Amazing Gift is a Match 3 style puzzle game. In it, you solve puzzles to open Christmas presents while learning about a lot of gift related trivia.
There are multiple Match 3 boards, mechanics, and adventures to be had in this game!
The art style of this game is deeply rooted in the Christmas spirit, yet it does not revolve around its myths. While you can be forgiven to think that the iconic Santa Claus and his reindeer would make an appearance in this title, they actually do not. Neither does the religious aspect of the holiday; this game cares only about the giving aspect of the season.
That said, the iconic imagery and color palette of the festivity is everywhere to be seen and admired. This game like many other jewel games uses plenty of bright colors to show the opulence of the gifts being given, each of them rendered in beautiful 2D art style. There are plenty of greens and reds, but there is also gold, and even plenty of glow. This gives the game a sort of dream-like quality, including the classic hazy view.
Even the presents that you are trying to open have an otherworldly vibe about them; when you manage to remove the ribbons, they are taken away by a slow bright light. It is quite a scene.
As stated plainly before, your objective is to open presents. When you get ready to start a stage, the screen is divided between the gift that you are trying to open on the left, and the grid where you partake in the puzzles on the right. The vast majority of these puzzles follow the Match 3 formula: the grid is divided in tiles, and each tile has a gem in it. You can move the gems around, and if you match three or more of the same color, you make a match.
Making a match makes the gems disappear, and others drop to take their place. Your objective then is to clear specific tiles by making matches within them, golden tiles to be precise. Once you clear all of them, the level is over, and a piece of the ribbon holding the wrapping paper of your gift goes away. Once you clear all the levels in a given set, you unlock a present, which is shown in the trophies menu if you ever wish to browse your collection.
You can navigate the different stages at your leisure and replay any that you have unlocked. As you advance through the stages, you might notice some snippets of text that appear on the menus, almost as level descriptions. This is not something that happens with every level, but some of them have this.
It is, effectively, lore about the nature of gift giving, the origin of presents, and what it means for us humans to share something on a specific date. It is something quite different from other games and it makes one look forward to whenever another one might pop up.
The game has a few more surprises beyond the contents of the gifts. First of all, there are other puzzles beyond the regular style. These appear as the final stage of each area, in practice acting as some sort of final boss so you can unlock the contents of the present. While their flavors vary drastically, they are all still based around the Christmas season and are classic puzzles to boot.
Also, within the matching style of game, it should be noted that there are certain things to aid and hinder your journey, and some that do both. In terms of pure hazards, there are the classic chained tiles that can not be moved, the boxed tile that can not be used until a match has been made next to it, and so on.
Another hazard that is quite unlikely is the hammer. Intended as a power up, the hammer appears randomly on the grid and, if you can take it to the bottom, you earn the power to clear any tile you want. However, you cannot move or interact with the hammer tile until you take it to the bottom, making it a hazard at the worst of times.
Amazing Gift is, as its name suggests, an incredible game that can bring the joy of the season of giving at any time of the year. It is highly recommended, especially for fans of the Match 3 genre.
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