If you are familiar with Ragnarok Online, then these Porings will be familiar to you. If you’re not then it doesn’t really matter because Porings are adorable candy-coloured creatures and that’s all that needs said on the matter.
Angel Poring is one of your typical “3 of a kind” matching game. Each stage requires you to clear a set amount of Porings in a limited time frame in order to successfully complete the level. Porings will… well, pour in from the top of the screen and you can match three by tapping on one of the 3 matching Porings, assuming they are all touching. More will fall from the top of the screen until you complete the level. If you struggle to find a match you can shake your phone to jiggle them all about. As with a lot of puzzle games these days, each level also has a 3 star ranking, probably based on time completed.
Sounds straightforward enough, but is it any good? I did find the controls to be a bit iffy at times, not really registering my touches. Also I had to shake my device a lot at times if the Porings weren’t doing what I wanted and this got a little frustrating. I like the idea of using those controls, but I personally felt I had to shake my device too often, and of course spending time shaking or tilting the device took time away from actually clearing the Porings themselves. On occasion, I’d be left with only 1 or 2 Porings and I’d need to wait for more to fall from the top, which again is wasting valuable time.
I actually found that tilting my phone so that the Porings all came to one corner and frantically drumming my fingers to make matches had the best effect for me rather than trying to play the game properly.
As the game advances you begin to encounter other types of obstacles, like walls which will stop the Porings from falling to the bottom. Again, you need to shake your device to make them fall further. Also you will encounter different types of Porings which add explosions and chaos to proceedings.
The Porings are adorable though, they really are, especially when they are pulling faces during the gameplay. The music is light hearted and I thought it sat very well in the game and you can’t help but like the way the Porings seem to cheer when they get matched up and pop.
Overall I really wanted to like this game but the controls just didn’t do it for me. I felt almost punished for trying to play it properly and opted to tilt into the corner most times and just shake and drum my fingers, which is not ideal for your morning commute on the train. You get some very strange looks indeed….
5 bemused commuters out of 10