Small Town Murders: Match 3 Game Reviews

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It might be time to leave soon, update. Ok, I’m on level 228 and I’ve been there for over a week. Even if I get all the reds early there are never enough blues coming down to complete. The power-ups won’t help since they can be used only at the beginning. I too like a challenge but I’m stuck on this level and getting a bit frustrated. I try to get through without using power ups and made it this far with only using them on one previous level. This level seems impossible even with all three power ups. I skip the story so I won’t comment on that. It’s a good game but if I don’t progress soon I may delete.

Nice game. Nice game except not enough boosters. Also I was on level 5 and the game all of a sudden sent me back to level without warning. It is hard enough to get boosters without going back another level and all of the boosters end up gone. The other problem is you earn a max of 150 points if you win but lose 900 points when you want to continue and so you points disappear quickly. Plus, I find that I get to one or two obstacles to get 2-4 times in a row and then run out of points. Was a fun game to play now it is just frustrating. I am about to say goodbye to what could be a fun and relaxing game. On level 924, Have been playing this game for 6 days. Refuse to put any more money into it. It is very frustrating to try and get 86 blue squares and 18 pink cameras with 29 moves and it takes to long to get more lives. Game has gone down hill since I started. I am on level 3985 for the last nine days and used multiple boosters without a win. It looks like a setup so you can’t win without spending a great deal of money. Hope this game is reset to be more fair without breaking the bank. How about a fair chance to win!!!

A measure of pleasure and pain. This is your typical match three game with power ups and a story overlay. You’ve seen them before. Home remodeling, garden remodeling, etc. I have played all these games because they are fun. At first. Then after they’ve hooked you the puzzles become so aggravatingly difficult that you are tempted to throw your phone across the room. This one at least is unique as the murder cases are interesting and fun to solve. But this ended for me today as I tried to get through one puzzle that took me 42 tries to solve and never did. I deleted the game. On the other games similar in design I have paid to play but I can’t do that anymore. They have designed it purposely to get you to pay more and more and more. Well I refuse. A message to developers. If you want people to continue to play your games, make some adjustments. Instead of 900 coins for 5 more moves, make it 100. When what you receive for solving a puzzle is usually around 60 coins, this would make it easier to play. Eliminate the number of lives you are giving. If you don’t solve a puzzle after 5 lives you can’t play until you earn the 5 lives back. And again you feel like crushing your phone. Instead of a free game, let us solve the first murder, the pay to buy the game. 5.99 or something like that. Until a major change is made I can’t play this game. But it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because I can’t afford to get a new phone.

Needs something. This is a great and super addicting game! I made it to level 100 in 1 day. But I wish I could know what I would have to do in that level (Fill carpet, Get light bulbs, etc.) So I could choose a power up before I waste a life. Also could there be some way to earn power-ups a little more easily? Like maybe collect 400 apples, set off 5 bombs at once, etc. When you complete one of these you could earn some sort of points that you can spend of different power ups. This would help a lot of players like me out. I’ve been stuck on the same level for days now, I only have 50 coins, and I used all my power-ups on this level! Plus I’m not willing to spend money on this game because currently I’m trying to save my money to buy a new video game. Please take adding these features into consideration.

Fun, but sometimes near impossible to complete. Download this game for the crime aspect of it, and it seemed fun to follow a storyline and relax playing an easy match three. The stories are pretty good. But there are points where you are on a roll and winning the match three games one after the other, and then you hit a wall. You use all your hints and your cheats and your credits and then you have nothing. I refuse to spend money on a game that I downloaded for fun and relaxation, so it literally takes me a week sometimes to complete a single puzzle. I am sure the programmers do this on purpose so you spend money, and then know that you’re getting so frustrated when you don’t, they actually give you a break so you “win” and advance on just to keep you hooked in hopes you dish out money at some point. I’ve deleted this game six times already because it’s been more stress than fun, yet I reinstall it because it’s so addictive. I have just spent nine days trying to complete one match three game and it’s going to be deleted again shortly. And probably reinstalled once I get over my frustration. You win, Rovio. You win.

Loved the graphics and storyline. I’ve downloaded and deleted this little game twice now... So torn because I do really like this game. It’s done well and at first the game play is fun. However, I soon because frustrated and discouraged. Even after paying for several packages, it’s so very difficult if not nearly impossible to ‘win’ and move forward with the story. Really too bad. I would have played and paid a reasonable amount to enjoy this game for a very long time, but apparently, maintaining a loyal and happy clientele isn’t as important to this group as pulling as much money as possible even if for a short time until the client get frustrated and angry and deletes again. I’m not going to download it again...

Don’t waste your time or money!. After almost three years of playing this game, I’m done. There are too many issues, errors in game play, and NO responsiveness on the part of developers when contacted. I’ve spent a quite a bit of my hard-earned money on in-app purchases, but never again will I spend another penny in a Rovio game. Sad, because this game was one of my favorites - but it has only gotten progressively worse with each new “update,” and a recent error for which I paid dearly with no response to two support emails (with the exception of a generic “The Rovio Support Team will try to get back to you as soon as possible!” autoresponse email. Obviously, making money is more important than customer service or quality of game. Don’t waste your time or money! It’s not worth it!

Frustration. While this game is entertaining enough I have an issue with glitches. The game will refuse to load a retry and just spin. Usually just before the 5th attempt but at other times as well. Also, there are times when the extra try buttons won’t function. Especially the watch video one. There will be times that an extra move or two will allow me to advance only to have the button not work. This doesn’t happen on my other games so I can only believe that there are these glitches in the game itself. I may just quit playing for awhile especially since the present murder mystery is interminable with not much plot.

Updates Sometime Cause More Problems Than They Solve. This is a fun and funny game. Updates can take a while - I can work with that - but sometimes they cause other problems. They can send you back to re-play a case or - and this is what is currently happening to me - cause the game to crash mid-play. I have plenty of memory left, but have gone so far as to delete apps to make more room, in case that was the issue. I have rebooted a multiple times. Nothing seems to fix this new bug, which only appeared after the most recent update. I hate to walk away from a game I have enjoyed so much, but if there’s no fix soon, I’ll be forced to. It’s a shame, because the graphics, stories, characters, and puzzles are all quality.

Fun yet oft frustrating. I love match-3 games such as these with a fun story that progresses as you win levels. This one is exceptionally fun as I am a true crime fanatic si the murder aspect is cool even if unrealistic. I love the characters, especially Mrs M who runs the B&B. But I have spent waaaay too much money on this already! As you progress, some of the levels are truly impossible with the number of moves provided. I understand that game-makers deserve to make a living so I am not expecting to routinely play for free. But after spending more than the price of an xbox game, I would expect the levels to be fair. Sometimes I’ll be frustrated enough to ride a level out for days and days, refusing to pay coins for 5 measly moves when it is obvious to me that at least 15 more moved are needed. Then, after holding out, all the stars align and I’ll win the level with 5+ moves to spare! I used to be a programmer so I know much of winning and losing is in the hands of the developers, it’s just frustrating when a level is obviously impossible. Kind of makes me want to move on. So, after spending what I believe is a fair amount, I will get to where I only play these types of games once a day. I’ll have several games like this progressing at the sane time so I always have something to play. So, I DO RECOMMEND, just be sure you are able to exercise self-control or you’ll find yourself in the poorhouse!

Ridiculously hard. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on this game. Constantly being left w no moves, but the last move you need to win is RIGHT THERE. I’m at the end of the game, which means I keep waiting on cases to come out. One came out yesterday. What WAS a fun, challenging game became a greedy money pit OVERNIGHT. In the last case you put out, you say they’re “easy levels” but cannot be passed without using boosters and extra moves, and I’m DONE. I deleted it. This last case is stupidly and ridiculously hard and I refuse to spend ANY more money w Rovio because the greedy a holes KNOW what they did. The “easy levels” in this case you posted yesterday are FAR HARDER than the red “super hard level!” in previous cases. This is ridiculous. When people get to this point, where the developers are basically EXTORTING you for money to pass the level, they delete the app. Which is exactly what I did. I was spending far too much on this game, so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Enjoy the $$$ you made from me, there won’t be any more coming. Greedy jerks.

Frustrating. This game can be fun but I really hate it when you’re playing and make your next move but instead it was asking you if you wanted to play on for 900 coins. I can’t tell you how many times I have hit this button accidentally. It should have a double check button on it. “Do you want to spend the 900 coins right now” or something like that. I have thrown away more coins by accident then I’ve actually gotten to spend. Please make this change. Update: another time I just wasted 900 coins because I tapped on wrong button. Now it doesn’t even let you know you’re on your last 3 turns. If this doesn’t get changed where it asks you to verify you want to spend coins I’m going to delete. It happened again. It takes coins when I hit it accidentally so I don’t have coins when I can actually use them. This really makes me not want to actually purchase coins - time to rethink this developers.

Fun Game. I really like this game. It’s super fun, I’m almost done with the first case. There are a few things that I wish were different. One is the points and coins per level. I wish there was a bonus for unused moves, like extra coins after the level. I also wish the points scored during the level actually meant something. As far as I can tell they don’t, but I just started the game so I’m not sure yet. The last thing I wish was different is that in other games similar to this one I can play a bunch of levels and save up stars for doing the tasks. That way when I wanted to go faster through the story without stopping I could, instead of having to stop and do the task then watch the scene. Especially when I have unlimited lives I like to breeze through levels. That’s just me being picky though. The game is seriously a lot of fun and I do like the story line so far!

Was great- new mechanics make it worthless to play. This was a really fun game. Loved playing through the stories. There was good variation between the amount of points you needed to get via 3-in-a-row matching for each clue to progress. I truly enjoyed it, and played nearly every day. The change in mechanics to now having to compete multiple 3-in-row games to complete get even one clue (each reveal of a word in a clue requires first 20 pts for a game, then increases to, sometimes, 200 pts per word in a clue reveal) before you get the entire clue. It’s boring and by the time I get one clue I’ve totally lost track of the storyline- which I really enjoyed. Plus the balance of normal, hard, and super hard matching games is completely off, meaning sometimes completing one clue can take days to weeks (some absolutely need you to just wait 2 days to not play to get the “welcome back” bonus aids. Unless you enjoy only playing 3-in-a-ros match games, this is no longer worth playing. Especially since there are dozens of other 3-in-a-row match games the are fun and interesting. Im finding one of those.

Gets worse with each update. I’m on level 2544, so I’ve been at it for a while. What’s fun is the campy storyline and the romantic tension between the main characters. A goofy blend of Murder She Wrote and Mulder & Scully. The problem is that they keep adding new game elements that are unpredictable, unintuitive and just make no sense. The latest are balloons and... hedgehogs, for some reason. They’re ruining the game and are completely unnecessary. It’s also good to know that I’m not the only person who noticed the airplanes were nerfed as well. The non-game elements - the case scoreboard and the weird reactions - are a recent addition and miss the mark as well. At its heart, the game is fun, but it’s getting worse with each update. Would be nice for devs to just focus on what’s already working instead of constantly trying to innovate and fail.

Love it! But when I get stuck... help!. I love this game! On the 5th case. Fun, engaging with the plot, brings it up several notches from just a matching game. And the facial expressions of the characters crack me up! Especially Mrs. M, and I think I wince at Noras look of sad disappointment when I lose. Lol. One question for the maker: I used to have someone to help me on levels I’d get stuck on. But now I can sit on the same level for a week, it gets really frustrating when I run out of money and bonuses and still haven’t passed the level. Is there any way to skip a level. I adore this game, I think about the case between plays! But can’t keep getting stuck for long periods of time. Please let me know if there is any way to skip a level. I don’t want to stop playing, but idle I can get past a level...

Hitting a wall here.... Ok, so I’ve never loved this type of game, but this one was kinda fun. Until the levels became impossible out of no where. I’ve had this game for a while and I’m on level 267. I’ve managed to pass the previous levels by using power ups or paying 900 coins, but it’s taking forever to get through case four. Challenging is fine, but through the past cases, I had been doing okay and I just suddenly couldn’t pass the levels anymore. Especially when I go from one or two tries to 10 or 20 tries. It’s annoying to just hit a wall and fail constantly with basically one tile left to put carpet on or one more light bulb to collect, so I don’t really no what to do because I’m not going to pay for more power ups and this has just turned frustrating. Oh and one last small thing, I just find it funny that Nora is supposed to be a right Sherlock Holmes and she just does not pay attention to the speech of other characters (like Mr Hunt basically said that Mrs Higgins was his wife and she just did not care) I just find that a little amusing

Love this different game. I’m a true crime fanatic so finding this game was great. It’s so much better than remodeling some house or hotel or something or other. However. I’m not a fan of how long it takes to get through a story. You have really, really hard levels that take days to beat and you get 1 or 2 lines of dialogue. That is super frustrating. Also, I want options to give me more lives. I get the option once or twice a day to watch an ad but I usually just get a booster (not the good ones that you can use in the level, but the ones you have to choose before the level starts). Speaking of boosters....we need to be able to get more of them. I’m also disappointed that there were no offers for newbies to buy. Every other game I’ve ever played offers packs to new players. Why doesn’t this one?

Expensive. First, some of the grammar in this makes me cringe. I have found soooo many errors. Nora doesn’t need to loan a blouse she needs to borrow a blouse. And “you seen this?” makes my skin crawl. Now back to the worst part. The creators of this game only want to make money, not have a huge following. It costs $900 to play on and you only win $50 per most games so it is literally impossible to play this for any length of time without having to buy expensive packages. I blew through $21,000 in coins (cost me $35) after only playing this for 1 hour. I told myself when that money is gone, I’m done. So now the story isn’t done and I’ll never know who did it and why but I don’t even care. This game can be more expensive than a car payment at that rate and it just isn’t worth it to me. You could make it easier and cheaper and have fans for life but instead you’d rather have a few fans paying a lot for a little while. So I’m out you greedy losers. Good riddance!

Love, but two problems. Ok, I am ADDICTED to this game! I love the story, I love Nora and Mike’s dialogue, the graphics are great, and the puzzles are super fun! I just have two problems. One, the time it takes for your lives to refill. You get five lives and each one takes half an hour to refill. If you’re out of all of your lives, that adds up to TWO AND A HALF HOURS so you can play again! I get that there’s a refill option, but that costs coins and often, I don’t have enough coins to refill it. And I never buy coins cause I hate blowing my money on a mobile game. Two, I recent played a round and put all of the beginning power ups on since I’d been saving them up for a while. I realized that the level wasn’t worth playing since it looked too hard, even with all of those power ups, so I backed out of the level without touching it. The thing is, while the game let me keep that life, it didn’t give me back the power ups I hadn’t used! And that’s really annoying to me. Other than these flaws, I adore this game! I’ve clocked over 49 hours on it since I downloaded it! So, if you shorten the time it takes to get lives back to say, 15, maybe 20 minutes, I will definitely change my rating to five stars!

Love the story line. I enjoy this game and it is one of a few I buy extra coins. I love the on going storyline of Nora and Mike, as well as the murder mysteries. I am not overly thrilled with the “Town Secrets”. I didn’t mind playing as I was waiting for a new murder storyline, but I have been playing the Secrets Game now for months. It takes forever to advance in the game. I get bored and frustrated with it. Are more murder mystery storylines being developed? The last murder mystery story left us with a cliff hanger. You can’t leave us hanging with Nora maybe being pregnant! I hope more stories are being developed so I no longer have to play Town Secrets.

Adorable Nora solves mysteries!. If you love finding clues to solve a good mystery set in a small-town atmosphere with engaging characters, this game is for you! So cute & so deadly, too: Nora is a mystery writer who has come here to clear her writer’s block, & she’s landed smack dab in a murder mystery right away—& is lending a hand to the hunky deputy who’s working the case! Another great thing about this game: The creators are engaging, too! On FB, be sure to like the game & participate, because it’s a lot of FUN to WIN, too! I play a couple other very well-known games, & I’ve never WON anything—until “Small Town Murders”! It’s a cute notebook with character stickers to track clues, etc. I’m so excited to win & to receive such a nifty prize! And the best part? They picked several other winners, too, which shows how much they want to engage with their fans & build loyalty & trust.🥰👏❤️ Thank you, “Small Town Murders”, for creating such a fun, stress-free game that makes its players feel SPECIAL!

Great game. Needs a huge, but easy fix.. We’ll executed game. Great art. Great writing. The mysteries are fun, the gameplay is challenging and, yes, sometimes frustrating. But if it was easy, it wouldn’t be as satisfying when you do win. One huge flaw is when you’re asked to continue. I’ve accidentally hit “continue” at least 20 times, spending huge chunks of my hard-earned gold. There’s no “are you sure?” prompt (but there sure is when you decide to quit), so when you make the mistake of accidentally touching the screen or thinking you’re making another move when your moves have expired, you’re screwed. You lose your gold. No undos. It happens so often, I’m beginning to think it’s a deliberate way to get us to spend more money. Fix that issue and this is easily a 5-star game.

On the verge. I am once again reaching out to you in regards to your game. I really do enjoy playing it because it is different than most of the others I have played. A few weeks back I was playing and all of a sudden it went backwards several levels. I reset my device thinking that might help but it didn’t. You even sent out a warning that this might happen and you gave me 24 hours of uninterrupted playing time. I am not going to sit here for 24 hours straight and play this game. Now it has done it again. I was working on case #6 and it took me back to case #4. I don’t want to play these over again so I am going to gracefully bow out and maybe try again later. I really did enjoy your game.

Eye Strain :/. I’m not very far in, but so far this seems like a fun game. The art is nice, and the pacing hits the sweet spot where there’s enough of a story to be interesting, but not so much dialogue that I get bored. Basically, I’ve enjoyed most of it, but i have had a problem with some of the gameplay. in the levels with “drop the item to the bottom of the grid” goals, there are flashing arrows at the bottom of the board. I don’t normally have problems with flashing, but these are very uncomfortable to have in my eyeline and make me dizzy and unable to concentrate. So far I’ve just been trying to rush through those levels as quickly as I can, but I wish there was a way to at least turn off the flashing from the arrows.

ADORE the story, levels too hard.. I absolutely LOVE this game and it’s story and needless to say it’s become a slight obsession lol. But I wish the levels were easier. I love the story and I want to read more of it (graphicnovelwhen). But that’s hard to do when it takes you a week to finish half a scene. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve started to find other sources just to read the rest of the story. This is really disappointing to me because the difficulty just drives people away. There’s also the fact that there hasn’t been a new case in MONTHS. I love this game and the characters, and I feel that they’ll always hold a special place in my heart. I hope that I can see their stories come to a proper end. But I feel that can only happen if you make the levels something that doesn’t make people quit after having to try 50 times a week.

Fun, but…. I absolutely loved this game when I first started playing. I’m a fan of match 3 games and this one reeled me in with its story line, puns (sometimes corny) and clever writing. I’ve dropped some change on this game but I’m at the point that I won’t spend any $$ on it. I’m at level 1200+ and it’s obvious that some of the levels (not the “hard” or “super-hard”) are impossible in the number of moves provided. In fact, the “easy” levels are often more difficult that the “hard” levels. The planes were on target at the lower levels, but I’ve recently noticed that they strike targets that aren’t necessary to complete a level. They’re absolutely worthless now. Also, I’ve noticed that combos that should give a power up when combined often don’t now - that’s cheating btw. I don’t expect to get to play forever for free, so I’ll patiently wait out the time until my lives are restored and play other games that actually operate like they should. I don’t mind staying at the same level for days now, when I used to drop $ to get lives because there was actually a chance to advance. Fix these problems and I won’t mind spending the occasional $ here and there.

Small Town Murders. FIVE STARS!! I’ve only had this game for two or three days and I’m almost done with the first case! It’s so exciting that I play along and guess the murderer, put the clues together, all while having fun! This app is amazing! Nothing to fix really. It’s almost perfect! You get rewards easily, no ads, and no in-game purchases beside the coins. Either way you can choose to buy them. I usually get the levels first try though. Some are harder than others but once you get to higher levels and get rewards from events, challenges, etc., the game goes pretty smooth. I would definitely recommend this game! FIVE STAR REVIEW!! P.S. This game doesn’t make me feel as lonely when I’m not playing with my friends! And I’m a very lonely kid. 😂🥺😢

Paywall. Stuck on level 108 for a week. Seems unlikely without A LOT OF power ups. I don’t have any and I ain’t buying any. I think these guys are affiliated with Angry Birds ....Dream Blast is a nightmare . Same problem. WILL BE DELETING SOON IF I GO STAGNANT. Too bad... the USED TO be kinda relaxing. But who needs the stress. Edit: so I did keep on playing and I beat the game which was fine. Even spent some on my hard earned cash on it! I made it in the world tournaments and did great… But after your update, it reset my progress! I’ve now made it back up to level 425 but I’ve hit it with everything I have including several of the strongest power ups and combos ! I’ve hit it with three combo strobe light balls, three times in a row and still no success! I played that level for an hour and a half straight, non-stop going back at it again and again and again, and still can’t beat it! That’s ridiculous. I paid one time to get where I was, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna pay again! Thanks for the awesome update that reset my data…

A con. This was a fun game. I enjoyed it despite that every 5 seconds you had to do some task to get on to the next thing. But then after solving the first case eventually and coming to the second case here came level 90. A dead body in the library. A level made to be impossible to get through without obviously investing a good amount of money. Oh I tried getting through it. For about 4 days and trying at least 20 times. Finally a few minutes ago I gave up and deleted your game. The only moves you would allow were obviously wasted moves using up chances with accomplishing anything. Maybe others don’t mind being stuck with having to, not wanting to invest in the game but not me. I realised that even if I had invested the money to finally get through that level the same situation would just keep occurring. NO THANK YOU.

Was enjoyable until level 214. I was thoroughly enjoying this game until I made it to level 214. Up until that point I had spent some money purchasing power ups, etc. approximately $5. Once I hit level 214 I ran into a brick wall. Blew through my power ups and spent another $20. After more than 50 attempts and having used up all the power ups that I purchased, I am still stuck on level 214. I understand the need for the developers to force in game purchases because they are in it for the money. However, to have a level that is impossible to clear even with purchased power ups is downright wrong and I consider it robbery. I will be deleting this app and advise all to not even think about downloading.

The Writing Sets It Apart. Yes. There are plenty of games with the same concept. Play the connect game and move thru the story. Except there’s no designing an old mansion or garden so this one relies on the story. Luckily for them and for you, it delivers. The mysteries are actually interesting and make you actually want to keep playing and the levels don’t ask any more of you than similar games would. The only thing keeping me from 5 stars is I feel like there too many levels (2-3) spent on getting one piece of dialogue whereas in other parts of the game you get one clue/exchange per level. I’m ok with occasional usage of that tactic but I feel like it’s deployed a little too much in this game. Doesn’t make me want to stop playing, though. And I still recommend it.

Mystery game with no mystery. I have played through four of the mysteries on this game in order to give it a fighting chance, but I regret to inform you that the mystery element of this game really falls short. I was hoping as the game would progress that there would be some cases that would zig and zag, but instead the story is mostly cases where the killer is obvious, and the main character relies far too much on their gut than on actual evidence. The match three element can be gained from 100 other games, though it is presented competently here and the levels generally seem fair and have appropriate increases in difficulty, even if the fundamental game element has been ported over. That said, because the stories are not engaging, you’ll not find the game very engrossing unless you enjoy stories where the bad guy is literally who you first guess every single time.

Developer greed carries the day! Again!!. I really wanted to like this game! The concept is great and the graphics are awesome. However, as in most games on the net the developers greed ruins whatever fun you might have in the game. When you advance in the game the odds of you moving forward depends on one thing, and ONE thing only,........money!! And how much you’re willing to throw away! The “Match Three” becomes impossible to complete without throwing your money down the drain! Trust me, I’ve spent plenty on the game in order to complete the match three portion of said game. But it’s never enough for the greedy developers. They throw recorded ads into the mix and they make plenty off of advertising, but they still make it impossible to finish a game without spending prolifically! Save your money! We’re just making these guys rich and they’re laughing at us all the way to the bank. Another sad commentary on the times we live in! Why? Why do these developers get to be so stinking greedy! I’m at level 208 and you CANNOT win unless you keep spending money! And I’ve spent over $100 trying but they just keep demanding more!! Do not waste your money!! I promise you will be wasting every single penny!!

Long time player is now no longer playing. I have been playing this game for years. I am a player that would buy power ups and coins; someone that would be considered a “whale”. The updates that have been implemented over the last several months have made the game less fun for the users and leaned into the profitability of a game for the creator. The latest update has pushed my loyalty over the edge. Instead of allowing the player to lose a power up incrementally, it is now all or nothing. This has made the game more difficult without allowing a player to play without micro transactions that make the game less fun. I suggested this game to many people, and will no longer do so. I will also no longer play this game and give the creators money; even though I happily gave them some earlier.

Was fun but.... So I really do enjoy the stories, but they are making the game entirely too hard to the point it is unfair. Their power ups rarely activate when you need them causing you to miss by one and have to spend coins that become a necessity later on. Now they’ve started giving you fewer magnifying glasses per round for the bonus stories, so that matched with the fact that you might spend a couple of days on one level makes it more frustrating than fun. You write them and they tell you the game is fair and can be passed without spending money, which is technically true, but I’d rather enjoy myself than pull out my hair while playing a game. Oh, and if you do happen to spend the 900 coins to continue a level be prepared to keep dropping 900 coins because you’ve opened Pandora’s box once they know you’ll spend them once. Also, if you write them this in an email, be ready to be ignore. Just put it back the way it was already.

Easy addicting fun!. So far, my experience with this game has been AMAZING!! I went in not expecting much but goodness, I got hooked so quick. I love the graphics and the writing put into this. The humor is great, the gameplay is exciting and challenging with the power ups actually being quite useful. For me, the difficulty feels balanced enough to keep me hooked. It’s been great going through cases and I’m actually so excited to see how the story progresses. I just love the characters a lot, especially Mike! He has great banter with Nora. <3 Overall, fun game with a solid story, beautiful visuals and engaging game mechanics. Kudos to the team and their efforts!!

Disappointed. I really liked this game in the beginning, but now the levels have become way too hard to beat, and for 5 extra moves, you have to spend 900 coins. That is way too much to spend for the rewards received for beating levels. I also really cannot stand the mystery story breaks between cases! You have to play an enormous numbers of levels to reveal one part of a mystery storyline. That’s just ridiculous!! BORING! I’m very close to deleting this game! The reason I play games is to relax, not to create additional stress. Review #2: Again I’m complaining about the mystery stories/secret town stories! I’m at the point where I don’t believe any new cases will ever be developed. This has been going on FOREVER with no new cases. 4 weeks will pass and another 4 weeks will begin. This is a perpetual loop! Not very intriguing at all. Please bring new cases!!!

Pay to play. The game is enjoyable and fun to play. However, there are extremely hard levels that are not indicated as hard so it takes you by surprise. Not fair when you could use boosters that are saved for the hard or super hard levels. I don’t like the fact that they give rare boosters for completing levels and instead offer free time. Free time to play does not help when you can’t pass a difficult level. You are left with having to repeatedly play the same difficult level multiple times. Unless you are very good at match 3 or choose to pay to play, it will take forever to finish the game because the boosters are rare and once you reach case 4, the levels become extremely hard. Ironic that nearly every time, you’re left with coming up short on just one play to clear the level. Extremely frustrating.

Love game but frustrated!. I played this game years ago but when my device quit working I forgot about it. I started again on my new iPad and it was just as much fun as I remembered…until I got stuck on a level in the Secrets story with 6 cats that won’t drop down. I believe it is impossible to pass this one without spending money to get the power up to trade 2 pieces and move the cats over to the middle section. What’s more is that I did just that and thought I had put it behind me and now I have the exact puzzle again! Grrrr! 🤨 I messaged them about this problem and they awarded me 1000 coins but gave no solution. I really enjoy this otherwise but it’s pointless if I can’t beat the level. Wish there was an option to skip certain puzzles.

Very frustrating. I have been playing this game for what seems like forever. It’s very addicting. The graphics are great, and you almost feel a personal attachment to the characters. There have been programming “modifications” to the game’s responses to the player’s moves. There are paper airplanes that are a power up. When activated, they used to go exactly where you would have wanted them to: to the most advantageous block on the board. Now, they’re practically useless. They typically will go to the least beneficial spot, doing the player virtually no good at all. There are also many times that a move should produce a power up of some sort, but they do not. The blocks you matched up go away as usual, but no power up award for the move. I know they make money when players purchase various packages that are offered, but come on. At lease be fair about the programming in the game play. I play many, many match three games, and 100% of the others reward you with the best possible result for spending a power up. This one is the only one that does not. It sometimes takes several days to clear one level, with most of the games ending with the solution being only one move away. Then they try to sell you a package that contained a variety of power ups and coins that can be used to purchase more game play. I would quit playing completely if it weren’t for the cleverly, sometimes corny story lines, and the attachment to the characters.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this game!. I wrote my review for this game a couple weeks ago, yet it’s never posted, so I’m writing it again! This is my favorite game EVER! Yes, it’s match-3 and there are a ton of those out there, but the characters and their stories make this game special. That is why I play. I love the characters and the story visuals. Some of the levels can be challenging, but nothing I haven’t been able to overcome yet. I have played STM every single day since downloading it in 2020, and I cannot say that about any other game I have on my phone. No other game has held my interest this long. It’s nice to see Rovio branch out to something that doesn’t involve birds or pigs. I hope they keep the cases coming a LONG time!! ❤️

Fun but definitely could be WAY better. Like the characters and the story lines BUT someone needs to put a “Confirm” choice when spending coins to add 5 more turns or 5 more lives. I can’t tell you how many THOUSANDS of coins I have used (I’m thinking between 15k and 20k!) when I didn’t mean to select the option. If that “button” is where you just so happen to have your finger when it pops up... well you spent coins whether you wanted to or not. Some (actually a lot) of the levels are close to impossible and the amount of coins you need to spend to get extra lives or levels is quite excessive. 900 coins to keep playing? 500 would be more like it. Ok game but could be way better if someone put the customers first.

Scene 1431. I give you 5 stars because you have a wonderful game, but I fear I will stop playing it as I cannot get past Game 1431. I have been playing this scene for 3 days and have wasted most of my hard earned tools. If the green bar on the middle column was moved up one so the suitcases had a place to escape I would have a chance. Otherwise, I have a better chance of winning the lottery than having everything I would need to fall in place. But if you read my review, play this game. It has a decent storyline and is challenging!

No more content at level four??. I was set back to a previous case with the recent update, and when I finally finished that case again, I got a message that essentially said, “stay tuned for more cases” and I can’t even play anymore levels. I know there are more cases - I was on a later one. My husband also plays and he’s many cases beyond where I am. This is a good game, but very difficult and frustrating at times. The lack of power ups except for when you win a level or when you hit a certain level means that if you’re stuck on a level, there really isn’t anything you can do besides play it over and over or pay for power ups. Now to have it lock up as if there’s no more content when I know there is - that’s very disheartening.

Your updates just aren’t worth it. This is the second time you have apologized because a “wonderful” new update sets people back into scenes they have played before but how about putting us back two cases!! Somehow getting 24 hours of free play is suppose to make us happy?!?!? Sure I’m on the same level I was but this time you have thrown me back 2 crimes. So now I have to work the puzzles again and yet I already know the story lines and who is guilty. We are not stupid. There is a way to update games without messing up YOUR customers game play. I don’t see what you think you are gaining except making “clients” which is what we are or maybe customers is the better word —ANGRY and Frustrated with your company. I believe that most people who play games like these will search out other games by the same company. If you continue messing up people’s playing you will lose any future and probably current clients. I really liked this game but since you have messed up my games twice now I don’t think I’ll be looking for any other games by your company.

Frustrated and annoyed beyond belief!. Wanted to give no stars!! Agree with everything AlleyDee wrote. This is the 2nd time I too have been a victim of the “wonderful” update that sets me so far back again and having to replay all those levels ONCE again!! Why is it that you can’t do your update and put us back at the exact same level we were at? And these games should be for pleasure and relaxing with to discover The Who done its! But instead I’m so aggravated and angry about being put back into the position AGAIN! Having to replay the same two crime chapters? Well I won’t. Get your programming act together and stop peeving off your customers! Far too many other games out there to choose from than to spend days replaying the upteen same scenarios again. Free 24 hrs?? Please!! Pathetic. See ya! Game deleted!

Deleting at the end of Case 4. This game is so much fun! I love the storyline. But I refuse to spend more money on this to enjoy it than I’m comfortable with. I’m okay spending money here and there, but every two puzzles on case 4 is IMPOSSIBLE to beat without spending money. I’m sad to be deleting it, but I’m not wasting money constantly on a game. I work hard for what I make and have other things to pay for than advancing in a game. You need to be careful not to make levels impossible. You might have people here and there paying for it, but most will delete the game entirely. It’s a fine balance and right now this game isn’t balanced.

Okay. This game is just okay right now. On level 72. I like the story line and how it progresses. But already some things just don’t make sense, how can you offer power ups before a level but you have no idea what you’re doing in a level ?! It doesn’t tell you anything therefore I don’t know if I need a specific power up or anything. Also with the carpet levels they are crazy. How can’t the paper airplane give carpet tiles but bombs or rockets do not give carpet tiles? Like how on earth??? Every move you make should uncover carpet instead the piece attached to the carpet has to be touching it then it opens up more carpet. So basically it becomes impossible and you’re just wasting time getting gate pieces because you literally can’t reach the carpet to start unfolding it, it’s ridiculous. I guess if another day this is not fixed or it’s not letting me through then I’ll just delete and move on.

Difficult, frustrating, fun, and funny!. I’m on level 2000-something. I mention that just to say that obviously I’m pretty hooked. I have paid to play more than I’d like to admit, too. But the challenge of the games and the puns imbedded in the stories keep me coming back! Clever writing, sometimes corny. Not extremely accurate crime solving, but, hey, it’s a game! I have noticed two big changes from when I started playing, though: 1) the airplanes used to be downright sentient, I swear. They would strike at exactly the place where you needed them to strike. And now they hit targets that aren’t even necessary to advance in the level, they hit spots not even on the “to-do” list! Obviously a programming gimmick to encourage spending money. I am constantly left just ONE MOVE SHORT! That can’t be a coincidence. 2)Also I’ve noticed several times I have made a move that should have created a power-up, but it didn’t. That’s called “cheating” IRL, frankly. But other than that, no real complaints. Like I said, I’m hooked, so I power through without the power-ups. Just hoping to make the developers aware: those changes are noticed and not appreciated! Please put it back the way it was— with the airplanes hitting targets that actually matter and power-ups actually being created after you make a move that creates them. That’d be great! Thanks!

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Too expensive.. This would be a great game if it wasn’t so expensive to play. The story line is fun and keeps you engaged but some levels can only be passed by throwing money at them or replaying them 10 or more times. It’s just frustrating! Before too long you will find yourself just paying to get to the next part of the story and I’m just left feeling it’s a cash grab. I’m deleting to save my bank balance.

The is a murderer device. The game is bad it takes your money and it kills you😵 it killed my mum

Just crashes now. I really enjoyed this game til the recent update. Now the game just crashes all the time. Very disappointing.

Cheaters!. Have been stuck on level 212 for a day. Looked at YouTube to find tips and five that the level prudish people got is WAY easier than what I've been given. Obviously a ploy to get people to spend money, there is no way you can beat the level at the difficulty of Been given compared to the videos on YouTube! Absolute thumbs down!!!

Nett. Was enjoying this game for a long time now I find I can’t pass level 4373 because I don’t have real money to spend is it no longer a free game

Cuts out. As soon as I finish a game it cuts out then takes me back in and I have to do game again.

Used to be great!. This game really was excellent BUT... once I caught up to the developers with all the cases there’s nothing left to do but these ‘secret reports’ in which you have to play literally dozens of hard to super hard games for one little clue, and then you play dozens more for the next clue. By then you’ve forgotten what the first clue was. Then, to make it even LESS interesting, you repeat the same annoying levels, over and over again. I might come back in a year or two in the hope that you might have written some more cases, until then goodbye.

Stupid game. Nothing like the description all you do is play puzzles

HORRIBLE 😤. This game is so bad because there are way to many puzzles! You barely get to do any crimes and every time you want to move you have to to these boring puzzles! There are also way to many instructions and you don’t even get to do it your self. I think that this is a work in progress tans can be better with a lot of changes.

Do you have to be nine on the Apple version. Isn’t people worried about the fact is this game is rated nine on the Apple version and it’s about murder

Fantastic!!!. Best game ever!!!

Finally another puzzler with a good storyline!. Absolutely loving Small Town Murders! Lovely graphics, an intriguing storyline, interesting characters with great character development and it’s a different twist on the “build something” type of match 3 games. The game play is fun too, reminds me of Candy Crush. Despite what some others have said, I’m up to my 4th or 5th mystery and have not spent any (real) money. I do get stuck on a level every now and then, but if it was too easy where would the challenge be! You can watch an ad to get a bonus, but otherwise there aren’t any! My only complaint is sometimes there’s a slight delay when I run out of turns and I accidentally purchase 5 more, but that’s pretty minor. To the developers, great job, I love it!

Once a really fun game.. Don’t waste your time and money if you’re new to the game. The story gets to an interesting point and then it’s just filler. The developers have apparently abandoned this particular project.

NowISeeYou. Basically, this game is perfect, because it’s the easiest matching game, some levels even you needa match once, then boom, level finished, I’m giving this a five star because, it’s very smooth and it’s very easy I recommend this for starters. Thank your very much for looking at my report.

Juglets. Love the game but encountered problems with star rewards and 3 more won’t work when tapped.

Sad. I loved this game until I came to a level that REQUIRES you pay to get through it. It saddens me as I really enjoyed playing. Pity you don’t have any teams to join and play with others 😕

Fabulous Game!!. Right from the start I have enjoyed this game. It is great fun, well written and has awesome graphics. Highly recommended. Thank you!!

Terrible. You have to play the side game for every single step in the "game" and they require $$$ to play. Terribly slow and boring because of this

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Level 2877. Love this match 3 puzzle game but taking away one star until you put a fail safe on the “keep playing”. I’ve lost so many gold coins when my over zealous finger accidentally hits it & I can’t reverse it. Cmon guys. You can fix it!

Please fix. Addicted but will delete if constant crashing is not fixed.

Another Match Game. Great artwork and story line, but in the end just another matching game. App developers are running out of ideas.

Game just crashes/freezes white screen after update. Please fix.

Level 518. Level révéler secret je réussi au moin 15 fois il y a 40 photos inexistantes bug?

Cool. Best game ever

Merci pour tout. Merci pour tout

Frustration. On level 3888 and it is absolutely impossible to pass .. please explain what is the point of putting in a level that a player cannot complete .. completely frustrating

Small town. I think there should be less of the matching games and more crime scenes CUT TO THE CHASE and talk to the suspects ( awesome game though )

Time to delete this game. As mentioned by another review, level 3888 is impossible, which is were I’m stuck also and this isn’t even a “hard level” Was enjoying this game for awhile, with some levels “hard levels or Super Hard level”, however further in on the higher levels, there is no rhyme or reason to differentiate any difficulty levels. Some regular levels are harder then the so call hard levels. I’ve been stuck on this one regular level (not a hard level) for 3 days and a few 1 hour free lives, and I’ve yet to even come close to getting the requirement objectives for this level. I get maybe 1 of the 77 tiles required. And I don’t even have any moves, it’s continually shuffling because there are zero moves. I will be deleting this game as its just frustrating and no longer any fun.

Update stops play. Once there is an update the game forces it before you can keep playing so better hope you never try to play on a plane or driving and don’t have wifi or data.

Great. Absolutely love the game. Story is excellent. Game is not too difficult. Well done creators!

Worst game. This game cheats - when you make an airplane ( or whatever it is ), it goes and hits something that you aren’t even trying to collect. It makes you lose on purpose. Last move - one final colour to hit and two planes go and hit bricks. Brilliant. Small Town Murder..... Your game sucks.

Some games are very frustrating. I’ve really enjoyed this game however some of the games are ridiculously difficult due to insufficient moves to accomplish or the need to wait for a disco ball with another helper at exactly the right place to connect them. Sometimes it takes days and I ask myself why I’m playing this irritating game at all. Oddly it’s not the super hard games that are undo-able but seemingly simple ones. Please just keep this game enjoyable and a feel good experience! It makes you feel like a failure when in reality it’s about the odds and the endurance you need to play for days till the odds are right it will work out! Too bad as the graphics, storyline and match 3 style are really good...

Way too many micro transactions. This game stopped being enjoyable as every sentence needed a game . I didn’t even finish the first case. Waste of time as it takes over one hour to complete ONE CASE!!

Update updirt. Really fun game, I was on the rocker wedding case just after an update, after the update the game kept lagging till it would finally crash. This would happen over and over till I finally had enough, deleted the game- weeks later started playing from scratch and the lag and crashing still continues....shame!

Fun game but.... Fun game but lags and crashes all the time. Fix it!

Entertaining. This game entertains with a story. Fun.

Levels too hard. Loved this game at first. A little long to get to the end of each murder but oh well. Now I’m on level 1261 and don’t know how many times I’ve tried it. You get 16 turns to get 80 pictures and 27 chains twice. Don’t mind hard levels but How ridiculous is that. Game is not fun anymore so I’m deleting. Would have given more stars at beginning.

Misleading name!!. It’s just a form of candy crush. The name gets you into downloading and once you open it, it’s a candy crush with a long story line.

Look here!. If your thinking this is a version of candy crush your wrong it’s just a game and this is entirely different.

Keeps crashing!. Fun game but it keeps lagging and crashing. Boots me out of game. Infuriating. Will be deleting if not fixed very soon.

Dead Game…Don’t Play - Developers have “Left Town”. Send in the tumbleweeds. The developers have abandoned this game. No point in investing your time on this.

Samll town game. This game is amazing I have not had to keep putting money on this game like all the others this is a great way to. In joy when you get to the. Right spot of the game it does not stop you from having to start over it keep you playing on and on

Anglais. Présentation en français mais le jeu est tout en anglais Très déçu

Got too hard. I was enjoying this as a great relaxer but it got impossible to do. Literally 30-40 attempts for days on 1 game. Story line was cute but now the game is so hard, you don't even remember the storyline by the time you luck out to complete a match. Being that hard didn't make me want to buy more, it made me quit and move on.

Fun. Really fun 😊 it’s not to hard or not to easy so perfect 👌🏼

Fun but not. The game is interesting for sure but need to update servers or something It lags times out and crashes! Lose many levels!

Don’t make purchases in this game. This game is definitely the traditional match 3 games with bombs arrows and globes. The story lines make it interesting. But absolutely don’t make any purchases, I purchased a small package and was then charged $10 USD, when I went to customer care they said they didn’t see it on their end, I sent them my statement and they told me to contact Apple... they will charge you and not return it or even honor the amount charged in the game.

It’s Okay... Full levels for mundane story tasks like picking up your keys. Started off weird because I kind of assumed the lady was actually a Crime Scene Investigator but.. she’s not.. she just inserts herself into the crimes. Yikes. At least the puzzle animations are quick.

Bug. J’adore votre jeu, mais je suis rendue au niveau 877 et le jeu s’arrête au milieu du tableau. Ça fait plus d’une semaine que j’essaie. J’ai même réinstallé le jeu. Aidez-moi !!!

It makes you do the smallest things. Everything is immediately puzzles 🧩 in the end it’s a bad version of candy crush I like candy crush cause it tells there will be puzzles all the time but with this it’s a really terrible game if you like bad puzzles this is for you

Why does it get too hard. I was totally enjoying this game, hoping finally to have found a match three that would let me keep going to the end. But no! Like so many before it, suddenly I could no longer complete the match three and had to bail out. Why is it necessary to do this, Ms/Mr Programming Person? Doesn’t add a stitch of fun to the game, just makes it really really annoying!

Can’t get enough!. Great game. Well written, funny story lines and characters. Fun to play. The ads are acceptable and not too intrusive. Thanks!

This is addictive. It’s also fun!

Please fix. Was a great game but now constantly lagging and crashing. Very disappointing.

Love. I really love this game

Great. What a good game great storyline not too hard

Played 2835. I played 2835 almost 100 times, still can’t pass. What’s going on?

Power ups. Sometimes the planes do the stupidest move. Sometimes they go to the completely wrong place so you can finish the game in the last move.

One of the most horrid games I’ve ever touched.. This game is soooooo bad. I get into the game, and of course it’s another take on the whole “complete levels to get stuff” game, and yet again, really poorly made. The character design is some of the worst I’ve seen in a mobile game before, the text-to-text dialogue could not be less entertaining, the structure of the environments? Don’t even get me started. I HAD TO COMPLETE AN ENTIRE LEVEL TO WALK OVER TO A WINDOW. That’s pushing the limits of this type of game beyond the line. I understand if you like this type of game, go ahead and play it, but believe me. There are better constructed games just like this out there.

Why so difficult right away. The game looked interesting to got it. The concept was great but not even through second murder case and already bogged down. Why couldn’t you keep it a little easier for longer so it could be enjoyed instead of becoming frustrating.

Langue. Bonjour, j’adore ce jeu et j’aime suivre l’histoire des enquêtes. Ils ont toujours été en français mais depuis l’enquête 27 ils sont en anglais et je n’ai pas trouvé comment revenir au français. Merci de votre aide.

Can’t win. Like most of these games after you get to a certain level, you can’t win. Oh, you can get lucky with the right drops and pass the level but it becomes like pulling the handle on a slot machine. No skill involved. I do like the storylines as you play along. Five stars for storyline, zero for playability for an average of three stars.

Not bad. The games not bad but it gets boring

Story is done. No story updates for 4 mos. Poor ending. Tip to get past hard levels. Stop playing the game for 2 weeks. When you go back you are given multiple, timed bonus boosters that will allow you to clear a lot of levels in an hour.

Love the game fix the bugs please. I really enjoy this game but it has started crashing again. Please do another update and fix the crashing problem.

Keeps freezing. The game is fun but it starts to freeze up if I get through a few levels. Very frustrating

Till death do we part. Fun so far

Glitchy. I like the storyline, but find the matching impossible at times. Now the bonus ads won’t open. Months after my original review, this is happening AGAIN!

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Fun until crashing all the time. Have been playing for awhile. Puzzles aren’t too hard, but still challenging and story line is quite good. The dynamic between characters is fun. I am now on level 691 and as soon as I click to play, the game completely crashes, kicks me out. I have tried several times in the past two days but I get the same response. I clicked app support in the App Store but the website is no longer available. I searched Rovio’s website for some help but could find nothing. Very disappointed.....

Frustrated by update. I’m in the frustrated group. I’m raising a 2 year old and a mom. I was enjoying this game when able to play. I’m far enough along the levels are harder to pass. I feel the recent update has taken away from the characters personalities. Plus the update put me backwards a case or two. I do not like struggling to pass levels that I had completed in the past. This has caused my interest to drain. Looks like I’m going to have to delete this one now. Too bad, I really enjoyed it initially.

Good game.. however. I love this game but. It’s not 100% like the trailers I saw. There are way to many levels. Now you may say.. “ this makes it more difficult” it does but not in a fun way. I’d rather do a level every time I move on to a different case and not every time I wanna find a clue. If it was one time you had to do a puzzle level to find a clue. Ok I can live with it. But since that’s not the case it makes it pretty slow. However I do still like the game.

People are too impatient. I have seen a lot of reviews on here about some of these levels are pay to win or that they can’t be beat without perks x, y and z. Sometimes you get a bad setup or you don’t see the right move to be able to finish it, but this game isn’t like most match games it takes time to think of every move on certain levels whereas other levels you can just steam roll. Take your time and enjoy it.

Anybody Home?. Hey Rovio!! Used to love this game, after you finally started up again after like Chapter One’s ending ended the game for awhile! Great characters, cute storyline, strategic game play! Then came lag time between screens, which is still here, and now, for about a year, it’s more of a competition than story. Same boards over and over again, fewer characters, no follow through, and to top it off, some of the “Super Hard Levels” are much easier to win than standard boards!! It’s getting boring! If repeating boards, (no development creativity there), don’t you have time to start it up again with developing new story lines?? C’mon people! Get it together!

Love it but needs changes. Addicted to this game. Great story line, awesome graphics, love the characters. However, it simply designed to ensure you spend money. Wish the developers would change the “play 900 coins” button to have a second “are you sure you want to spend” button before it happens. Way too many time I have tapped that button while in a game. Also… 900 coins is way too much. Need to back off a bit. Will miss this game… it is fun.

900+ levels in, however.... The game is very tight on giving rewards. There’s barely any coins rewarded for beating a level, and the power ups are super scarce. It took me over 900 levels, but I’m about to the point where I can’t continue. I know the point is to bottle neck so you’ll buy currency, but not everyone can spend on games. I use the ads (which give the company revenue), buy there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get a good reward. Getting to the point where you can only win by using power ups...I think I’m almost at the point where I’m done playing.

Entertaining. It’s a great game! I’ve been playing it for about a week now and I love that it doesn’t make you spend your own money or drown you in ads. My only problem is that I’m nearing level 300 and I’m starting to have to repeat levels a lot. These levels are taking me so long to beat that I’m going to start losing interest in the game. It’s not even the hard levels that I’m getting stuck on. Hope this trend doesn’t continue because I enjoy the story portion of the game.

Any excuse to coerce you to spend money.. If you love finding clues to solve mysteries, look elsewhere. But if you want to spend real money on fake money so you can keep playing an “easy level” match 3 game, this could be for you. The “mysteries” are a story overlay. The game walks you through them as Nora the Novelist tells Deputy Mike how to do police work. (Someone should. The barrel-chested dude is almost as dumb as a box of rocks.) You never really examine a clue or make a decision— that’s Nora’s job. You just keep playing match 3 games that seem designed to get you to spend coins so you “have to” buy coins. Oh, and I LOVE it when the “watch ad for 3 more turns” button doesn’t work.

Fun but annoying.. So I’ve been playing this game for a while and I have loved it. Sadly, after writing this, I’ll be deleting it. -after every update I’ve been sent back on cases and it’s really irritating.I don’t get excited about what will happen after I win. I’ve already played this case out, I don’t get excited and have a huge drive to want to play this game since I already know how the case will end. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to replay cases and it’s really irritating. It’s been fun but it’s not exciting and “new” anymore.

Love this Game! But no support for problems.... I have been playing this game for months! Yes, I've spent money... A matter of fact a lot of money. Because it's so much fun... However with the last update I lost everything.... It made me start the game over. I contacted apple and I've sent messages to the support team with no response at all! Which means I've lost $1,000 and they don't care! Not worth it if they won't even respond to problems or help a player fix them since it was their update that caused the problem... Also linking the game to Facebook didn't save anything either.... So play realizing that you won't get help if something goes wrong...

Good concept but could be great!. I’m at level 100 and have been stuck for days. ( too early in the game for me to start spending money) I agree with several of the reviewers, there should be some way to earn coins or boosters, or get a daily bonus etc. also would be nice to be able to explore the town or locations on your own. I thought I would be able to “solve” the murders myself, would be nice to even just have questions to try to guess the answers instead of just reading their script. But I still enjoy it, good graphics and storyline. Wish I could beat level 100 though!!

Good game. Liking the game thus far. Good story line and good character development. As for another post in regard to level 34, perhaps that player missed some crucial moves that would have made the difference or was just unlucky because I passed that level first try with no power ups. Maybe I was just lucky but anyway that level was not an issue. If these games were not a challenge then we would not play. I’m having fun so far and hopefully you dear readers will as well.

Love the puzzles both quite an odd theme…. Does no one else find it alarming that fourteen murders have occurred in this town over the span of what appears to be several weeks? Why has the chief of police not been fired? Why has the mayor not called on the state or federal government to intervene? It’s concerning to me from a safety standpoint that the town is relying on one seemingly incompetent deputy and a freelance journalist with no authority to interrogate suspects to solve these heinous crimes. Not a single suspect was read their Miranda rights. A decent defense lawyer would have a field day with these mishaps.

Cool game but.... When I found this game and starting playing, I couldn’t get enough of it. It was fun, the cases were interesting. I didn’t have any issues whatsoever until now. And it’s just a small one. But it seems like the visual effects when using power-ups have changed. With all the “twirling” and “spinning” when you use a power-up, it’s a bit over the top for someone who struggles with vertigo. It was better before that change. Other than than, I love the game! But I may have to stop playing because of that issue I have.

Great Game, Even Better Support!. I have been enjoying this game since June of last year. I’m a mystery nut, and this game just hits all my buttons. Yesterday I pulled up my game and it asked me to log in. After logging in I got a message asking which game I wanted to use, the current game or load game. Anyway, after selecting both and deleting then reinstalling the game several times, I had to accept the fact that my game was gone. All the levels and story I had progressed through, gone. I looked up support on the developers website and sent a message relaying what had happened. Ten hours later I got an email telling me I was good to go. Pulled up the game, and OMG!, I was good to go. The utter relief I feel is probably something I should talk to my therapist about, and I wanted to tell everyone how awesome the support team is.

Fun, but too many extremely hard levels. Edited: Have reduced to 1 star. After playing game for a couple years, been stuck on same level for weeks now. Not even close to solving. No longer fun. This isn’t the first time, just the last. Too many hard levels. Just frustrating. Have deleted game to save my sanity. When you aren’t stuck on yet another level for days on end, this is a nice game. Storyline is decent. Graphics good. But too few chances to win power ups or coins. Sure they want you to spend money to buy, and I have on a few occasions. But when you use them they rarely work where needed, so why spend money?

Fun game.. Like all of these type of games it’s designed to get you to spend money so there are a lot of”super hard” levels (almost every other level). But you can get through without spending money. You just have to play each level multiple times until it finally “randomly” drops the shapes you need to finish the level. The story is engaging and the heroine isn’t terribly annoying. However I have reached a level where 18 items need to be “touched” 3 times each and you only have 28 moves. So, it will cheat to get you to spend money. Oh well. Have to delete the game after the 10th case. When you have to play an “easy” level 50 times to move forward, even using all the possible bonuses, they’re cheating even more than I can tolerate.

Candy Crush rip off. I’ve found myself pretty disappointed with this game. I listen to the “Serial Killers” podcast, & there was an advertisement for this game that made it seem like something different & interesting. However, upon downloading it, I found that it is simply a Candy Crush rip off with a “murder mystery” storyline between levels. Overall, I’m not impressed, the storylines are pretty corny. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s definitely not original or worth downloading, in my humble opinion. But, if you really like Candy Crush, & you’re looking for something similar, this might be your game.

Not happy!!. I was really liking this game until I got into the 2nd murder story! It has become so difficult to pass each game that I ran out of coins to use. And the number of coins you get when winning a game is very small!! I would gladly paid for coins once in a while but with the difficulty factor I had to quit!! Played my last game at lest 10-15 times and didn’t come close to finishing it. Make it a little easier and add to the number of coins received.... especially if the player wins on the first try....which is next to impossible in the 2nd episode!!

Great! But could be better. I’m on level 66, and I love this game! But it’s very frustrating that if you have extra moves left, or more power ups on the board after you’ve “completed” the level that they aren’t used towards extra coins. Especially when on some levels you’ll have like 20 lives left, or a board full of power ups, and you always just get the same amount of coins. App developers, please maybe fix this? Thank you! Other than that great game, love the story line.

Rip off. I used to absolutely loved this game and didn’t mind making purchases in the game. With no warning and pretty early in the game after spending real money to have to complete levels - they just stopped making new levels. I contacted support to see if they were going to continue and I was told they were. I checked and checked - still no levels. I then contacted support 5 more times and they didn’t respond - they could have had the courtesy to at least let me know This is not the only game ROVIO makes that has done this. Don’t waste your time and/or money

Secrets levels WAY out of whack. I have spent more money on this game than usual, just because it was interesting and fun. But once you’ve solved all the crimes and are waiting while the next is being programmed, the game becomes nearly impossible. 3 out of four (yes, I started keeping track) games are either “hard” or “super hard.” Even with a full platter of Mrs. M’s boosts in addition to every one of your own, certain levels can’t be beat. If your goal is to slow us down, Rovio, you’ve succeeded. I will no longer waste my time or money playing while you develop a new case.

Updates are a rip off to an otherwise good game. I was to the point of having all of the mysteries solved, had to play the book tour games for weeks waiting on new levels. I loved this game and was so excited! Then, when the new update came out, I get kicked back almost to the beginning of the last mystery?!!! I spend real money on coins, way more than I should. And after spending all of that money, they kick me back that far and all I get is “oops, sorry” and a day of infinite lives? Since update came out I have spent well OVER $50 and still not back to level I was at. Need to rethink whether I want to continue playing if all the progress I put time and real money into can just disappear with an “oops”.

Infuriatingly incompetent storyline. Seriously? This is all you got dudes? The dialogue… uhh! Brain-smoothening The characters don’t have any archetype at all. They’re like mindless beings there, infatuated with you and let you do whatever you want. It’s stupid to say the very least. I deleted it because it was too easy. Pandering to the dull wanting to feel intelligent for a bit, but really? I found things around the room before it lets you even reach that level and be able to “find them”. Mind numbingly neurotic. I AM a published author. We don’t get special treatment. Not everyone knows our name. More people know me through my associates and connections or my music. This game is for children. I could give this to my VERY autistic niece and even she would give it back because she’s too smart for it and would think it’s dumb. She’s 10 with the mindset of a 2 year old. She is completely nonverbal, just screeches. Half the time she thinks is a fun game to slither around on the floor and bites people. But even she would find this insulting. If I could give it no stars or negative I would. Try harder.

Not Fun. This game is fun at first but after 100 levels or so it becomes very, very difficult. There is often little difference between regular puzzles and hard or super hard ones. The game is also VERY stingy with rewards with the worst game balance of all the “pay to win” games I’ve played. When it gets to the point where there are only one or two match-3 matches possible in a puzzle it’s time to move on. Only obsession would keep one going beyond that point. The character development is also very weak, you could really not care less if one of the main characters would get bumped off. Not good.

Still needs work. I played the original version of this game and really like the improvements made to this version. However, there are still glitches in the game which is why I can’t give a 5 star rating. On several occasions I have beat the level only to have the app close. When I go back in I have to replay the level as it doesn’t recognize the win. I like the added free bonus points if you watch an ad but the ads don’t always load causing the game to close instead. Kudos for great story lines. But even given that I no longer play the game and removed it from my devise. Better luck to the designers with the next rendition.

Some levels are too difficult - not enough bonuses. I really enjoyed the game and the story in the beginning but as time has gone on, the levels are simply too difficult without bonuses. In other Match 3 games I can watch an ad to earn bonuses, or gather bonuses each day. I can’t seem to figure out any way to earn bonuses in Small Town Murders, other than by opening a box once a day. I would love for someone to create a Match 3 game with a “relaxed mode” where we can enjoy the story line but not work quite so hard to complete the levels.

We like murder, not monotony!. Ok so this game is interesting enough. Levels similar to candy crush make it really addicting. If you like true crime, the storylines will keep you interested to a certain point. I’m at level 289 and I think I have to call it quits. The blatant disrespect of police and crime scene procedure by the main character is so under my skin it’s not even funny. I understand it’s a game but I can’t take it anymore. Like another reviewer said the writing is corny but tolerable. It gets annoying the further into the game you get. I don’t want to have to beat 5 levels just to open a frickin drawer.

Great Match 3 game. I’ve been playing match 3 games for a long time, and this is my favorite. I don’t know why people complain about how hard it is. I’ve finished all 30 cases and never paid for anything and rarely use the bonuses. They usually put out a new case every 4 weeks, but they haven’t the last 2 cycles, so, that’s disappointing. Hopefully, we get a new one soon.

Great for fans of cozy mysteries!. I downloaded this game because I saw an instagram ad and someone said they loved it, and I can honestly say I agree! It plays just like a cozy mystery and the levels are difficult without feeling impossible! The storylines are interesting and the characters are very cute and have actual chemistry with one another. I definitely recommend!

Game-halting bug on Level 781. This gets two stars because I have enjoyed the game so far, but this type of bug is simply unacceptable, especially from a game that wants users to make in-app purchases. On level 781 (colored doughnuts appear for the first time), combining power ups causes the level to freeze. Gameplay just stops. Even moving a bomb can cause a freeze. All I can do is quit the level and try again. Since this latest update has been out for a week and another user has also complained about the ‘reset storyline’ happening twice - only once(?) for me - I don’t know if I’ll be keeping the game. Buying more coins is unlikely. The developer needs to do some basic testing

Best match game. Great game. Wish there was a way to convert my level of play to my new phone. You’d think Facebook connect or customer ID would do it. Strategy is pretty close to still happening at level 2200…. Mysteries to solve are cute and the turn and burn through the levels is continuous. They are super stingy with its boosters and usually they place the boosters at game beginning, where another booster would already be matched… but it’s still worth it.😊

What happened to the story line?. I have loved playing this game for over a year. They story was engaging and it was a joy to play. However, after thousands of rounds. The story simply ends and you see thrown in this side story with endless hard round and even “normal” rounds that are impossible to beat. I spend way more than I like to admit on these games. I am starting to feel you have earned your last dollar from me. I used to love this game (5 solid Stars$. Now I feel I am just being milked. Sad

Cute Game, Needs Work. I’m on level 552 and every time I start to play, the app closes in the middle of play and I lose a life. I had that happen once or twice on previous levels, but now it is consistently preventing me from playing. I have tried restarting, deleting other apps, etc. I hope that the developers fix this issue ASAP. Otherwise, this is a fun game. Some levels are harder than others, but if you have some patience and luck you can get through them. The story adds something extra to your typical gravity game. Overall, good for a free app. I haven’t spent any money on extras and find it to be accessible.

Surprisingly Unique. I play a lot of games with this exact same puzzle style, seems to be the latest mobile game trend. However, instead of needing to play a certain amount of levels to earn enough stars or whatever..you just have to play once. And this specific one is more story based than any other, with a thrilling set of mysteries to unravel! I love it!

Moonchild. I’m at level 2200 plus and I agree with a lot of the reviewers. They make it so frustrating that you want to throw your device. BUT….. one thing I’ve experienced, eventually the algorithms and you get every power up and you win the level. I’ve not spent any money on the game and personally I wouldn’t waste my money games. The developers will get this message if all players stop spending money or just delete the game and find another game to play, until that one reaches the really difficult levels. LOL.

Very frustrating. First off let me say I love, love this game. The reason for the 3 stars however is because once you get up to around level 245 or there about the levels get really hard and you can’t clear most of the levels unless you have boosters which means spending more money which I refuse to do. Of course they do that on purpose for the money. I understand they have to make money but come on! I’ve just gotten to the point where it gets soo frustrating I quit playing all together. It’s a shame because it is a great, fun game!

I’m a fan, but—. Would you please ditch the extra hard levels? I have loved this game for several reasons, and one of those reasons is that the puzzles can be challenging, but not so challenging that you get stuck for literally weeks at a time. It’s why I’ve ended up deleting a ton of puzzle games. It feels like beating your head against a while to keep failing the same level endlessly. Hard is hard enough. Extra hard? No thanks. I love the storylines, by the way. That’s the other thing annoying about getting stuck. You can’t progress the story.

I could do without the match-3. I was looking for a murder mystery game where I might actually be able to use logic and skill to solve crimes . That is not this game. I will say, however, I’ve enjoyed the stories! If this were a book series, I’d buy it. The only reason I tolerate the match-3 puzzles (some of which you have to play three in a row for ONE section of story) is because I love the stories so much. I will add the levels are getting a little impossible to clear. If that continues, I’ll have to say goodbye to Nora and Mike and hope I can find a good book to fill it’s void.

Go back to the old story format. I’ve played this game for several years. It’s been one of my favorites; however, when I reached what was apparently the last level, they went to a format where you have to win several levels to remove a block to reveal part of a clue. You have to remove over 15 blocks just to get the info/clue that you used to get by winning one level. If you like the story aspect of the game, it now takes forever to accomplish.

Needs something. This is a fun game. Only complaint I have is that some levels are quite challenging. I don’t mind the challenge but in don't like spending days on levels that are keeping me from progressing. What this game needs is daily rewards or a way to earn free boosters so you don’t get stuck for days trying to get past a level. I’ve been stuck on level 118 for nearly a week now and I find myself not opening the game as much because I’ve gotten discouraged enough to not want to try. Add this and I think you would have a winner and I’d change my review to 5 stars!

Make it possible advance. Unless you are willing to spend money, plan on spending a lot of time stuck. There are no options for watching ads (annoying but I get that the developers need to get paid). I am simply not willing to use grocery money to advance in a game. Options would be nice for folks on a budget. The game was pretty fun until the puzzles became impossible to win. I am always one move away with not a possibility anywhere to be found. Uninstalling the game. There are plenty more out there.

I hate pay to win games!. Specifically level 53, not even that far in the game and i can already tell its a pay to win game. There’s absolutely no way you can beat that level unless you pay. Ive used all the power ups that are in this game and 3 hours of unlimited lives and could not beat it. I play over 12 of this match 3 games and this one is by far the most ridiculous one and developers make it very obvious its pay to win. I know y’all reading this wont believe me or think im exaggerating, just download the game and you’ll see. It’s super unfair. If i could give 0 stars i 100% will.

Hooked. I really don’t like match three games. I chose this game because of the stories, which are really well written. I have worked through many of them. The puzzles do get harder in the match three, which is annoying but I just have to see it to the end of each story! One thing that gets me though is that the diner had it’s grand opening with a view of town and then moved across the street from the police station?

Almost the perfect game. Storylines , GREAT! Game style - GREAT! About the only thing lacking is if you don’t have enough points to complete a level , you can’t earn more with watching ads , so sometimes on the very hard levels , it can take many days to get 900 points to continue if you are Almost defeating a level , but a few hits away. This happens often on the hard levels . If they offered ads to earn things to help defeat levels , I’d give it 5 stars ⭐️.

Can’t beat levels. Yep....gave a good review about a week or two ago because I was already on level 800 and although challenging they were possible to beat without spending money......nope they are like the others....I want to go back to the day that you could actually buy a product and have fun playing because it was possible. I get to level 819 and in 17 moves...they want you to color 73 squares and break 10 acorns which require 2 times to be hit....even with power ups...I could not win....and I have run out of the pay more to play money, 5 more moves for 900. So like all the other games I am out and I do not recommend this game....unless you have money to keep flushing down the toilet.

Not worth playing. The concept is intriguing. To solve a mystery, you have to play a match game to get a clue. Thats ok, except the clues are lame. I played until level 26, when I was supposed to “gossip with Mrs Musgrove.” The clue I got after matching was “what should I say, where do I begin?” That was it! That was supposedly the clue. She said NOTHING. That isn’t a clue! I decided to play one more level. Went back to gossip, and she said 1-2 sentences and it stopped again. I am not playing 5 or 50 more match ups to get one complete paragraph. Lame! Another thing is that you can’t keep playing match 3’s to store some stars, to then go and get a bunch of clues. You are forced to play match-clue-match-clue. Nope. We are done here....

Love it!!. I loveee this game it’s so addicting & you guys have got a couple of $1.99 out of me hahaha the onlyyyyy thing I’d recommend is when we finish a level and we still have bombs or the planes it should carry over to the next level because it’s hard getting those kind of level ups that all other than that great and I love it , just wish it was easier to get like the level up things like the bombs and stuff

Downward spiral. I downloaded this game when it was brand new. And I loved it. But the longer it’s been around, the more money hungry the developers seem to have become. I get that the game is supposed to be challenging, and I’m not saying I expect them to let the player win. But stacking the odds against the player to such an extreme that you HAVE to buy power ups in order to win is dirty, and that’s the kind of game it’s become. 20-23 moves to clear a board full of blockers that take at least 4 moves per object? That’s wrong. And it’s a constant thing now. So for that reason, I’m deleting the game. Fix that sketchy stuff and I’ll be back, because I really did love this game.