Rovio Juice Cubes is a Freemium In-App Purchase Gold Bar Mine - To get to Level 200, you have to become Goldfinger

If you’re a fan of PopCap’s Bejeweled and iWin’s JewelQuest, then you’re most likely a fan of Candy Crush Saga. BlueStacks App Player frees you of the magical spell your smartphone has over you, transferring your addiction to the PC instead as explained in my blog article entitled “How to download Candy Crush Saga and play it on your Desktop or Laptop - BlueStacks App Player to the Rescue of the non Post-PC Era people”.

All of the above are really the same game but with different treasures After all, I’ve played Candy Crush Saga on Facebook and I totally realize why you just can’t do that; time ticks by and before you realize, you’ve not even achieved what you set out to do online. Damn that addictive game! 

Now comes Rovio’s Juice Cubes, yet another addictive food matching fun game to complement their success in the Bird chucking franchise, that of course being Angry Birds as stated in “Juice Cubes: Rovio's cute take on a familiar puzzle game”, published January 24, 2014 1:44 PM PST by Scott Webster, CNET News.

Watch lines of three or more Juice cubes explode and give you access to harder Levels, 200 to be exact. With a Tropical Backdrop, it's easy to see why Juice Cubes is a game that's hit bound. It's also free like its other Google Play and Apple App store playmates, but works a little differently despite having basically the same gameplay.

The task is simple: string together three or more matching juice cubes horizontally, vertically or even diagonally to make them explode in musical splendor. Like JewelQuest, the longer the chain the higher the score and the bigger the explosion. More stuff gets cleared and progress is achieved faster using your connecting rope, Tarzan style!

Rovio’s Freemium Business Model – To get to Level 200, you have to become Goldfinger

So how does Rovio, which usually makes paid apps, make money from Juice Cubes? By charging you for Gold, the currency needed to move from Level to Level in a game that’s dotted with a lot of subliminal advertising. Thus making this game an example of the increasing popular Gaming model call freemium as described in my Geezam blog article entitled “Smartphones and Apps – Freemium Games are No. 1”, more commonly known as the in-app Purchase mode for mobile Gaming.

In-app purchases is the same Payment Method that got Apple in trouble with parent’s kids purchasing everything from smurfberries to go higher in the game Levels as noted in “Apple to refund at least $32.5M for kids' in-app purchases”, published January 15, 2014 9:24 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News. In hindsight as a Jamaican, parents need to NOT give their kids their smartphone password, muchless access to a smartphone in the first place!

Hopefully Rovio’s got some solid security features in place to prevent this mishap, otherwise they’ll be the next Game maker that has to fork over millions to pay for what’s essentially a lapse in good parenting! But back to the Gold Stock exchange that Rovio’s basically set up inside of this game!

Gold pieces range from $1.99 (15 pieces) up to $99.99 (1,200 pieces) and can get you additional bombs, charms, boosters and other tools that make it easy to get through the Levels. So unless you’re playing against some really generous friends on Facebook that can lend you map pieces to progress higher or you can locate the Gold pieces hidden in the game, you'll soon give up in exasperation.

Familiar gameplay in Rovio’s Juice Cubes – Cryto-currency will make the in-app purchases tolerable

If you're looking for a totally free game, Rovio’s Juice Cubes ain't it. Still, I don't mind paying so long as the Levels are difficult enough to be worth shelling out that kind of coinage. Speaking of which, if they accepted crypto-currency such as Bitcoin I'd be quite happy, as I've got a few of them.

They've become the new investment tool and means of payment online aside from Paypal due to their low Transaction rates. But more interestingly game maker Zynga, makers of the popular franchise Farmville, has begun testing Bitcoin payments for game purchase and In-App purchases on Saturday January 4^th 2014 as stated in “Zynga begins testing Bitcoin payments for some online games”, published January 4, 2014 10:00 AM PST by Steven Musil, CNET News.

So I’m all for this new Game, so long as I had an idea and guarantee that spending real money on virtual Gold Bars will make it easier for me to get to the higher Levels faster. Also, those better be some really good Levels to be worth shelling out US$1.99 for 15 Gold Bars. If Crypto-currency such as BitCoin or even Dogecoin is added, it’ll be a hit and by the time I reach Level 200, I can basically call myself GoldFinger!

Rovio’s Juice Cubes is available free on Google Play, Apple iTunes and on CNET’s downloads:

1.      Juice Cubes on Google Play

2.      Juice Cubes on Apple iTunes

3.      Juice Cubes on CNET Downloads

As usual, all playable using the BlueStacks App Player as described in my blog article entitled “How to use the BlueStacks App Player to play Android Apps on PC or Laptop - Bluestacks App Player is The Great Gatsby for Android”

Here’s the link to the Games mentioned in this article. Some Torrenting may be required though!

JewelQuest

Bejeweled

Candy Crush Saga