A game like Cookie Run: Kingdom will leave Candy Crush in the dust. Cookie Run: Kingdom is a free mobile game that recently came out and it is about as sweet as a chocolate chip cookie. Cookie Run: Kingdom is a RPG (role-playing game) and city builder hybrid game that allows players to express their creativity while building their kingdoms and fighting evil with a team of cookies. Players collect different types of cookies with different purposes in the fighting aspect of the game. They work together in teams of five to make the evil cookies crumble. Some cookies have healer abilities while others are defensive cookies. Either way, these cookies have recently become a hit game on both IOS and Android phones. 

In the storyline, players fight evil cookies and try to restore peace to the cookie kingdoms. When fighting the evil cookie empire you use the cookie characters you collect in the gacha, which is basically a part of the game where you gamble your gems to try and get different types of cookies. The cookies you get in the gacha depend on their rarity. Although there is a main storyline you can also branch out into different adventures, which gives players an opportunity to have more freedom in the game.

There are many different cookies in Cookie Run: Kingdom which means each player has their own personal favorite. Cookies such as Princess Cookie and Strawberry Crepe Cookie can appeal to people who enjoy cuter aesthetics while cookies like Red Velvet Cookie and Black Raisin Cookie can appeal to the edgier crowd.  

“I like Pancake Cookie because of the combination of flying squirrel and adorableness for acorn jellies,” sophomore Erin Tanouye said. “Just the energy he radiates is cute.”

Senior Cassandra Au said she has a love for Sea Fairy Cookie because “she carries my game.”

These cookies are not your average shortbread cookies. They have an animated type of look and have different skills. Take Gingerbrave for example; he looks like a gingerbread man and has a charge ability, where he charges at enemies to damage them. 

The game has recently had a lot of popularity even though it came out in late January of 2021. People have different opinions on why the game has skyrocketed in popularity over the last couple of months. Sophomore Matthew Leung believes that social media has a big part in the game’s recent popularity. For example, Cookie Run players use TikTok to share battle tips and design inspiration. 

Sophomore Jordyn Haramura says that “it has a wide variety of characters which gives people with different play styles the ability to play and the cuter style helps to target different audiences.”

Sophomore Theo Nguyen says that it is popular because of its “racially diverse characters… [and the] company has a positive relationship with its community and PoC hype.” If you look at certain cookies then you can tell that they are not all the same skin tone and they represent different skin tones. 

In Cookie Run: Kingdom, you can also add your friends and play together. When you add a friend in Cookie Run: Kingdom you can see their kingdom, play against their cookies and send each other gifts. When you reach a certain level, you can also join guilds. Guilds are groups when you and your friends can join so you can play in groups. You can name your guilds and level them up as well. 

“The name of my guild is the Rowdy Ruff Boys,” Sophomore Raegan Vidad says. 

In the end, this game is just as sweet as it is challenging. No matter if your taste is building a community or defending it, players of this game can grab a glass of milk and enjoy the sweet effects of working in a world that will give them a sugar high but without the calories.