Rainbow Rumble Review

What would you do if you were walking down the street and suddenly found your path blocked by a green walrus wearing a backwards baseball cap and a T-shirt that says "SEA LIFE?"

You’d be well within your rights to shrink away and shuffle into a shadow to let the walrus pass - but do you really want to let that big stupid meanie push you around? Of course you don’t. Neither do the denizens of Rainbow Rumble, by Epic Jump. These sugary little dudes are out to reclaim their home from monsters, super-nerds, and punks that are mucking up their happy little world.

Rainbow Rumble is a match-three game with an emphasis on battles against foes. While some levels challenge you to meet a score by making matches of three or more cheery character icons (including apples, four leaf clovers, raindrops, suns, and more), most pit you against the aforementioned monsters.

Driving away the Plantling Nation’s unwanted visitors is easy. You need to match a specified number of icons to hurt them and send them packing. Once they’re all gone, you’re in the clear.

As you might expect from a match-three game, you have a limited number of moves with which to meet your goal. There are also boss battles to contend with, and these encounters change up the battle formula a bit by assigning different damage values to certain icons.

Rainbow Rumble is an inoffensive and engaging match-three experience – that is to say it’s fun and unspeakably adorable (I cannot get over the rainbow icon wearing a top hat and sporting a fine mustache), but it’s also the same game you’ve played ad nauseam since the birth of Bejeweled.

While Rainbow Rumble isn’t as devious as some free-to-play games about shoving you in a corner so you’re forced to pay up for extra moves or slog through the same tedious level again, it still throws you against some pretty frustrating challenges. Of particular note are the time-based levels that pressure you to meet a high score before clock runs out.

Despite these issues, there isn’t much about Rainbow Rumble that’s worth any accolades and awards - but neither will it make you barf up your Lucky Charms. It’s a cute, fun distraction, and that’s all you can ask from a match-three game that doesn’t set out to shake up the genre.