Lost Bounty: A Pirate's Quest

Although it’s pretty difficult to innovate the match three genre, it’s always possible to add new gimmicks and slightly change the mechanics one way or the other. Granted, such experiments are not always successful, but the right idea can sometimes make the effort seem worthwhile. Hence, not all match three games are very good, but some have the power to keep you playing for hours on end.

Lost Bounty: A Pirate's Quest is a puzzle game that brings minor changes to the old match three formula, so that anyone familiar with the genre should be able to understand it right away. While there are some interesting additions and new mechanics to watch out for, they can usually be understood in a matter of seconds, and the difficulty level is more related to time management than to the actual tile matching.

As always, there is a story running its course in the background, just to give the players a little bit more purpose. In short, you play the role of a pirate by the name of Anne, who’s on an adventure on Skull Island. Her mission is to build a cove where she can put the Harpie’s Song, in order to protect it from other pirates and lowlife thieves that might be after it.

In case you just want to match things for as long as you want and not worry about much, other than accomplishing level-specific goals, you can choose the relaxed mode and take your time with each stage. On the other hand, you can also put your skills to the test and try to solve the levels in a set time limit, which obviously makes the task a lot more stressful and difficult.

There are plenty of helpful items and power-ups that can make your life easier along the way, some of which are strong enough to be used as a last resort. Typically, they allow you to destroy tiles or entire rows at once without having to actually match any of them, so it can certainly save time if nothing else. Gold can also be found throughout the journey, and it is used to erect new buildings for your cove.

All things being equal, Lost Bounty: A Pirate's Quest is not a brilliant match three game, but it’s good enough to pass some time with. It could have used some more daring new mechanics to make the experience feel unique, on the other hand.