Fruit Link

Variety is the term that best describes a good match-three game, because boredom makes an appearance sooner or later. However, many developers ignore this fact and decide to create games that lose their appeal after mere minutes of gameplay. Even so, you can still have a bit of fun with these games every now and again, depending on your experience with the genre.

Fruit Link is a simple match-three game in which you have to perform matches by simply connecting the fruits that look the same. The goal of each level is to obtain a certain number points before the timer runs out. It sounds simpler than it actually is, on the other hand, because unless you manage to score a few combos the task is very challenging even for veterans of the genre.

Speaking of which, you are allowed to connect the fruits vertically, horizontally and diagonally, which greatly increases your freedom. Even so, there are plenty of situations when you do not have any viable options at your disposal, or at least not enough to make the required number of points. This gets frustrating in a rush, especially since the level resets if you fail in your task.

Every now and again random fruits start glowing, and you can score big points if you manage to include them in a match. This is actually almost required to pass most levels, because empty matches are usually not enough to meet the quota. You also need to move fairly quickly, because there’s no time to think about your next move.

Lastly, one of the other annoyances is the fact that each level looks the same, no matter how far you get. The rectangular level layout gets boring after the first few minutes, and it wouldn’t have been that difficult to at least add a bit of variety to this. Even if the graphics themselves are pretty colorful and detailed, it’s of very little comfort in the long run.

In the end, Fruit Link loses its appeal after only a few minutes of gameplay, which is not great news for a match-three game. Even so, this could have been avoided with different level layouts and some variety in the background artwork, but that’s not the case either.