Top 5 block-matching puzzlers for mobile

We’ve done plenty of ‘Top puzzler’ lists on Pocket Gamer, which is fairly unsurprising when you consider that it’s probably the most common genre on mobile.

But it’s also an incredibly varied genre, full of sub-genres and odd diversions that bare little if any resemblance to each other - besides the need for a bit of cerebral activity on your part. After all, what do Tropical Towers and Tetris have in common? Besides being brilliant (and both beginning with ‘T’), not a lot.

So, this being the beginning of a new year we thought we’d make a fresh start with our ‘Top mobile’ lists and break things down into even smaller Top 5 sub-genre chunks, starting with the daddy of them all: the block-matching puzzler.

What’s remarkable is that there’s still a great deal of variety in our list, despite having honed it down to games that require you to match up multiple blocks of some sort. Here’s what we think is hot right now in the world of block-dropping feats.

Digital Chocolate’s polished puzzler differentiates itself from myriad other match-three titles by making each block a three dimensional entity. Each side of each cube is a different colour, and you must pick up and rotate individual cubes in order to form complete lines.

Once you have, the blocks above don’t just fall into the vacated space - they roll down, changing the make-up of the game field significantly.

Such subtle but effective twists on established gameplay mechanics are typically Digital Chocolate, as is the excellent presentation and intuitive controls. Meanwhile the two game modes - Timed and Challenge - offer sufficiently different takes on the core premise to keep you rolling for some time.

Possessing a similar level of polish to Cube Smashers, Collapse initially appears to be a more traditional take on the block-matching puzzler. As a field of coloured blocks creeps up the screen, you must click on grouped clusters to make them disappear.

But the game throws so many elements and rewards your way that it’s impossible for even the most jaded puzzler fan to not be swept along with it all.

There’s a colourful overmap that lets you take multiple paths through the game, a number of neat variations on the central theme, entertaining boss battles, bags of achievements… the list goes on.

With Collapse Mr Goodliving throws everything at the block-matching wall. What’s surprising is just how much of it sticks.

At the time of writing, it’s been almost a year since we reviewed Luxor Quest (making it the oldest game on this list) but it remains the finest Puzzloop/Zuma-inspired game on mobile.

The idea is to keep a snaking path of coloured balls at bay by - you guessed it - matching three or more of any one colour. The delivery method is the key to the game’s appeal, as you fire additional balls into the pack from a couple of fixed positions.

The Luxor series is one of the best examples of this formula, and Luxor Quest is the best in the series. It’s better looking, more varied and more refined than any of its predecessors - and its mobile rivals.

Bejeweled has a lot to answer for. It’s brilliant, of course, as so many millions of sales will attest to. But thanks to its success we now have countless rip-offs flooding the operator portals in an attempt to follow up on PopCap’s success.

Of course, the only company that can follow up on PopCap’s success is PopCap, as it showed so brilliantly with Bejeweled Twist. As the name suggests, you’re now matching coloured blocks not by swapping two, but by twisting blocks of four.

This simple twist transforms the ostensibly familiar gameplay to the extent that Bejeweled Twist feels fresh and new - something many of its rivals would kill to achieve.

You can’t improve Tetris. It simply can’t be done, so perfect is the game from conception to execution. EA knows this, so it didn’t try to change things with Tetris Revolution.

What it chose to do instead was restructure the game to make it more suited to a modern mobile gaming audience.

The first and most important thing to note is that Tetris is here in its entirety, with only the subtly and tastefully tweaked graphics showing any sign of ‘progress’.

Where the real work has been done is in the 12 variations on the legendary block-dropper, which tweak the physical laws of the Tetris universe (such as visibility and gravity) rather than the core gameplay.

Along with the now obligatory achievement system and plenty of hand-holding where needed, Tetris Revolution brings one of the finest games ever to a new generation of mobile puzzle fans.