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Thursday, October 31, 2019

Might as well be walking on the sun.

 Match 3 or more, tap that group of blocks, connect every image of the same color. 

Fendish
Tasty!
Slumageddon
Delicious!

And yet, you lost. You still have more lives/energy/McGuffins so try again. Different parameters, power-ups, or strategy and you could win.

Your hearts are full!
Your fiends are full of energy!
Limited time to complete the challenge.
PLAY NOW!

It's all random, just luck based.

You think so, right?

Welcome to being wrong.

Look close at the fun little games you play. That time you should have been defeated, or the time you should have won. Blocks of the color you need are strangely rare this time, or power-ups are a bit hard to find. This is by design. Some games are programmed to help the player, others to hinder. It's not "Surprise Mechanics" it's programming.

I'll share some things I've noticed about Best Fiends. Mainly because I play it at times, and it's generous (except with the gold). You start with a single fiend and have to connect items of the same color to "attack" and defeat slugs. You can unlock\buy other fiends and their styles and level them up. If you lose a level, just ten gold for five moves (terrible deal). Playing over 500 levels I've noticed some things.

Fiends power up differently on different levels. One one level it would take twelve matches to power up a fiend; the next takes two or three times that. Understandable when some levels give you more moves.

Fiends power up differently in general. Depending on the power they have, the color they collect, or even the goals of the level; fiends power up differently.

Some levels start with the same items in the same places. It's not just the bombs or the item volcanoes, I've seen the same "block" patterns at the start of several levels. This shows that not everything is random and things can be controlled.

Items fall behind other items. Items should fall down when you remove stuff below them, right? All nice and orderly? Most people might not notice it, but I've seen an item fall behind another item, breaking a possible grand combo or last-move win. I'm not talking about items falling down a slope of other items; falling directly behind another item. This could be a glitch, but it doesn't seem frequent enough.

Some levels don't have items of a certain color. This happens mostly on smaller levels, making large combos easier. The color is not needed, and neither is the fiend. If a color can be omitted, then the amount dropped might also be controlled.

Needed colors seem rare. Sure, matching small groups of colors to make large combos with other colors is a strategy. But when only three of a particular color have dropped in the last five moves, something's fishy. I'm not talking about the levels where you have to "free" the color from slime and match an amount of it to "unlock" it. Juts regular levels with irregular scarcity.

You have to "unlock" the color before it starts dropping it. Now I'm talking about those levels. There are blocks of the color hidden under slime. Remove the slime and match\blast enough and they'll start dropping. Now you can collect enough to complete a challenge, maybe.

Needed colors seem numerous.They are letting you win, don't you feel special. Sometimes you'll start a level and there are more than enough of the color you need to collect. So many you don't need a converter power-up. Just make sure you complete the other goals for the level.

Some power-ups have exact placements. Usually, on any chain that completes a power up, the power-up drops at the column you started the chain. Sometimes an obstruction will change that, but it's a nice trick to place power-ups (Ru's bomb) at opportune spots.

Facts:
Color drops can be turned off/on even during a level.
Fiends power up at different rates for different reasons.
Some levels start with the same pattern every time.

Rumors:
The amount of a color can be controlled.
Items can arrange themselves when falling.
An entire level's drops could be arranged from start to finish.
The placement of "block" and item drops could be controlled.

Like with any game, the player doesn't know the extent of control the game has. From keeping the player alive, to arranging drops, anything could be controlled. Far more than people realize, and some games are less friendly than others. Some seem innocent, but watch the patterns.

An extra bit of control can make the game more/less challenging, or it can control the player.

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