Parents' Guide to Miracle Merchant

This solitaire-like game has good-looking graphics and an interesting premise, but inconsistent elements can make playing it feel more frustrating than phenomenal. Each time a customer steps up in Miracle Merchant, players see randomly selected cards from green, blue, red, and yellow decks at the bottom of the screen. They select four total cards by clicking on them and dragging them into place above the decks, which combines them to create a potion, and certain moves amplify the point amount from the cards. Pairing two blue or other like-colored ones, for instance, will earn more points, as will placing a red card to the left of a green card that has a small red icon on its left side. The two main rules are the total potion score has to be at least 1 -- and players have to include the color that's shown in a thought bubble to the left of each customer.

Essentially, you're trying to make potions that will earn the most points. Since the typical card value is just one point, you'll need to arrange the cards in the best possible order -- although you may not know how to do that, since the instructions only describe a few card combinations. You're told you can click on a boot icon to skip customers -- which could help if you've run out of one type of card or are trying to avoid using a black card, but it isn't always available, though, and it isn't clear why. You may be able to figure some out combos as you play, but if you're asked to reach a fairly significant total -- such as earning 30 points for assembling one potion -- that can feel almost impossible and you'll be forced to start over. And you don't get unlimited chances, because the trial-and-error attempts will get cut off when you run out of lives. Its difficulty level may serve as a subtle push to make people feel like they need to buy the app, because other than watching an ad, the only thing you can do is buy the game to unlock more tasks. Players may not be too inspired to make that investment, though, if playing basically amounts to guesswork -- which is a shame, because with better, more thorough instructions and a few design tweaks, Miracle Merchant could potentially be a pretty addictive logic-based game.