Publisher
JustGames
+/- 30
minutes
€25
cost
2
players
Game explanation
Candy Crush duel is a cheerful and colorful 2 player game inspired by the popular mobile game Candy Crush of the same name. The aim of the game is to make the best and most candy combinations on your player board and thus be the first to achieve the 3-star score!
Candy Crush duel is played, as the name probably suggests, with 2 players. The game consists of several rounds in which your opponent and you take turns placing candy on your game board. At the start of a round, one of the players rolls all 6 dice. The starting player may choose the first die. Then all players may take a die in turn.
Every die you take equals a piece of candy. Do you take the die with the blue circle on it? Then you can place the blue candy on your player board. When all the dice are used, the round is over. However, it can also happen that a die remains! Players never take more than 3 dice per turn. Candy Crush duel uses the starting player principle in a different way. In Candy Crush duel, you are the starting player until another player takes your starting player marker. During a round, players can choose to take the starting player marker instead of a die. This allows this player to take 1 less die, but this player will be allowed the first choice next round.
The candies you place on your game board earn you points if you place them in a certain shape. For example, you can score points for candies of the same color in a square, in the shape of a T and in rows of 3, 4 or 5. Does a combination occur when placing a candy? Then you remove this combination from the game board and you receive a score token. You place this score token in the score meter. In addition, you will also receive action cards when making specific combinations! These action cards give you actions with which you can help yourself and thwart your opponent. For example, when making a combination with 4 candies in a row, you get an action card with which you can remove all candies in a row of three. You can do this to yourself if you have too many candies in the way, but you can also thwart your opponent and ruin his future combination. You may play an action card at the end of your turn.
The game is over when a player has filled the entire score meter. The player who does this first wins the game!
Our thoughts
We are pleasantly surprised by Candy Crush duel! The mobile game is certainly not unknown to us, but we did not expect that this variant would surprise us so well. Candy Crush Duel is a fast and fun game for 2 players. In addition, it is also a very easy game and you can therefore play it with less experienced players, especially because the theme is recognizable to many people. For us, the simple rules of the game were a relief. After opening the box, we were setup playing within 5 minutes. This is probably our personal record.
The game looks fun and cheerful and if you are looking for a simple and fast 2 player game then Candy Crush duel is definitely recommended. We are a fan of abstract puzzle games and got a bit of an Azul-light feeling with this game. This in combination with the dice element makes it an interesting game. It's an easy game where you don't have to think too much. It plays nicely and you can also chat while you are playing. At least if you still feel like it! Candy Crush duel is not as sweet as the mobile game. You can really thwart each other in the game by playing the action cards. Especially the fanatic player will not always be happy with this.
In many situations it is an advantage that the game is so easy. You can quickly explain it to new players, you don't have to think too much and you put the game on the table within a short time. Still, the game lacks a bit more depth for us. While playing, we immediately came up with all kinds of fun ideas that could make the game a bit more challenging. The addition of goal cards or some extra elements from the mobile app like the chocolate or unlocking fruit would have been nice. If these elements were optional you could adapt the game to your fellow players and the replayability would also be a bit higher. You cannot finish the Candy Crush duel of course, because you keep throwing a different result with your dice. However, we can imagine that the game will soon be too much of the same for the experienced player.
We especially like Candy Crush duel because we can also play it with less experienced players. You can sometimes convince people who don't play games that often with the right theme. Someone who has played over 2000 levels on the mobile app will definitely be in for a game of Candy Crush duel!
Playing with 2 players
Candy Crush duel is of course specially made for 2 players and therefore extremely suitable. What we especially like about this game is the high level of interaction you have with each other. Every action you take affects your opponent. This ensures that you are both completely absorbed in the game while playing. You therefore have no time to do something else in between or to look on your phone, for example. It is a 2 player game where you really spend half an hour with the game and with each other. Simple, but very entertaining!
Pros and cons
+ Easy rules
+ Fast and simple game
+ Especially for 2 players
+ A lot of interaction
– Very simple
- No extra options to increase difficulty
This game has been kindly gifted by the publisher for review purposes.
