Welcome to my Swipe to Blast app review.
I have done a few reviews of merge games on this website. Games under that genre are usually simple to understand and easy to play. It is no wonder why there are so many apps like that available online. I get its appeal. They are great low-effort games.
It comes to no surprise that there are merge games that involve some kind of money earning aspect. In a time where it is hard to earn money, people will be more prone to try these games. Games like this often get advertised to people playing other games or even from watching videos online. If you have never seen one before, allow me to explain it to you.
The ad usually starts off with someone trying to buy something in a commercial establishment. When they are about to pay, they find that they do not actually have enough money. And you know what they do? They get their phone and start playing the game. There are often scenes of simulated gameplay where every correct move gives them money. A notification from PayPal will say that the money is now in their account. The person manages to pay for their meal and the ad ends.
The ad may or may not have convinced you to test the ad out. There is no harm in doing so, right? If the app does not fulfill what the ad has shown, then it just takes a few taps to delete it from your phone. Maybe you are still on the fence and want to know more about. Well, you have come the right place.
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Swipe to Blast App Review
Here are some quick details about the app:
- Full Name: Swipe To Blast: flop
- Developer: Kelsey Siar
- Availability: Worldwide (Early Access)
- User Reviews: Not available
What Is Swipe to Blast?
Swipe to Blast is one of many apps that fall under the genre of number merge apps. The game features similar gameplay mechanics to Bubble Merge 2048. Instead of merging blocks featuring multiples of 2 until you reach 2048, you will need to merge three numbered blocks starting from 1. Merging blocks that have the number 1 in it will turn it in a single block with the number 2. If you merge blocks into a certain number, you will earn virtual currency. You can redeem your earnings as either credits for PayPal or Amazon gift cards.
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How Swipe to Blast Works
The Swipe to Blast app is currently available as an Early Access release on the Google Play Store. This app has amassed more than a million downloads on the platform.
There are certain permissions you have to be aware of before you download it. This app will require some permission to read your phone’s status and even read and delete contents from your phone’s storage. These do not seem like app permission that you will normally get from games. So be mindful of these app permissions should you choose to try it out.
As I have mentioned in the start of this section, this app is available as an Early Access release. In case you did not know, an Early Access release is basically a way for developer to release their apps on an official platform for testing. Any game that is under that kind of release structure are still in development. Apps like these will often be riddled with bugs so it is not recommended for casual users to download.
Please be aware that all of the data regarding the usage of an Early Access build will be shared with the developers. Though most other apps also do that sort of thing. If you choose to stay as Early Access tester, any updates released during this period will often include new features or exclude older ones. That is often the nature of games under development. You can easily exit the Early Access program through a tab under the “Manage apps & device” setting on the Google Play Store.
Unlike other apps on the platform, only the developers can see any reviews made for the Early Access releases on the Play Store. Other platforms like Steam do show reviews for those kinds of releases. This could possibly be one factor why a lot of these money earning apps are released in this manner.
Swiper, More Swiping
Merge games come in a lot of forms, but the gameplay stays mostly intact. Some of the popular games in this genre often use different types of items that you can merge. Though others will often stick with the classic grid featuring numbered blocks. The latter often lack the more polished graphics of its former counterparts. But it is better to go simple than not. It is also a great way of getting casual users.
The gameplay for merge games do not really change as more iterations make their way onto an online platform. There may be some slight differences depending on which one you play. Some games only require two similar items in order to merge and turn into a more souped up version of it. While others require at least three.
If the merge game requires at least three similar items, all you need to do is to swipe one item in order to switch places with a different item. Usually that item is blocking the former item’s way in order to merge with two of its friends. (Is friends an okay term? I honestly do not know) The formations that you can have your friends in are either horizontal, vertical or L-shaped. When three similar friends are next to each other in any of those formations, they will evolve into a single but more powerful friend.
In merge games that have different items, there is often an endpoint to how much you can merge. In Bubble Merge 2048, you can only merge blocks until it becomes a block numbered 2048. But in Swipe to Blast, it is a little bit different.
Blasting Off for the First Time
I have reviewed some other games, namely Puppy Town and Cutie Garden, where you merge animals into other animals. Puppy Town deals with dog breeds, Cutie Garden has a wider variety of animals. But neither of them are, in any way shape or form, accurate representations of evolution. Bubble Merge 2048 and Swipe to Blast, on the other hand, chose numbers instead of animals. Instead of biology, they somehow chose math. (There is also Mood to Merge, which uses emojis.)
In Bubble Merge 2048, you have to merge three blocks feature multiples of 2 in order to reach 2048. The sequence for that is 2 → 4 → 8 → 16 → 32 → 64 → 128 → 256 → 512 → 1024 → 2048. In Swipe to Blast, you add instead of multiply. You start of with 1 and end with who knows how many. Three blocks are needed in order for the blocks to merge.
The screenshot above is what you will most likely see when you play the game. It is a 5×5 grid with a random assortment of number blocks. At the top of the screen is your score and gem balance. Below that are three power-ups, your virtual currency balance and health bar.
A health bar? Yes, a health bar. If you fail to merge the number block you have swiped, your health bar will deplete by one point. If all of the health points are depleted, then the game is over. But you can actually refill your health bar if you successfully merge three blocks into one.
Blasting Off Again (But It’s Really Just About the Rest of the Game)
Below the grid is a progress tracker of sorts. If you have merged your blocks into one featuring the number in tracker, you will be rewarded with virtual currency. Usually, the amounts you get early on are about 100+. But as you progress, the amounts will lessen. That is called diminishing returns.
In order to get your rewards, you have to click on the button that says “Collect.” If you click that, you are most certainly going to get an ad. Unskippable ads are usually a big part of money earning games like Swipe to Blast. But they also exist on places like YouTube. You probably know the feeling of having to watch an unskippable ad that is somehow two minutes long. It is agony. Fortunately, the length of video ads they show in-game are usually a minute long, give or take a few seconds if the close (X) button has a timer.
As I have mentioned earlier, there are power-ups you can use to ease the gameplay a bit. If you are somehow stuck, these power-ups will help you in a pinch. The first one is a hammer. This power-up will remove the block you click. So if there are any blocks blocking your way, you can just use that power-up.
The next power-up is the switch. Using this power will not remove any blocks, but will switch a block’s place with another block that’s farther away.
The last power-up is the plus one. If you use this power-up, you can level up one of the blocks on the grid. So if you are missing just one block before you can merge, this power-up comes in handy.
You can get those power-ups by either using gems or by watching an ad. Speaking of gems. You can earn gems whenever you have merge blocks to certain number. Usually it is the number before the one in the progress tracker. You will usually get 10 gets every time though you can watch an ad to get one or even 10 more gems.
There are not a lot of other systems inside this game. And that somehow surprises me. Not a lot of games stick with just a few system. They always go big. Luckily, there are no other things you need to think about while playing this game. So that is a plus to this app.
Is Swipe to Blast Legit? Does It Pay?
I have a reviewed a lot of apps on this website. And usually they advertise very large amounts that you can supposedly earn from using them. Only a few have actual proof of payment. But those apps only give out a few dollars instead of hundreds of it. The Swipe to Blast app gives off the vibe that it actually can not reward its user with money.
Let us talk about what you can earn. Surprisingly, this app only has one amount you can withdraw. And it is $1000. Most of the apps I have reviewed usually start from around $100 and the amounts get larger from there. PayPal is the usual place that these apps will send the money to. You will often receive any payments in your PayPal fairly quickly, especially if those transactions are legit. Emphasis on if.
One other way that some of the apps use are Amazon gift cards. They often have those hundred dollar amounts for gift cards. But some start from as low as $1. In Swipe to Blast, you can only redeem your earnings when you have reached the $1000 threshold. And you can supposedly redeem them as either credits via PayPal or an Amazon gift card.
The quest to getting to $1000 is going to be hard. Like I mentioned, the amounts you will get for reaching the number in the progress tracker will be in diminishing returns. It will give reward you large amounts at the start but will dwindle down as you progress. But it is possible to reach that amount.
Once you redeem it though, things can get tricky. Since this game is in Early Access, bugs will be plentiful. It will manifest in different ways. I saw one video of somebody reaching $1000 in the game. When they tried to withdraw, the $1000 she already had was deducted to their amount. But the game also deducted an additional 800 that they do not have. So they basically have a negative balance. How is that fair?
Even if that does not happen to you, you will likely be subjected to a pending order when you withdraw. It will usually take a few days for that order to finalize. And the game will somehow require you to watch a certain number of ads. It is not worth it, at all.
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Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Decent gameplay
- Decent graphics
- Useful power-ups
Cons:
- Lots of grammatical errors
- Designed could be a bit better
- Glitchy
- No actual way of getting rewards
Conclusion
I do not recommend the Swipe to Blast app. Aside from the glitches that come from an Early Access build, this game does not feel well-designed. It feels like they just looked at the competition and just did what they did. They did not put that much effort into the accompanying text inside the game.
And what more can I say about the money earning aspect? If a game advertises an amount that is too good to be true, it probably is. The glitches that I mentioned previously are part of it. But I have not seen much proof that people who played this game have actually received the amount they withdrew.
There are better, more well-designed merge games out there. You should try those instead of this one.
And that is it for my review of the Swipe to Blast app. If you enjoyed this review, please share it your friends and loved ones.
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