For those casual gamers who like their games with no strings attached and without frivolous extras, Clear It is going to be ideal. It’s incredibly simple, yet rather challenging. On the surface it looks like your typical Match-3 or bubble popping …
For those casual gamers who like their games with no strings attached and without frivolous extras, Clear It is going to be ideal. It’s incredibly simple, yet rather challenging. On the surface it looks like your typical Match-3 or bubble popping puzzle game. In reality though, it’s actually a lot more like Chess, expecting you to plan ahead many moves in order to succeed. It goes some way to offsetting this potential difficulty by giving off a relaxed vibe; it’s a potent mix as a brainteaser — even if it is a little dull to look at.
The idea is incredibly simple, which is fortunate given that Clear It isn’t too keen on providing you with tutorials. There’s a question mark that you can tap to learn the basics, but that’s about it. Luckily, throwing you into the deep end isn’t so intimidating. Each level offers a series of different colored balls. The ones around the outskirts can be tapped and sent in a straight line until they hit another one. The ones in the center have to be cleared by matching them with at least one other colored ball. You’ll use the balls from the outskirts to do this, but it’s not always as straightforward as it seems.
Early on you can often simply work your way around the board, unleashing the first ball that matches up. Soon though, things get trickier and you have to plan ahead to create a combo style effect. Sometimes you end up feeling like you’re taking a step backwards in order to take a step forwards. The real advantage here is that Clear It doesn’t really care how many moves it takes you to complete. There’s no time limit nor any move restrictions. You simply keep playing until eventually you succeed. Bear in mind: at times you might mess up quite a lot and find it’s better to restart the level and approach things from a different perspective.
Such a simple approach works pretty well for Clear It. Occasionally you’ll have other challenges to overcome, but these feel reasonably logical. A bomb might be made available to you. This is usually just as walled barriers appear in the game, and you can probably guess what happens if you throw a bomb at a wall, right? Elsewhere, you can take advantage of a lightning bolt. These take out an entire line of colored balls, usually giving you a significant advantage.
That’s about as complicated as Clear It gets, though. This is a game about you versus logic puzzles; it’s not a game about rewarding you with flashy graphics or power-ups. Clear It uses its rudimentary graphics reasonably well in terms of imagination, though. At times you’ll come across levels that are creatively arranged to look like a smiley face or a heart. It’s a relatively small touch, but it’s enough to make you smile.
The strength of Clear It lies in its simplicity. Clear It offers a substantial number of challenges (150 levels in all) without ever feeling like it’s going to stress you out. Being able to screw up yet come back and still succeed is a useful move here, and it’s immensely rewarding figuring out your strategies in advance. Also, a lack of a time limit goes a long way in terms of making you feel like you can do whatever you want here. It’s not really the kind of game to spend hours in a row playing, but it’s fun to chip away at when you’re in need of something relaxing and unhurried.
