COOKIE JAM Review for iOS

Sorry Candy Crush, your reign over addicting mobile games has been overthrown. COOKIE JAM, Jam City’s amazing iOS game is everything you want and more in this hyper-competitive genre of Tetris revamps. 

I shamelessly admit that I have lost hours upon hours to COOKIE JAM. The puzzles truly are endless and just as you think you have mastered a winning strategy, a shiny new challenge is thrown into the mix. True to its genre, gameplay starts with the conical “match three” routine, but don’t get comfortable in that. Before any boredom can set in, prepare to break waffle cones, make cookie sandwiches, and chase down gingerbread men before they sneak to the top of the screen. Think once you have that on lock it’ll be smooth sailing? That’s cute. Try funneling ready-made pastries into scarce pink boxes, guarded by cinnamon sticks and frosting. As you match, break, and concoct, witness your recipe birth into completion at the top of the screen. Turn Chef Panda’s frown upside down by stocking up for the bake sales and so much more.

COOKIE JAM requires quite a bit of strategy as you progress on your pastry-filled journey. Power ups are plentiful as you complete various challenges, but use them wisely. Expect levels to get harder, but it would be remiss to anticipate a linear climb. COOKIE JAM provides fair warning on levels where you’ll forfeit a significant chunk of your lives with an appropriate “Hard Level” disclaimer. Save your power ups for such endeavors—really—make this a practice in self-restraint; they are not kidding.

A great source of aggravation with these ‘free’ games is the bamboozlement we get lured into, where we fork over percentages of our paychecks to continue playing. While COOKIE JAM certainly offers the opportunity to purchase gameplay advantages, none of them are required to keep you in the game. You will run out of lives, probably faster than you would like, but if you wish to keep this an experience devoid of cash money, your wait time to be replenished is only twenty minutes—surely you can find some work to pretend to do within that period.

Keep the surprises coming with daily challenges to acquire gameplay goodies and climb to the top of the scoreboard. Play against friends, FaceBook acquaintances, or be your own challenger in a seemingly-endless set of optional goals within various levels. 

But wait—there’s more cuteness to be had. Pick a pet to be your partner in crime as you navigate your way through recipes. The more combinations you accomplish within a level, the quicker your little furry friend comes to your assistance and knocks a few cookies off the board. Clear as many levels as you can on the first try (easier said than done) to improve your pet’s rank. Why do this? The higher the rank, the faster and more frequently they help.

To perhaps your disappointment, I fail to find anything in COOKIE JAM to scrutinize. This is a fantastic game and a great way to waste the day. Just make sure to go outside eventually. 

Rating: 10/10

You can download Cookie Jam for iOS and Android right now for free.