Match-3 Analysis
OK, so I thought I had found ‘the one‘ last Friday. But, not surprisingly, it didn’t look so great when I played with it further this week, so I’m still experimenting.
Mostly I’ve been working with what I call ‘progressive fill’ games, where the board starts off empty (or nearly so), and then progressively fills with blocks. Your goal is to make matches so as to prevent the board from filling completely. Tetris was the game that initially popularized this style. Recent examples include Lumines and Meteos on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, respectively.
The other major alternative, which has been more popular for PC casual games, is what I call ‘always full’ games. The board starts fully populated with objects. You manipulate them to make a match. The matched blocks are removed and rapidly replaced (usually by new blocks falling from above). Examples include Bejewelled and Chuzzle.
Beyond this major categorization, there are many other ways in which puzzle games differentiate themselves, but the biggest is the method of object manipulation. Console games, played with a joystick, usually have you maneuver a single falling object – this matches well with the joystick as control device. PC games are usually mouse oriented, and have you swapping tiles or rows anywhere on the board.
Here’s a little table analyzing some of the most popular puzzle games, both PC and console/handheld:
| Board style | Manipulation | Removal | Varied levels? | |
| Bejewelled | Always Full | Swap 2 | 3-in-a-row | No |
| Jewel Quest | Always Full | Swap 2 | 3-in-a-row | Yes |
| Chuzzle | Always Full | Row Slide | 3-in-a-group | No |
| Magic Match | Always Full | Select group, direction | 3-in-a-group | Obstacles only? |
| Tetris | Progressive, from top | Position/Rotate falling 4-piece object | Solid horizontal line | No |
| Sega Dr. Robotnik | Progressive, from top | Position/Rotate falling 2-piece object | 4-in-a-group | No |
| Sega Columns | Progressive, from top | Position/Cycle falling 3-high object | 3-in-a-line (including diagonal) | No |
| Lumines | Progressive, from top | Position/Rotate falling 4-piece block | 4-in-a-block, with delay | No |
| Meteos | Progressive, from top | Manipulate board – free vertical slide | 3-in-a-row (removes above, too) | Size only |
| Collapse | Progressive, row at a time bottom | Select group of 3 | 3-in-a-group | No |
| Wonder Lines | Progressive, random | Free slide | 3-in-a-line (including diagonal) | Yes |
| Qbeez 2 | Starts full, no refill | Select group of 2, rotate/scramble | 2-in-a-group | Size only? |
February 14th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Noticed the list is missing Tetris Attack aka Panel de Pon aka Pokemon Puzzle League…Progressive, from top : Swap 2 : 3-in-a-row : No varied levels. I can’t accurately rank its popularity but it is very deep and at least somewhat accessible.
February 15th, 2006 at 12:45 am
There’s also Dr. Mario, one of my favorites. Progressive, Position/rotate falling 2-part piece, 3-in-a-column removal, with varied levels (if I understand the concept of varied levels).
The thing that I find interesting about Dr. Mario is that it takes the Tetris mechanic and turns it into “combat.” I think this little difference helps make Dr. Mario slightly (and I mean *slightly*) more rewarding, as when you complete a group, you get to “kill” something. Of course it’s only goofy, cartoon killing, but it’s killing none the less.
I bet you could do the same for almost any of these variants. Turn the “blocks” into something halfway recognizable, and all of a sudden each removal becomes more rewarding and more fun (with the right sprites and sound effects, of course).
February 15th, 2006 at 9:43 am
Two wee things. ‘respectively’ above, implies Meteos and Lumines are on PSP and DS instead of DS and PSP.
Also, Meteos levels do vary in more than size, the gravity changes, the mix of colours changes and in some levels, the whole mechanism to make them fly does too (gravitos level, requires you line up three which blow up but don’t travel. before the charred blocks are recoloured, you must line up three ABOVE them to send blocks flying).