Threes!+ in Apple Arcade

Beautiful game, terrible gameplay

First: this game is beautiful. The graphics are adorable and cute. The sounds and music are fun and well thought out. Unfortunately, the game is mostly based on luck. After playing for a very long time, I can take a look at my stats and see a constant distribution of scores over time — not an improvement. That’s not a failure to get better on my part — it’s the game. This SEEMS like a game of skill, and to a certain score level it can be, but it is largely controlled by luck. The gameplay “engine” / “AI” / “NPC” (whatever you want to call it) is super crummy and unforgiving. Maybe you’ll get four or five “1” or “2” cards thrown at you all at once, or a super high number card followed by a stack of low numbers. It doesn’t adapt to your gameplay or situation AT ALL. To make matters worse, there’s no game mechanics to help you out when you’re in a corner — no undo mechanism, no special moves… nothing. Not that it would need a special mechanic IF the gameplay “engine” was actually better. The developer seems to have abandoned the game too — except for showing up to cash out on an Apple Arcade deal — there haven’t ever been any updates… ever… at all… I’m terribly disheartened, because I want to love this game so much.