Trendy Trash Ecoworld

Trendy Trash Ecoworld sits firmly within the popular genre of match-three games.  Looking around on any bus or train will usually reveal at least one person shifting items around a multi-coloured, on-screen grid to match three or more like items.  The unpressured gameplay and flamboyant reward animations of these games have found a keen audience.  

Trendy Trash Ecoworld has adopted this winning formula to make reference to recycling waste.  This is certainly a topic that children should be aware of as a growing realisation emerges of the impacts on energy and pollution that improper waste disposal can have.  

Instead of the fruits, candies, animals, etcetera that other games of this ilk use, the items are apple cores, banana skins, plastic bottles and tin cans.  Each level requires the player to match these items together and achieve a set score within a finite amount of moves.  Some levels also have additional tasks such as to achieve a certain score for a certain type of waste.  These scores are recorded by an appropriately coloured recyclable-waste container.  

There is always a feeling with match-three games, and this is no exception, that success or failure has as much to do with luck as it does the player's input.  When many item matches are triggered by one of your moves, a satisfying chain reaction of animations and score indicators are set off although it is rare that a player can say that they expected their move to be so successful.  But that is the nature of the genre.  Colourful and glossy graphics that are universally appealing are supported by music, speech and sound effects that make it an addictive experience.  

This experience is free to download as an app or play on Facebook but requires coins to be purchased with real money to get the fully featured activity.  The player is reminded of the coins' existence quite often during the game and, while the game can be entertaining without spending money, the player is left in no doubt that buying coins will enhance the time spent playing.  The app's developers pledge that part of these proceeds go to a relevant charity.

So, as a game, this is polished and good fun, if you like this sort of matching game, as many children do.  It is not a strong educational experience, however, and teachers and parents should keep this in mind when buying the app.  

Trendy Trash Ecoworld's subject matter lends it some relevance in building awareness of what can be recycled, and in what colours the receptacles for each type of waste are likely to be,  but it does not feel enough to vouch for the app as an educational aid.  As a puzzle game, it will encourage some thinking and concentration, but match-three games are too dependent upon luck to suggest that they could help much with thinking skills.

It costs nothing to have a look and see if you feel that Trendy Trash Ecoworld has something to offer your child and you'll have a bit of fun yourself.