Game - Cookie crush

When you start the game, it'll load an applet for it, in the center of your PC screen, or fill your smartphone screen fully. I cannot test on tablet as I don't own one, but I assume it'll display somewhere in-between. 

I present Softgames' Cookie Crush : 

In this match-three-puzzle game I discovered on Facebook, you match various pastries in groups of 3 to five identical, which eliminates them, bringing further down  the lines from above, and the puzzle refills with further pastries from the top tier. 


As you do so, various combinations will stack and if you combine combos together, you'll make an 'explosive' association that will load many more new pastries. 

A combo of 5 gives you a 'joker' type. Associating it with a pastry will clear the screen from all the other occurrences of the same pastry. 

Evidently, levels increase in difficulty and the screen not only tends to have more squares of pastries to clear, but some will be 'frozen' and require specific moves to clear. 

As you progress, you'll also unlock boosters, which you can choose to activate and use to clear some pastries faster. 

Clearing and combining gives points, but the most important is that to pass a level, you must clear specified types of pastries, in a given amount, before you run out of moves. As long as you clear them, getting a 'cookie crush' you will retain your lives and move to the next level. 

As soon as you fail, you'll lose a life and given the choice to retry, as the next level won't unlock until you succeed the present one. 

You start with five lives, replenishing one every half an hour - and you can add by buying with in-game currency that you win as you clear levels. 

It's an overall pleasant puzzle game, but Facebook will flash adds at you every 1-3 levels, which you can tick off, but remain an annoyance. 

You may be invited to collect extra rewards if you do watch adds - I find that even more annoying. 

These ads will show despite having ad-blockers!  This fact has been checked on the following : Google Chrome, Firefox,  Edge, and on an android 9 smartphone, where the add is even more intrusive. 

Careful : you will sometimes run into blocks that will offer unlocking boosters with real money, so don't be hasty when you click, so you don't accidentally pay, especially if you are using your phone to play this game and have your finger too close to the sensors and may accept a sale you didn't wish. 

The game requires some strategy but remains wholly random and you can clear levels even without strategy as to which associations you make, although harder levels may require more attempts in such cases. 

The settings wheel on the top right corner of the screen allows toggling music and sound effects - I tend to mute both, especially if I decide to listen to other audio sources, as these game sounds won't auto-mute and will be heard simultaneously if still on.