Don’t let the cute visuals fool you. Sweet Summer World Challenge is tough! (review)

What do you get when you put together a stationery company and a casual game developer? Sweet Summer World Challenge is the second fruit of Blue Boat and Sweet Summer’s joint venture to bring Sweet Summer characters to mobile games, and it’s very well done.

The free-to-play mobile game has five stages spanning its little world, each one featuring a different member of the Sweet Summer gang. These stages house five mini-games each, which you must complete in order to move forward. Five levels per world, with 25 in total – may seem a little like shortchanging the player, but each mini-game is unique and there’s more than enough of a challenge to keep you entertained. There’s even a little narrative going on in Sweet Summer World Challenge, which gives great context to the arcade-style game – you must beat the level to complete the stage and progress to the next one.

What Sweet Summer World Challenge does really well, without a doubt, is its mini games. While simple, these games are also challenging enough for adults, and sometimes can prove to be almost impossible to complete unless you spend gold – a premium currency – on boosters to give you extra time or chances. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), the only thing you can spend your gold on in-game is the boosters, so you don’t have to worry about missing out on cosmetic items.

Some examples of the mini games you can play are spinning a hula hoop an exact number of times within a certain timeframe, catching falling fruit, serving food up to customers by matching tiles, and shooting down targets. These are cute and easy to pick up. However, as mentioned above, they can get too tough at times. I can’t foresee a child – who would definitely be attracted to its cute visuals – being able to complete some mini games without some help from mom and dad.

Sweet Summer World Challenge seems designed for long-term play, as there’s a versus mode option in which you can challenge friends, a free daily spin for gold, and a daily trivia question, which also awards gold. If you complete all of the levels, you’re rewarded with a notice at the top of the globe that says more content is coming soon.

All in all, while not a game I would say makes the best use of its monetization method, Sweet Summer World Challenge is free to download, entertaining to play, and makes for some fun competition between friends. The adorable visuals – which are really the entire point of the Sweet Summer series of games – are a nice bonus, too.

You can download Sweet Summer World Challenge for iOS and Android.

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