Spellarium 7 - Match 3 Puzzle

The following oft repeated hint from the games sums things up nicely: "Follow the right sequence or it will take too long to complete this level!" First off the bat - it simply isn't true (in casual mode there is no timer and no move limits; although this can be changed if you want more of a challenge). And some of the other instructions were oddly phrased too. But it does actually hint at a key point; this actually a match-3 game you have to think about at least a little. I bought it mostly for the different game types: Match 3, Solitare, Mah Jong, Spot the difference. But actually found the match-3 puzzles the most enjoyable. Which in an era flooded by generally dreadful ad-heavy mobile match-3 games was a little bit surprising. There are quite a lot of clever mechanics here, many of which I'd not seen for many years, or at all. I won't go into details, but they genuinely make this a puzzle game in places, rather than just match-match-match over and over. As an example, if you ask for a hint you aren't simply given a move you can make, but a general strategic goal you should be aiming for next. Both the mah-jong tile match and the solitaire games have a 'bank' where you can …

This Spellarium installment is pretty tough in spots, while other levels are walk in the park easy. There are 110 M3-puzzle levels and probably at least half that many minigames total (HOS, spot the difference, mahjong, solitaire). With the difficulty being all over the place, there's no telling when you'll get a level which can be rendered impossible to complete if you do things in the wrong order or when you'll get a level you can do in less than a minute if you're good at spotting what to remove next to reach those coins. There are times when the level was intentionally designed to not let you do things the easiest way, so if the powerups don't seem to be working, try a different strategy. You also can't blow up the colored squares in this game, which was reverted back to the older mechanic in later Spellarium games. The story has returned to the original Spellarium premise, where Eric is once again having to restore the balance between the assorted elements, in this case, to restore Time. Feels grindy to play for more than an hour or so at a time, but otherwise recommended if you like your M3s to not just be clearing all the tiles.

Its one of those -just one more level games. Where, if you are not careful, you can lose hours playing it.