Do you (or most likely your mom) like Candy Crush? Do you like the color and lighthearted fun that cash-grab of a game provides? Have you ever wished that there was a Candy Crush clone set in a noir city featuring the exact plot from Sin City and a huge amount of bare breasts being shown all the time? Well, I’ve got good news for you matey: publisher Sometimes You (the same guys behind Where Are My Friends and Energy Invasion) has just released the game you’ve always wanted. This is Metropolis: Lux Obscura.

Metropolis: Lux Obscura mixes the (bland) gameplay from Candy Crush with some elements from turn-based RPGs, all while presenting the exact same story you’ve read before in Sin City, just like a noir comic book. The game alternates moments of pure joy and entertainment with some unbelievably boring segments and cheap production values.

The “match-three” gameplay is used when fighting against thugs, mobsters, dogs, etc. Each tile provides you with a certain type of move, be it HP recovery, strong attacks, damage buffs, and so on. You can perform a certain amount of moves before your enemy attacks you, which is usually a strong attack that takes a large chunk of your health. There is room for strategy and planning, since bigger combos result in bigger attacks, but the game is also extremely reliant on randomly generated blocks, turning it into a game of chance of sorts.

Weirdly enough, in a game that mixes your mom’s favorite mobile game and one of the best graphic novels ever created, Candy Crush manages to be more entertaining than the Sin City coat of paint.

The visuals, as you can imagine, are based around the Sin City graphic novel, but nowhere near as iconic. The black-and-white-and-sometimes-red color pallette from the original book is replaced with a ton of gray and a bit of extra coloring every once in a while. It makes the game feel less “noir” and more of a grumpy story set in a grumpy city with grumpy people speaking grumpy dialogue, even though the story is the same as Sin City. Sorry if I’m repeating myself with this statement, but it’s so similar it’s bizarre. Add in colorful icons, this game’s Candy Crush gems, and you get an overall visual style that’s far from appealing.

Another issue in this game is how desperately it tries to pass as a “mature” title. Featuring more swearing than a Tourette’s convention and more drawings of naked women than a 7th grader’s locker, Metropolis just tries too hard. Its story might be well-known at this point, but it fails to garner your attention, especially with the amateurish voice acting (some people reeeeeeaaaaally don’t know how to make an American accent in this game). Game, you gotta remember you’re a Candy Crush clone. Don’t try to overcomplicate the plot and maturity settings when you shouldn’t.

Metropolis: Lux Obscura is an anomaly. It can be occasionally entertaining despite being little more than a Candy Crush with a Sin City coat of paint. It can also be a severely frustrating game due to its difficult spikes, reliance on randomly generated tile sequeces, and borderline juvenile levels of (im)mature content. It can be a passable distraction for a couple of minutes, and worth a few bucks whenever on sale, but it’s far from being impressive, even though it turned out to be a lot better than expected.

Graphics: 4.5 A bunch of noir comic book stills and Candy Crush-esque tiles. Not a lot of variety in here.	Gameplay: 5.0   Really bad if you’re using the controller. Play the game on portable mode and use the Switch’s touchscreen instead. Weirdly enough, you pause with the B button.
Sound: 5.5 Half a dozen noir-esque tunes coupled with a lot of voice acting, ranging from passable to so-bad-it’s-good.	Fun Factor: 6.0 Mixing turn-based combat with Candy Crush resulted in a somewhat entertaining experience. Too bad you have to endure a juvenile copy of Sin City’s plot in between battles.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Reviewed on Switch.

Also available on: PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, PC

A copy of Metropolis: Lux Obscura was provided by the publisher.