It can't be just coincidence that the majority of fireworks resemble blooming flowers. After all there's the same breadth of color and the unfurling from a central bud. The only real addition aside from the dizzying heights that fireworks reach are the explosions that start off this reaction. Well it seems that Kensho development thought the same thing when designing their high score game Floralia, a game of flowery fireworks and the combos they create.

There are really two parts to how the game works. The first is tapping on the firework buds as they fly from the bottom of the screen. If they reach the top, your health bar will deplete, so tapping on them freezes them in place. It also places their color down the bottom of the screen in the combo section, where swiping across the buds collected will create a chain reaction that causes them to explode. One of the fun things about this game is that with just that knowledge, the game can be played and enjoyed. If you're interested in high scores however, you need to create combos, and it's here that the order and color of the buds you tap becomes very important.

Combos ranges from the simple to the complex. For instance a combo stream of buds of all different colors is one option, as are buds of all the same color. The more complex patterns involve what we'd call color palindromes, where the pattern is the same forwards and backwards, or having two buds of one color sandwiched in-between two buds of another. All the combos are laid out in the information section of the game, but after a couple plays, it becomes pretty obvious what yields high score results.

As your score rockets, you'll level up, which increases game speed as well and the amount of buds appearing on screen (its here that the combos get confusing). This continues until your health reaches zero and the game is restarted. While the idea is simple and a lot of fun, there is one glaring control issue. On the combo meter, swiping to the right will explode all the buds, while swiping up cancels the combo in question. Especially when the game speeds up and every seconds counts, often your swipe to enact a combo will be read as a cancellation, and this can ruin a lot of enjoyment in the later stages of the game.

Floralia is simple enough for anyone to pick it up and enjoy, but those that choose to master the combo system and the high score leaderboards will find an addictive and rewarding experience. What we're trying to say is this game about fireworks... is a blast.