Recently, the “Cookie Run” franchise released its first 3D installment in “Cookie Run: Tower of Adventures,” often abbreviated to “CRTOA.” While it has some great elements, it falls short in many others.

The gameplay is similar to a lot of popular modern RPGs, most closely resembling, according to many, “Brawl Stars.” This works well with the “Cookie Run” characters, many of which are designed to be fighters despite originating from a platforming game. 

The level designs are good and have a good difficulty increase per level and world. The puzzles are also challenging enough to make you think, yet easy enough so you don’t have to run the timer.

However, it becomes unreasonably difficult to level up the cookie fighters once they hit around level 50. The ascension system that you must go through before level 51 is a massive hindrance, and is almost definitely in place to get players to pay money.

That is the biggest problem with “CRTOA”: It panders to people with deep pockets, which is to say, a small percentage of the playerbase. 

While other “Cookie Run” installments do this, it is not to the degree that this game does. It is nearly impossible to do anything in a timely manner in this game due to the monetary barriers.

A big example of this, besides the leveling, is the costume gacha. It is impossible to get rainbow cubes, the currency to pull for costumes, without paying money, except for a select few events that are all limited time.

Needless to say, this sort of thing is extremely annoying, especially to people who don’t spend money on free mobile games. It feels like the development team is selling out and ignoring the playerbase for the sake of money.

The game is salvageable from this. Making it easier to get resources for ascending characters and getting costumes is a quick and easy fix. Hopefully this can all be fixed soon or else “CRTOA” cements itself as the weakest “Cookie Run” entry since “Puzzle Wars.”