Candy Rangers Review – Sweet Simplicity

Sometimes all a game needs is a simple idea; an idea so efficient, so malleable, but so wonderfully creative that it immediately draws you in and captures your interest. Such was the case with Candy Rangers from Spanish developer Mechano; its colorful, inventive approach immediately took me to an on-rails shooter, and I knew I had to give it a try. The adorable, sweet-as-hell art style certainly helped persuade me, too; I can’t deny that. However, it was its concept of color-coordinated blasting that was just too inspiring to ignore. It seemed like such a great little idea if Mechano managed to pull it off effectively.

A concept like this is usually iterated on and twisted in ways often so complex and intricate that the game evolves, right in front of your eyes, into more than you could have possibly envisioned from the outset. Of course, sometimes the idea remains uncomplicated and straightforward, while it remains charming; however, it fails to be anything more than that. Simple ideas need nurturing to evolve, grow, and flourish. Candy Rangers seemed like the kind of game that could have that special something, and in many ways, it matches up to those expectations, but falters in some notable areas.

Meet The Candy Rangers

Candy Rangers follows the adventures of sisters Candy, Mint, Plum, and Lemon, each of them part of the ranger system. Rangers are tasked with traveling the world and taking down creatures known as the Unna, who cause chaos and destruction wherever they wander. The Unna themselves were, a long time ago, a tribe that lived in harmony with nature, but eventually they abused the blessings of the planet and were cursed into their now monstrous, destructive forms. That backstory is never really explored beyond the introduction to the game, though, instead choosing to focus on the four sisters.

That said, the narrative as a whole is quite brief, with only a few cutscenes throughout the entire game. It clearly isn’t the focus of the game, though, and feels like a callback to old arcade games; it’s essentially just set dressing for the core gameplay, and for that purpose, it is entirely serviceable. The little snippets we get of the rangers’ antics through memory pictures (which unlock level to level by clearing a certain score threshold) do add some adorable flavor to the proceedings, however. Other characters don’t get a lot of screen time to be particularly memorable, but again, in a largely gameplay-focused game, I don’t have a problem with this.

Candy Rangers’ Unique Shooter Gameplay

So we come back to that simple concept, that core idea. In Candy Rangers, the four sisters move along a set path, on rails, while you aim using the stick or the mouse. Using the face buttons, you can make one of them use their blasters, with each of the four buttons being divided between them. Candy shoots a red beam that spreads in a horizontal line, while Plum’s blue beam fires straight ahead, Mint’s green beam goes vertical, and then Lemon’s yellow beam spreads out in a diagonal cross formation. While any of these beams can eliminate oncoming enemies, the idea is to match the formation they are traveling in, or to match the color target that appears around the enemy. There’s a great degree of customisation for the controls, so you can set the four buttons in whichever combination you like, but by default, they are perfectly set up for a standard gamepad.

There’s an almost rhythm game-esque flow to Candy Rangers, as using the right shots consecutively will increase your combo, which will in turn multiply your points. Even if you manage to clear a level, you may still feel like you could have done it better. Candy Rangers will pull you back in to try again over and over, continually seeking gradual improvement through repeated runs. Each level is just the right length, too, so that urge to jump back in is always strong. Certain levels really challenge you as well, with the high scores requiring actual skill and proficiency to achieve in some of the later stages. Additional tools in your arsenal (a melee attack, a dodge, a jum,p and a dash) provide further depth, proficiency with each of them being necessary to truly reach a perfect score.

Where Candy Rangers Falls Short

I really appreciate how Mechano has applied and utilized this core concept. At the same time, it never evolves into something exceptionally deep. Candy Rangers has a short enough runtime to avoid overstaying its welcome. Bouncing from level to level, collecting medals, and surpassing high scores always felt compelling and enjoyable throughout. It’s a shame that I also think there are a few places where things could be tighter than they are. There aren’t any exceptionally glaring problems, but mostly just a handful of little things that stopped me from truly loving Candy Rangers as a package.

Accuracy in particular is a notable issue; there are many times where you do really need to think about which shot to use first, as a group of enemies might be placed close enough together where using one over another might lead to you hitting the wrong enemy, and thus interrupting your combo. Unfortunately, even after determining the correct order, stray bullets would often still fly into another enemy. A few times, bullets meant for one formation would hit another group of enemies that were still on the approach, too. Add in differing terrain heights and obstacles getting in the way of your shots, and there were just too many occasions where it seemed like you needed luck, rather than skill, to keep your combo going. Never enough to deter me, as Candy Rangers would quickly pull me back in for another attempt, but the frustration was still very real.

The boss stages are a bit imbalanced, I found: either they went on far too long (the final boss and the second), or they were far too short (the third). Some had mechanics that felt satisfying to master (the second), while others were just way too trivial (the third, again, and the fourth). Honestly, the first boss turned out to be the best of the lot, being the most satisfying overall in terms of both length and mechanics. I think adding additional mechanics to some of the bosses, while also including health bars, would go a long way to improving them across the boar,d however.

Final Thoughts: Is Candy Rangers A Blast?

Candy Rangers certainly hits way more than it misses, though. Many of its issues appear to be fine-tunable with additional updates. It remains a delightful, bite-sized shooter with a simplistic yet utterly endearing art style. Not only that, but the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The boss battle music in particular hits hard, and I found myself cheerfully humming away to the bouncy, energetic, and sometimes chilled-out tunes within the levels themselves. The music is so good that I can’t quite get it out of my brain, and I’ve found myself looping the songs in my head while I work.

Regardless of its minor faults, Candy Rangers still left me feeling pretty satisfied. Mechano has taken a really fun, simple idea and turned it into an engrossing, point-chasing shooter that will keep pulling you back for more. A bonus Arcade mode and Hard difficulty add even more replayability to bolster its brief length. Its issues do occasionally make the game a little more frustrating than I’d like, but not enough to completely spoil the experience. For such a small, simple game, Candy Rangers really is a sweet surprise that you should really take a chance on!