Parents' Guide to Happy Glass

According to the age-old adage, the optimist is the one that sees the glass as half full, while the pessimist sees the same glass as half empty. In Happy Glass, though, the optimist is the one that sees a puzzle game with a simple concept and challenging gameplay, while the pessimist sees little more than cash grab drowning in a deluge of advertisements … and the average player is bound to agree.

Happy Glass has a lot of potential on the surface. It's a basic puzzler that requires some creative forethought, as well as a bit of trial and error, to come up with the best possible solution to move water from Point A to Point B. It's interesting to see how all the pieces fall into place once the player makes their move. Some stages add extra elements like the need to keep the glass from falling off the screen or to fill two glasses simultaneously. It can be a little difficult to draw the lines or shapes accurately if you're on a smaller screen or lacking a stylus, but there's no penalty for restarting the stage and trying again. The problem is that the game feels absolutely bloated with ads. Between pop-up ads, ads between stages, and even self-serving ads from the publisher on the title screen, there's no escape the intrusiveness of the marketing. Sure, you can pay to turn off ads for a period of time, but the price is absolutely insane. And to make matters worse, even if you do pay, the game still tries to shove ads down your throat, offering useless cosmetic items that only last for 24 hours. Unfortunately, this sucks every drop of fun out of the experience and makes the game nearly unbearable.