I still remember the wild west of touchscreen development years ago, when people said that platformers would never work. While many classics have been ported by way of MFi controls, a lot of others stuck it to the naysayers with inventive on-screen control methods, or a design philosophy that accommodates accordingly. Count Crunch’s Candy Curse ($0.99) is definitely manageable even without the help of an MFi device, but it doesn’t really seek to do much more than that.

Candy Curse is a platformer through and through, and doesn’t really seek to be anymore more than that. Using a simple virtual d-pad you’ll be able to move left and right, with two additional buttons — a projectile attack, and the ability to jump. I particularly like how responsive everything is, including the propensity for mashing the attack button. Over the course of the game you’ll become accustomed to other mechanics like diving while airborne,  and double-jumping. You can acquire more power by way of collecting candy, which functions as an experience system of sorts. All said it’s very sound, mechanically.

Where Curse falters though is its level design — it simply isn’t compelling enough on a consistent basis. You’ll traverse over typical tropes like falling platforms and fight enemies that are very samey and rote. The conceit that the main character has released the evil Count Crunch from an innocent bowl of cereal is charming, but it never really goes anywhere from there, instead plopping players into uninspired playgrounds.

There’s 10 levels in all, and you can only face the “Castle of Doom" at the end if you’ve completed every quest in the game. While this is a pretty common tactic that far precedes Candy Curse (see the original Rayman), it ultimately hurts its case as said side quests are not very fun. Most of them consist of simple fetch quests, and nothing is obvious as to what the actual objective entails. The “sticker book," which grants you a piece of candy after completing each subquest, grants you nothing — instead, the developers ask you to tweet out your full collection.

It’s admirable that Candy Curse doesn’t contain any IAP, but at the same time, I’m not sure everyone is going to be engaged enough to actually complete the entire affair. With some more diverse level layouts and quests it would be an easier pill to swallow.