Freemium... kinda

Normally I do not give freemium games the time of day. I believe all freemium games should be eliminated from the planet :-). This however, in my opinion could be seen as a free to try then pay to remove adds game. That I am fine with. In fact I wish more games would follow that model. However, they still offer adds for more Ruby’s or whatever they are and pitch a weekly subscription model which annoys me. However, that being said you don’t have to do those things and can still play the game. Once I paid to remove the adds the game was great. I would give it 5 starts if it were not for the other remnants of the freemium business model. And the subscription pitch seems like they were just having a meeting and said “let’s see if anyone is stupid enough to do this and pay us money weekly for the game”. If that got in the way of the actual game other than just having to skip it when you first load then I would not play at all. So, I would suggest a few tweaks: keep the free to download and pay once to unlock full game model. Polish the game up a bit as a buy once game and get rid of freemium / subscription based remnants.

Great game, disappointed to be forced to delete

As far as the actual game goes, I love it. There are great boosts and it is, of course, a satisfying game to play while you watch all the blocks get decimated. That said, it could use some technical improvements. I am no stranger to free games and the ads they frequently force you to watch every couple rounds. Typically I have seen these ads be 5 to 10 seconds in length or click out immediately. I don’t mind ads- Ive found a lot of games I like through them and Usually I don’t get stuck watching the 30 second ads unless I choose to in order to gain some extra points or prize. In this game, almost every single ad is 30 seconds long and they make you watch one after every round. I wind up spending more time watching ads than playing the game. It would be nice if they could shorten the ads if they are going to require you to watch one in order to play each level. The bigger issue was that I did not even get to have this game on my phone for 24 hours before it started having major issues and kept restarting on me. For the last few hours I have gotten an error message that says “Data verification error, game will begin to synchronize the data and be restarted (1).” Every time the game restarts the message comes up again and I have not been able to play anymore levels. I have restarted my phone several times and cannot seem to remedy the issue so I guess I am just going to have to delete the game.

Game has become more pay to play

The gameplay is satisfying and addicting, and I’ve played this game often over the past several years. I am approaching level 600 and am still enjoying the gameplay. However, over that time the game has become near impossible to play without spending money. To play this game without spending money, I have had to stockpile in game currency (gems) for weeks at a time just to make it passed one level. Additionally, they have made several changes to how in game currency is earned that have significantly harmed the experience. They have increased the cost to continue on with a level after you have lost, which is the only way to beat levels after around level 300. They have also reduced the free daily ad-watching reward significantly to grant fewer gems per day, which now makes it so that you have to stockpile gems for weeks at a time in order to beat a single level. Lastly, it used to be the case that the free daily login bonus automatically was opened when you opened the app, but now that has been changed to a less user-friendly method where you have to manually open the login bonus screen. This no doubt significantly harms the new user experience. Overall, I am very disappointed in the greedy changes that the developers have made to the game I used to enjoy a lot more. Now the gameplay is far too tedious to enjoy. I would not recommend this game.

Was enjoying but

So, it’s annoying that you have to watch an add between every single time you play in order to continue, or you have to close out the game and reopen to avoid adds. Sometimes you have to watch an add to revive, ok, maybe, but then you have to use rubies to do the same a second time around. Ok, could live with that, but every time you open the game they offer you your subscription price to play without adds, a once a week subscription which would end up costing the player like $30 something a month or around $360 a year? Seriously that’s more than my gas bill or electric bill. It’s more than cable TV. There have been a few things I felt were worth paying a one time fee to open up, but this cost is ridiculous. That’s a car payment. The game itself wasn’t bad because there is a modicum of skill involved, however when you progress up into the 300s then it becomes impossible to complete a level without extra helps. And of course when you use those up you can pay more money to buy more rubies so you can get more helps. I hate that! And the final thing I hate is their piggy bank. You win levels and your rubies go into a bank you have to pay money to open. I get these game manufacturers need to make money somehow, but I know when to delete a game. When they take away the skill factor and make you pay to play, it’s time to move on.

Great game, poorly executed

The game itself is fun and appealing with some clever variations on the classic bricks concept, but I’m going to have to give it up. You’re endlessly hit with ads. I have no idea what the daily freebie plays you earn everyday do and there is absolutely no explanation available anywhere in the app or even online - I checked. There is a star bar but you never seem to accumulate rubies when you pass the level - is this a bug? Some levels are truly impossible to pass without using rubies (or the mystery elements, whatever they do) and the rubies are too hard to come by. You could opt to watch even MORE ads to earn 150 rubies a day, but I came to play a game not pound myself with commercials during my game time. I bet if you actually won rubies by passing levels, as the layout suggests you’re supposed to, this game would be much more fun. I have played every day for a month; you’d think I could have saved up for one custom ball by now, but no. I have never accumulated more than 500 rubies because it costs 200 to continue on a level the first time and 300 the second. If you have to use rubies to pass levels, you’ll never get to the 1000 needed to buy a different ball. All of this means it’s now getting boring to play and the frustrations have added up to make me deem this app unplayable. Too bad.

Not terrible, but it needs tweaking.

On its surface, this is a fun little game that I could see myself losing hours just getting absorbed into this. But in actuality, I only play it for small bursts. Why? The ads. I understand they need to make money, and the ads pay for it, but when you get one for whatever you do, some of them being 30 seconds long and unskippable, it's annoying fast. Failed a board? See an ad. Go to the home menu? See an ad. This alone would be annoying, but add in broken mechanics, and it reaches a whole new level. I didn't hit a major wall until around level 120, at which point, you find yourself needing about 500 gems just to clear the board. (Too many low blocks with high values, and nothing to ricochet the balls off of.) Add to this, the boards themselves are very stingy at giving credit toward the 50 (or 100) gem thresholds. 100-Ball seems to be the best place to grow the bar (since it has a fast ad delivery system), but more often than not, if I hit replay, the ball starts out-of-bounds, meaning you hit no blocks, no points, but you will get another ad. There is no reason to start the ball there- this is clearly a design flaw. If it weren't for the flaws, I'd consider buying the no-ad add-on, but as things are now, I can't in good conscious recommend paying any money toward this.

😕

It’s over all a great idea, but- I’m constantly hit with adds😩, and there seems to be multiple bugs in the game. I would have loved ❤️to continue playing this game, but , well, when I go to play a game, I’m not looking for a game that constantly pops up with adds. Especially when the adds go on and on , and there are 30 second ones more frequently then with other apps. Lots of adds usually have a little “ x “ at the top to tap out, but with these ones, you have watch the whole thing!!!!😢 I would love to continue playing this game, as soon as the adds pop up less frequently. And yes , your saying:” why don’t you just pay to not have adds” well, I don’t want to have to pay , if I can just go play something else, because there are many other games like this, which is another reason... I don’t know who came up with this idea for a game, but there seems to be so many games like this , such as ballz ect... it’s kind of annoying!! I don’t know if it’s my phone , or what, but it’s also kind of hard to move the dotted line ( the thing to aim) it’s so fidgety! It also sometimes gets on my nerves... Maybe it’s just me , but , I love the other games ( ballz...) so much more. I really recommend those ones. I don’t really recommend this one in particular.

Fun game…very poor customer service.

I have played this game ever since it has come out. I purchased the no ad thing even though it still has plenty of ads. I get that it’s how you make your money. My problem isn’t with the ads, it with poor customer service. There is a mystery button at the bottom of the screen that I still don’t know what it does. It cost 200 rubies to hit it and I have done it numerous times by accident. It’s the only one you can use while the game is actively in play. I would guess I have hit it by accident at least 50 times over the years I have played this game and I decided to finally ask what this button does. The answer I got was that they try to make it small enough for it not to happen. I wrote back and the answer I got was thank you for your feed back. I still don’t know what it does and I don’t really care anymore. The answer I should have gotten should have been “I am sorry for the problem. This button does(whatever it does) and here are a couple of hundred rubies to make up for it.”I was not looking for freebies, just a explanation of what it does and a little compassion to make me feel like I matter. For this reason I will be deleteing this game and will find one just like it to play.

An analysis of the top 5 Pinball/Brick Breaker games in the US for Q4 2023, revealing trends in downloads, revenue, and active users.

Sensor Tower Tue Nov 19 2024

An overview of the top Pinball and Brick Breaker games on iOS in the United States during Q4 2023, highlighting download and active user trends.

Sensor Tower Tue Nov 19 2024

The CEO of the game development company talks about the importance of self-care in the tech industry, what motivated him to grow in humility...

D Magazine Wed Mar 19 2025

Unlock a series of fun and fabulous game balls to bust those bricks in style! The challenge is to break all the bricks with limited moves, so...

AppAdvice Tue Aug 19 2025

Balls Bounce 2: Bricks Challenge arrives in the App Store and brings the free-to-play arcade game enjoyment for all Balls Bounce fans.

AppAdvice Sat Feb 19 2022