As a quick disclaimer, I made this shrine quite a while ago when I was really obsessed with this game. I still think it’s a great game, but I will admit that some parts of my opinion on this game have changed. I’m still keeping it up in its entirety just for archival purposes, or something, but just know that I do not regularly play this game anymore, but I still think it’s well-made, very nice to look at, and has reminded me to stay far away from other rogue-likes because this game alone took up way too much of my time. LOL! Below this paragraph is completely unchanged, though.
This shrine contains spoilers for the storyline, rooms and bosses of Candies’nCurses, and while I still feel like your experience won't be worsened by reading through this, if you’d like to play the game completely spoiler-free, please don’t read through this just yet!
If you didn’t know, Candies’nCurses is an arcade-style mobile game developed by Tako Boy Studios. I found out about this game while I was casually browsing the Google Play Store a few years ago, and I picked it back up again earlier this year. Candies’nCurses is still one of my favourite mobile games out there, and it’s genuinely fun and rewarding to play, so I hope the person reading this downloads it after reading this, too!
Candies’nCurses lets you take control of Molli Pop, a teenaged girl who, while playing truth or dare, ends up trapped in a mysterious “haunted” house, trying to prove that all of the rumours surrounding it are fake. It turns out that, yes, the house is haunted, and there’s no other way to get out than to destroy as many ghosts as she can.
To begin, Molli has her flashlight to defend herself with. It has a beam right in front of her that damages ghosts, and it isn’t until you level up that you can equip her with other weapon types, like lanterns and blades. Weapons also have charm slots, and these charms give Molli different abilities in game.
My current setup as of writing this is the Necro Scythe (Maxed out) with the Beauty Charm (Start with +16 heart points, maxed out), the Magnet Charm (collectibles within 3m are automatically drawn to Molli, maxed out), and the Peppermint Of Souls (Start with +24 heart points, +20 soul heart points, maxed out). I much prefer blade-type weapons over lanterns or flashlights. Flashlights have a lot of blind spots, especially when jumping up or down a level, and lanterns feel very clunky to me. Even if it took some getting used to at first, I feel like blade-types are definitely my ghost-hunting go-to.
The game takes place over 6 different rooms. There’s the Halls of Sorrow, Ember Cellar, Undead Library, Dinette of Doom, Botanical Ballroom, and Shutter Shade Study, each with a different theme, pattern of enemies, and boss! The bosses include the Ghost King, Fire Spirit, Necro Witch, Phantom Worm, Jack, and the final boss, the Phantom King! Each boss is also drastically different, with specific phases, cues, animations, and gimmicks.
Personally, my favourite room has got to be the Botanical Ballroom, and Jack is my favourite boss, mainly because of how much you have to rely on sound cues to make it through. Jack himself is also just a silly guy and I think that’s awesome.
Once Molli clears a room, she will enter the Treasure Vault, and this is where the game gets its name from. In the Treasure Vault, you must pick something from 3 randomly selected candies or curses. Candies give you only good effects, whereas curses give you one bad effect and one good effect. These Treasure Vaults can be filled with only candies or only curses, which can get a bit difficult if you're aiming to only eat candies or only undergo curses.
I love the idea of balancing out your game and choosing very carefully the things you wish to sacrifice, but I tend to just eat as many candies as I can find, mainly because I can’t keep up with a giant firefly bouncing around the room and obliterating everything it touches, including Molli.
One of my favourite things about this game are the graphics. Even though it’s very much pixelated, every single animation, whether it’s the way that ghosts move, or the way that lasers are powered up, is extremely bouncy, and just very well-done. The colours in this game are gorgeous, too. Although it’s supposed to be set in a dreary, dull manor at night time, everything is very bright and lively, especially enemies and their attacks.
The soundtrack also slaps. Every track is catchy and diverse, infused with spooky, halloween-y vibes. I mean, just listen to the boss theme! It’s clearly inspired by rock music, but it’s also got that spooky melody over top, lightening the mood just a bit, but still saying to you, “you’re on 3hp, you don’t have the rally charm equipped, and that bomb is about to kill you! Get out of there!”
It’s easy to tell that Candies’nCurses had a lot of work put into it, and yet it’s completely free to play. I’d definitely recommend you get this game, even if it seems difficult to begin with. Once you get over that feeling of being rushed and overwhelmed, it’s an awesome, fast-paced, and satisfying experience.
But… I haven’t even begun to talk about my experiences with Curse Crusher mode!
Yeah, that’s right! Once you finish the main game, you get to play it all over again. But, plot twist, it’s actually super difficult this time! Very recently I actually finished this mode, and the ending honestly made me so happy!! I gotta talk about this game mode now.
Curse Crusher has Molli doing everything again, except with the Peppermint of Souls, the charm I mentioned earlier. Well, obviously not quite. Rooms require more kills to clear, bosses have all new attack cycles, and everything is just much more over-the-top. Even the music has extra layers added to it, and room backgrounds have different colour schemes!
Each boss is actually a character who once lived in the mansion, but has now been cursed and has turned into a monster. Upon defeating one of these monsters, the Peppermint of Souls grows in power after absorbing the souls that come from it. Yes, instead of upgrading it with ectoplasm, you must defeat ultra-hard bosses to upgrade the Peppermint of Souls.
As I said, I’m so happy to have beaten this super difficult mode, and it was really fun to do!
So, that’s pretty much it! I didn’t mention everything this game has to offer, because there’s just so much to it, but I’m getting pretty tired, okay? Lmao anyway I just really love this little game and I very much enjoyed talking about it! :)