Candy Crush: It’s back, and this time it brought friends

Remember back in 2016 when articles about how addictive Candy Crush was were everywhere? If you were one of the ones who managed to kick their addiction, you might want to look away now. Candy Crush is back with a new version: Candy Crush Friends Saga. Joining Soda Saga and Jelly Saga, the latest version adds a couple of cast members to help give you a boost when you need it most. You can unlock them as you go, with Tiffi, Yeti and Odus all making an appearance.

They toss you some bonus jewels when you complete certain tasks - collecting a set number of jewels in a single colour, for example - that can be very helpful when you are down to your last couple of moves and need something with a bit of “boom” to clear the board.

You know how this goes. You clear the board of candies, completing challenges such as dunking the cookies in the chocolate, freeing trapped animals or sea creatures. You’ll laugh (maybe), you’ll cry (possibly), you’ll want to throw your phone across the room (definitely). You’ll promise yourself just one more game, and finally come out of it three hours later, slightly overstimulated and sensitive to bright colours.

Or maybe you’ll see it as a cynical attempt to cash in on the franchise, which has been doing more or less the same thing since 2012. King has found a winning formula, and it is not giving up without a fight. Unless you want to end up back in that hell of brightly coloured candies and dancing yeti, steer clear.

It’s too late for me; save yourselves.