all the cupcakes.
Accidental Rebel Games

There are 5 chapters of Pop Puff and Away that take place in different settings. With many levels to each chapter there are over 70 levels to complete and hours of gameplay. It is more of a casual relaxing sort of puzzle game than a competitive challenging sort. While players can always go back and play completed levels again, there are no timers, scores or leaderboards to urge players to play levels over and over again for a top score.

Pop Puff and Away is a nice little puzzle game that’s family friendly and delivers solid gameplay. As a premium app it costs $1.99 on either the App Store or Google Play. That price gets you the whole game, no in-app purchases, regenerating lives or other waiting mechanics. You can try a demo of the game here. Playing Pop Puff and Away is a pure puzzle solving experience that puzzle-genre fans will find themselves playing for hours without ever being taken out of the game.

Pop Puff and Away!
Accidental Rebel Games

This game was obtained from the developer and reviewed on an iPad Air.

Review Summary

8.5

Pop Puff and Away may not be the most challenging puzzle game but it's well-designed, family friendly, and delivers solid gameplay.

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Alexandra Joy Taberski
| Past Author

Alexandria is a former Staff Writer at TechRaptor, who specializes in coverage of mobile games, RPGs, and JRPGs primarily, and has an unfortunate aversion… More about Alexandria