Christmas Puzzle 3

The main gameplay is practically the same compared to the previous two games. But changes to the structure and progression are significant enough to make this game feel a bit different. There are no mandatory timers or 3 stars to get for every level, you get missions this time. Think of breaking certain puzzle pieces, having limited moves or a timer. Power-ups can be bought with a new currency that is obtained by completing levels and side quests, there are three instead of two power-ups and they’re all very helpful. A side quest is helping out with the decorations of the town with the money you earn. There are also many refinements to make the experience more snappy and polished. Most of these changes are an improvement. But the game does veel a bit more grindy than before. All of the side quests have an achievement and the money required keeps increasing. There are also 150 instead of 80 levels. Whilst I didn’t notice the same levels used from the previous games, they all feel similar and less distinct. They might have repeated the same levels and I might have not noticed it. Also, you can’t select previous levels anymore which is a pretty odd choice. Oh, and the same music fro…

Three games in and still no puzzle worth unwrapping and the annoying ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ elfs face does not help either.

Christmas Puzzle 3 is yet another of literally hundreds of mobile app Match-3/Bejewelled/Candy Crush ripoff games infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This one was published on Steam instead of app stores back in 2017, and remains something largely valueless as there's a million match-3 games you can play for free in your web browser or on mobile app stores. However, the developers of this one expect you to give them money for something you could play for free. The developer has copy + pasted this [i]exact same game[/i] onto Steam 5 times now, and all of them have ridiculously high price tags for garbage. Worse, the developer is using shell accounts to hide their identity, which seems like a deliberate attempt to mislead gamers. This is unethical. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. …

https://youtu.be/CDxvEtNDctI Additional characters are introduced as part of the dark middle chapter in the Christmas Puzzle series, without any change to the overly reductive gameplay.

Christmas Puzzle 3 is a cozy, seasonal continuation of Notus Games Ltd’s long-running holiday-themed puzzle series, delivering a familiar match-3 experience wrapped in festive charm and gentle progression systems. Developed and published by Notus Games Ltd, the game stays firmly within the casual puzzle space, prioritizing accessibility, relaxation, and visual warmth over mechanical innovation. Rather than attempting to reinvent the genre, Christmas Puzzle 3 refines what already works, offering a comfortable and inviting experience that feels purpose-built for winter evenings and stress-free play. At its core, the gameplay follows the classic match-3 structure that will be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the genre. Players swap adjacent tiles to create lines of three or more matching holiday-themed icons, clearing them from the board and making space for new ones to fall into place. While the rules are simple, the game gradually introduces new obstacles and board conditions that prevent the experience from becoming purely mindless. Snow-covered tiles, locked elements, and limited-move objectives encourage players to plan ahead rather than rely solely on random match…

The best out of three games (which doesn't say a lot since previous games are not good), but still a very lackluster experience. Some achievements can bug out if the game starts not from the very first level (happens with this series of games quite a lot). And you can't replay levels. Yep. Anyway. Just skip this series. There are much better match 3 games on PC (like Treasures of Montezuma 3 or Bejeweled series).