Hmmm. I guess I was mislead by your previous statement that you have "never spent less money per year on games than you have since [you] got [your] first iOS device," and that the whole freemium thing was "pretty rad." I guess I misunderstood you. Regardless, to each his own, Wizard Mike. Peace.
Between MMO subscriptions and multiple PC and console games, I used to spend hundreds of dollars per year on gaming (hell, WoW subscription alone was $180 per year). And that's just the games. The overall price per year goes up quite a bit if you average in hardware purchases/upgrades. So yeah, I can dump a couple of hundred bucks a year into the app store, get a crap ton of games, and not spend anywhere near what I used to be spend on gaming. Of course, that covers both premium and freemium games, so that "pretty rad" statement can actually be applied to iOS gaming as a whole.
Was anyone able to open the gate after level 40 without paying for more time on those challenge levels which are required to obtain keys? They seem impossible with the current fruit collecting requirements.
After the latest update which added a 3-star mechanic, I was able to progress and didn't hit a paywall, at least yet, on level 55 now. I have to say I'm really enjoying this. Does anyone know if there is an international release date?
I do agree with that and i would rather pay for games all the time BUT i'm afraid we're in a minority. Freemium actually gives devs way more money than premium games. Look at premium and all the cheapskates waiting for a dollar price drop or waiting for promo codes. We see time and time again premium games failing sadly. Freemium as much as i hate to admit it is making tons of money, more than premium so sadly this is the world we live in. I still try to 'help' indie devs by buying their game when its on sale (Not one of these people asking 90 questions before deciding whether to buy a 99c app). Perhaps times will change again in a year or two when the masses get fed up with freemium/timers, but for the meantime sadly we're stuck with it. Thankfully there are still tons of great games by indies which i like to buy If no more games were released for 2 years i would still have a different app to play every day of the year. So i cant complain too much
In case the developers are reading this - Two levels (so far) which I think are unbalanced in version 1.0.4: Level 82- I was able to pass it, but just barely with 1 star after using a bomb and having one of the ghost carry a slowdown type powerup which it doesn't always, so it's dependant on luck. The level is very straightforward and the levels directly following it were much easier so it seems the timer here is too short. Level 133- this is where I stopped playing. Seems impossible to get 1 star. I'm pretty far off from being able to finish this level without cheating (i.e. using "powerups" or buying extra time with tokens). The time given for this level seems way too short as well. EDIT: I can confirm the same problems exist in version 1.0.5
I think there was a front page article recently that stated that Namco was reworking the game to make it a paid version again and would release later this year.
