Game Mechanics
Papa Pear Saga is one of the new releases from King.com on Facebook and can be played through the social network. It was launched in 2013 to coincide with the tenth anniversary of King, re-branding it to King.com, from King. The game offers a new version of the web-based game, Papa Pear from King. The game is inspired by Japanese mechanics and is similar to another game Peggie from PopCap. This has been King’s way of bringing well-established casual game mechanics and then adding a twist to the game, to offer something different. This approach has proved to be more successful than creating a completely new game play. The games offer a strong addictive feature and this contributes to its success in the app charts.
Basic Gameplay
The basic game play of the game is similar to the pachinko mechanics of Japan. It involves the player aiming a cannon shot towards the screen top, with the use of the mouse. Pears are fired out and they result in bouncing off of many pegs, arranged on the top of the screen, which is then brought down to the bottom of the screen. At the bottom, there are many buckets and when the pears are dropped into these buckets, the players are able to get more points. There are also some additional bonuses available, when a special type of peg is eliminated or when there are successive bounces. The score multiplier is increased in such cases or the pears are increased in size. Three pears can be fired simultaneously and, sometimes, some additional pears also start appearing, which is a slight twist to the formula seen in Peggie.
Variety of Objectives
The original formula merely involved removing one type of peg in a level. However, in Papa Pear Saga, there are a variety of objectives. There are levels where players have to land a minimum of one pear in each bucket, found at the screen bottom. In other levels, players have to make special fruits fall into the buckets and clear the path for falling. In some other levels, pegs that are visually distinct have to be removed from the screen and so on. The pegs that have to be removed are always placed in a single position.
Monetizing through Boosters
The game manages to monetize by selling booster items. Players can purchase such boosters within the app. The game does not have any currency system; so those who are playing for free, cannot make use of the boosters in this way. However, the boosters’ effect comes in the form of special pegs in many of the levels. Players can also make payment within the game for getting additional pears when they fail a particular level. They can also make payments for restoring lives when they run out of lives. A life is lost when the player is not able to complete the objectives in the level, including an objective and a particular score or a star. Players who don’t make payments can play as long as they have the skills to compete through the levels.
Keeping Players on their Toes
Some of the levels are a little difficult and it seems as if the intention is to take the life away a little soon or to tempt players to buy a life. Players might suddenly come across a level that is much more difficult than the preceding and succeeding ones and this comes without any warning. However, it has to be said that none of the levels are unfairly difficult or impossible; so players are kept on their toes with such challenges.
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