Comments on: A History of Matching tile Games: Am I Missing Something?

By: Penguin Monkey

Penguin Monkey — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 14:32:13 +0000

A better comment is which “matching tiles” games are the deepest.

Puyo Puyo is the deepest puzzle game since it uses chains and simultaneous clears. Experts chain forwards, backwards, middle, and there are many many chain forms. There are counter-chains that use garbage that are really hard to learn to use. Expert players often build two chains and let one of them rip as harassment, although I’ve seen expert players build reversible chains, splitting long chains into smaller chains, and combining two chains into one bigger chain. The whole game can seem like studying or following a chain template sometimes though.

Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack) has fewer chain forms than Puyo, but the you don’t have chain templates. Since it allows active chaining, people usually only chain from the front. The DS version went slow enough and touch controls meant that experts juggled two chains at all times. The garbage system does not work in VS mode, and
score system hates same clears.

Money Puzzle/Idol Exchanger based on Magical Drop seems limited because you can only grab pieces at the bottom but there are two types of chains 5 and 2 and pieces turning into other pieces also makes it deeper than Magical Drop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoEETN0lnGQ

Starsweep (youtube search for Axl) – Not commonly talked about, but seems deep. There are few chain forms, however using garbage to form chains is important and rather than relying solely on active chaining there is more emphasis on setting up your chain unlike Panel de Pon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anw11vUEWXQ

Tetris seems sort of simplistic, not as deep as Puyo or even Panel de Pon. Modern versions of Tetris seem less deep as their randomizer isn’t random, but Tetris the Grand Master seems to have some added debt because you have to build your stack like a pyramid since the pieces start on the bottom.

Puzzle Fighter and Wario Woods have diamond pieces that are bad for serious puzzlers, however, at least Wario Woods seems to have some depth. Bejeweled and Dr Mario are completely lacking in depth IMO.

By: Helvetica

Helvetica — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:46:17 +0000

There’s also “Fortune Tiles” which isn’t free (unless you’re a member of certain boards). The game isn’t bad but using the “untimed” game you are only given a fraction of the levels possible. If you want to play all the levels, you can only get to those “missing” levels using Options..Replay Level.. then choosing one which doesn’t have any points (or not your name), but your can only play these in Timed mode and some are near on impossible.

By: Jesper

Jesper — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:42:23 +0000

Don’t know that one, sorry.

By: jade

jade — Sat, 19 May 2007 10:03:16 +0000

I’ve been looking for an older shockwave game similar to noah’s ark, match pairs to clear the board. It was multi level,with differnt icons and colors. I used to enjoy this game, from about maybe 96′?
Does anyone else remember this game?

By: Jesper

Jesper — Sat, 12 May 2007 13:30:50 +0000

Nelson: According to my research, Magic Jewelry came out just before Columns (they are quite similar). An earlier version of the tree had “Magic Jewelry”/Columns to the left of Dr. Mario.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:14:16 +0000

I would say Bejeweled is a direct descendant (aka) of Columns (circa 1990s) – which arrived around the same time Dr. Mario.

By: Phayke

Phayke — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 18:13:29 +0000

Money Idol Exchanger (JP) (Money Puzzle Exchanger in the US) for the NeoGeo reminds me alot of an upside down puyo puyo, except you could also pick up any surface blocks and reorganize them, all blocks were given their own value, 1,5,10,50,100, and 500. And when you combined enough of a smaller type of block, it would transform into one block of the value above it. You might be interested in checking it out if you haven’t already seen it.

Here’s a link to an online review. http://darkscarfy.tripod.com/moneyidol/moneyidol.shtml

By: Jesper

Jesper — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:57:19 +0000

Ah yes, that was a long time ago!

By: Marco

Marco — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:37:03 +0000

Hi
You are the author of the program named “Lyapunovia” ?

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:17:19 +0000

Clicking on the image just makes it even less readable – it doesn’t present a larger version, just a crudely resized version. I am using Internet Explorer 6.