Xenocube SD
Clint | Nov 22, 2011 Games
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XenoCube SD ($.99) by Digital Embryo
Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Xenocube SD is another “match three” game wrapped up in a pretty package of vibrant graphics and a well-designed, albeit slightly flawed user interface. Xenocube SD essentially presents itself as a 3D puzzler involving a large, rotating, six-sided Rubik’s Cube. The player is then given the task of matching three alike colors either vertically or horizontally on any of the cube’s six planes. The xenocube levitates allowing the user to simply swipe at the cube to send it spinning allowing access to all six sides. This is where one of the few problems I had with the game surfaced. My wife always tells me to be more gentle frequently citing that old song “I want a man with a slow hand…” I guess my lack of finesse is not limited to the bedroom because I frequently found myself spinning the Xenocube on what seemed like a perpetual death spin causing me to lose precious time in my quest to find matches. Another problem I had with the game was the inconceivable use of 3D. I am unaware of any iPhone, iPad, or iPod that utilizes a stereoscopic 3D display, so I was a little baffled by what the 3D intensity slider actually did. After playing around with the 3D effect and finding it more cumbersome than beneficial, I simply turned it off and what followed was a rather enjoyable experience.
Mr. Fang
Michael (Admin) | Oct 17, 2011 Games
User rating: 
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Mr.Fang ($0.99) by 51pocket
If you’re looking for an obnoxiously cute puzzle game you’ve come to the right place! Mr. Fang is one of those puzzlers that’s sort of in the Match 3 category (in this case, it’s really Match 4) and it’s filled with bright colors and baby voices and Nintendo-ish synth music, all of which makes for a pretty engaging experience if you can tap the right tiles fast enough to reach your goal in Classic mode before time runs out. Goals, in the early Classic stages anyway, are mainly to either score a certain number of points or hit a certain number of combos within the time allotted. Combos occur when four little blocks merge into one big block, and you keep hitting those big blocks consecutively.
There’s also a fun Puzzle mode that gets surprisingly difficult, and Time Attack challenges you to rack up as many points as you can before the clock runs out.
App Sale: Billionaire
Michael (Admin) | Dec 2, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games
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Billionaire is on sale for free – normally $.99
If you like Tetris, then I think there’s a good chance you’ll like Billionaire… it’s pretty similar, but instead of trying to fit blocks together you’re basically doing a match 3 thing where you have to match up falling jewels.
The action is a little slower than I’m used to for this kind of game, but it’s tricky enough that you’ll eventually appreciate the moderately lazy pace at which the gems are falling. Shen Marshall has built in a good set of options that allow you to adjust game control, background, music, and a couple other game attributes.
At this game’s normal price of a buck I’d say that’s about right, but it’s even better when it’s free! If you miss out on the sale, there’s also a free lite version.
App Sale: Yumsters 2
Michael (Admin) | Nov 19, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games
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Yumsters! 2 is on sale for free – normally $.99-$1.99
Yumsters are crazy about fruit and music! Yeah, who isn’t. Yumsters! 2 is one of those match 3 games that’s won awards and has apparently gained a big following in its PC incarnation. There’s a whole story about how these cute Yoshi-looking creatures won some kind of singing contest and are now traveling the world, but all you really need to know is that they hang out in holes and eat fruit and they have really long necks.
To play, you just stretch the Yumsters’ super long necks across fruit of the same color. Eating just one fruit is ok, but to get the points and clear the levels you need to stretch them across multiple fruits which is a lot more efficient. There are powerups to grab along the way and, of course, things get pretty hairy after you clear the first few of the 64 levels that take you around the world to places like Hawaii, Rome, and Japan. I guess this game isn’t truly a match 3, but it kind of fits the genre.
G5 Entertainment definitely put a lot of elbow grease into this app which is easily worth the $1-$2 asking price it normally commands, but for the next few days it’s free! Sweet deal.
Tags: 3D, good for kids, match 3, puzzle
App Sale: Styx Halloween
Michael (Admin) | Oct 29, 2009 Games
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Styx Halloween is was on sale for free – apparently the price has gone back up to $2.99
The further you go, the more different kinds of Halloween faces you have to contend with
Styx Halloween is one of those match 3 games where you run your finger across matching units that are either touching or diagonal from each other. I guess that technically makes it a “match as many as you can” game and the combination of great graphics and tons of powerups makes this a pretty fun Halloween diversion!
The game comes with three modes: Chains, Time Trial, and Puzzle. Chains and Time Trial are both very similar in that your goal is to find as many chains as possible, and Puzzle forces you to figure out how to eliminate groups of Halloween icons in the right order so that no individual pieces are leftover.
EMV Software built in a global scoreboard and made Styx Halloween iPod-friendly, so I’d advise you to go get this app while it’s still free! The App Store page says this game is on sale for 2 days only, and the price went down 2 days ago, so it may go back to its original $2.99 price any minute now.
iTunes Link – Styx Halloween
Version 1.4
iPhone 3G OS3.1.2
Tags: $2.99, good for kids, halloween, match 3, puzzle, seasonal
App Sale: Spheric
Michael (Admin) | Oct 27, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games
User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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When the sphere gets this full you're totally screwed!
Spheric is on sale for free – normal price is $.99-$1.99
Need a little more aggravation in your life? Spheric delivers! It’s a pretty tough match 3 puzzle (match 4, actually) where your job is to line up like-colored marbles next to each other by spinning them around a circular playing field. The field starts off pretty empty, and as it fills up by virtue of your mistakes the game gets harder and harder. When the sphere is completely filled with marbles it’s Game Over, Man.
The trick is to use the accelerometer and in-game gravity to create gaps in the right places so that, when a new marble shoots itself at the edge of the circle, it gets shot into the right place. If you wind up getting the marbles all mixed up it’s pretty hard to fix, and therein lies the frustration that comes with this puzzler.
My terrible explanation of this game makes it sound harder than it is, but when you play Spheric yourself you’ll catch on pretty quick. I’m not sure what’s up with the low two-star App Store rating… it’s a good game even for a buck or two and it’s currently free, so if you like this kind of challenge you should grab it immediately!
iTunes Link – Spheric
Version 1.3
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2
Dragon Portals
Swain Valasek | Oct 11, 2009 Games
User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Dragon Portals comes to us from MythPeople (casual games brand of Finnish-based 10tons Ltd), the same folks behind the wonderful Azkend (reviewed here). At its core we have basic match 3 gameplay but the innovative play mechanics and slick presentation create a very different feel that stands out from other titles in the genre. I would have published this review weeks ago but I was waiting on an update that fixed a major crash bug. The developer was as good as their word though and the update finally arrived so here we are; onward to the review!
Tags: $4.99, match 3, Swain Valasek
Rise of Atlantis
Swain Valasek | Jul 25, 2009 Games
User rating: 
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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I am completely burned out on match 3 games…at least I thought I was until I started playing Rise of Atlantis from SkyZone (originally developed by Terminal Studio; iPhone port by Gamelion Studios). Despite some criticisms which I will level at this game shortly, it captures that addictive quality all developers pray for with a combination of slick presentation and casual gameplay. I’m going to assume you know the basic mechanics of match 3 games; if you don’t check one of the many other reviews on this site in that category. In RoA you ‘Journey’ through 7 classic civilizations in the Mediterranean, gathering an artifact from each one to place in an ancient relic on the Altar of Poseidon with the ultimate goal of raising the lost city of Atlantis from the depths. RoA features some excellent graphics and visual effects; you will not be disappointed with that aspect. Generous amounts of animation keep the playfield lively, active and most importantly, interesting. The BGM is well done and keeps to the theme of the game. Gameplay starts very easy in Phoenicia but by the time you reach the last civ Troy the levels are much more challenging. You play up to 12 levels per civ (77 total) in classic match 3 style and timed (though don’t worry as in most cases there’s more than enough) but littered around the playfield are a number of possible items: artifact pieces (always present), powerups, locked/double-locked tiles, frozen/double-frozen tiles and rocks (as of Journey 2). There could possibly be more stuff too but I’ve not played to Journey 3 yet.
Tags: $2.99, match 3, Swain Valasek
Stoneloops! of Jurassica
Swain Valasek | Jun 11, 2009 Games
User rating: (5 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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Quite frankly, you don’t even need to read through my review of Stoneloops! of Jurassica from PlayCreek LLC…just buy it, download, start playing and thank me later when you finally tear yourself away from it. The concept of a must-have game for the iDevice is always arguable but straight away when you start playing Stoneloops things just start to click in your mind until you reach that AHH moment and realize that this is what defines a must-have game. If you’ve never heard of SoJ, it’s a ‘marble pop’ game and if you’ve never heard of that, it’s related to ‘match 3′ games and if you’ve never heard of that well, you need to get busy. The gist of marble pop games is a stream of colored marbles makes its way around a closed path and you have a stationary launcher that you can rotate around and launch colored marbles at the stream. Make a match of at least 3 of the same color and they ‘pop’, potentially creating more matches for combos, you rack up points and so on until you clear the level and advance. Most folks credit Zuma as the first big marble pop game on the iDevice then Blackbeard’s Assault probably a close second. Well, SoJ bests them both and absolutely sets the gold standard for this category in the app store. If I have this right, SoJ is originally credited to Codeminion who actually contracted out the majority of the game creation to 3rd party developers Farm51 and the iDevice version was made by yet a 3rd (3rd 3rd?) party we know as PlayCreek.
Tags: $0.99, marble pop, match 3, Swain Valasek
App Sale: Falling Gems
Michael (Admin) | Jun 8, 2009 App Sale Alert, Games, Quick & Free
User rating: (9 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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Rocha Software says that Falling Gems is “FREE for a few days only!” There are a ton of crappy games out there making the same claim as an ongoing sales gimmick, but in this case I kind of believe that the price may actually go up because this one has the makings of a pretty good match 3 app.
In Falling Gems you slide the gems one space at a time to try and get at least three like-colored gems to touch. Make that happen and they disappear which earns you more time on the clock, but more gems fall in to take their place. That’s all there is to this game, but if Rocha could fit in some flashy powerups, global scoring, and maybe some extra game modes (ie: time attack or at least easy/medium/hard) then this would easily be worth a buck or two.
For the time being, though, Falling Gems is a mind-numbingly simple game with nice shiny-looking graphics. You can’t beat the price and, who knows, some upgrades may eventually make this game a contender in the genre.
Creepy emo soundtrack not included!
Azkend
Swain Valasek | Apr 26, 2009 Games
User rating: (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...
How do they do it? These crazy developers continue to somehow find elbow room in the overcrowded match 3 space. The latest success story is Azkend from MythPeople. The nifty twist this time (beyond using hexagonal vs square tiles) is you don’t swap tiles to make matches; you trace an unbroken path across 3 or more like tiles and that becomes the match. This leads to some insanely large matches which of course grant you bonuses and is tons of fun. Oh but there’s more, much more.
Tags: $2.99, azkend, match 3, Swain Valasek
Gems 3D
Swain Valasek | Apr 1, 2009 Games
User rating: (1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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A day late and a dollar short. Too little, too late. Late to the party. Someone left the cake out in the rain. Whatever idiom you choose, it applies to Gems 3D from Max Fomitchev (aka Ultramax). This is another ‘match 3′ game that tries to provide a fresh take; the need for each gem to have a clear path (like a maze) to the spot you want it to go. Beyond that, it’s match the like gems so they disappear, you score some points, more gems randomly drop in, rinse and repeat. The sole ‘powerup’ is called a trick which allows you to turn any gem wild as long as it forms a match. One nice feature is you can also form matches on a diagonal. The game provides some unusual music which was composed by the author; a mix of classical and techno.
Tags: $4.99, Gems 3D, match 3, Swain Valasek
