Coins vs Eggs review: eggs-cellent

Singaporean game studio Gutsy Games LLP has ruined my life.

When I heard about Coins vs Eggs, I wasn’t inspired. It’s an odd name, but not odd enough to intrigue, and it sounded all too similar to Plants vs Zombies for my tastes. Thankfully, I downloaded the game anyway and gave it a try over the weekend. And unfortunately, I am now a Coins vs Eggs addict.

Coins vs Eggs is an amusement park, arcade-style shooter where you use coins to break eggs. Broken eggs drop coins which can be collected in the constantly moving coin collector at the bottom of the screen. That’s right, you have to spend money to make money. It’s the capitalist’s dream!

Collecting coins allows you to increase your level, which also nets you more coins. That’s really the entire point of the game, spending coins in the hope of winning more coins. It’s delightfully futile and impossible to stop once you start.

If you run out of coins you may either wait for them to respawn (one coin spawns every 45 seconds), or you can buy them for real money. If you’re a good player, you can play it indefinitely. If not, then there are going to be some pauses between the action. I rarely have this problem because spending coins takes time, and this is a game to be be played in short bursts, not for hours at a time.

(See: Super Bomb Smash review: the ultimate thumb workout)

To add an extra level to the addiction, Coins vs Eggs has collectible prizes. You can win them by breaking open special eggs within a time limit. Trust me, it sounds way easier than it is! Collecting these prizes can make your coin collector bigger or improve your rate of fire, making it easier to get coins. However collecting these is going to take a whole lot of time and effort, because you’ll miss the collector half the time. It’s not uncommon to see your hard-won prize disappear. It’s painful, frustrating, and keeps you playing.

Coins vs Eggs isn’t exactly original, and it owes a debt of gratitude to the Chinese-made Fishing Joy. They share similar shooting mechanics and the same core gameplay: spending money to make money. For anyone who found Fishing Joy too intense or difficult to master, Eggs vs Coins provides a valid alternative. Unlike Fishing Joy, there’s no choice of weapons or one-off use items; Coins vs Eggs is simple and sweet.

However it’s not all perfect, and after a while Coins vs Eggs does become a bore. I hope missions, achievements, or even some different levels are added to spice things up. Also, please, please add a different music track! The relentless, unchanging carnival tune has driven me to the brink of insanity.

Nonetheless these are but petty complaints to lodge against a new game from a new group of developers, and overall Coins vs Eggs is a fun game. It’s simple, looks great and is good, simple fun.

You can download Coins vs Eggs for Android from here