Christmas Puzzle 3 is a Match 3 style Christmas game. In it, you help a town get ready for the holiday by collecting coins as you play.
In fact, your objective in the game is to decorate the town. It can be seen constantly as the background of your playthrough, and it is so big that you need to scroll around if you want to see it all. Can you earn enough currency through the match 3 game boards to decorate the town to its fullest potential?
If you press the play button, you will be taken to the matching game. Here, a friendly elf character will take you through the basics of the game, and as more complex goals are set, he comes back and explains it all.
The gist of the game is to match three or more tiles with the same picture together to make them disappear. The more you match in a single move, the better the score. You can only move them to adjacent places, and if you can not make a match, you can not move the tile.
Some stages might give you a limited amount of moves to complete your goals, while others might simply put a time limit. Noticing what limitations you have is important to the strategy you would want to employ; if all you have is a time limit, you might want to play in a more frantic manner as it doesn't matter how many moves you make in a second.
These goals are what keep the game fresh and entertaining as you burn past the levels. Most times you need to get a high enough score, which is a great goal since it adds a certain freedom to how you play the game.
More stressing goals are, for example, the ones that ask you to match specific types of tiles. If you do not plan your moves carefully, you might end up without too many valuable moves and having to waste time as you wait for the right pieces to fall.
Besides all these limitations and goals, you also have hazards and power ups. Hazards are a common staple of the genre, like blocked or chained tiles. Usually, the way you clear them is by making a required match next to or with them.
A better way to deal with them however, is the power ups. These tend to take the form of an explosive, and they have two ways of appearing. You can get them for free by making large matches, and they have to be used right next to where they were unlocked. While limiting, it is without risk.
The other way you can use them is by expanding the ones the game gives you as you clear levels. These are clearly less restrictive, but the limited pool of usage should make you think twice before you use them at your leisure.
The art style of the game is really beautiful. The colors are vibrant, and while the town you help is constantly in night time, the cheer of the decorations you add to it make it feel like a safe and cozy place to spend your time. Even without decorations, the backdrop making most of this plaza already feels like a lively place, it is just missing the Christmas spirit that you can add by playing the game.
The art during gameplay is clearly less realistic yet equally charming, with the pictures you match being reminiscent of the holiday that goes on. Christmas trees, stars, candy canes, all sorts of colorful goodness. Even the soundtrack is a joy to listen to.
Christmas Puzzle 3 is a fun game to pass the time as you get ready for the biggest holiday of the year. Each level is similar enough to seem familiar yet different in the right aspects to keep you coming back for more.
If you enjoy these free games, you will love this list of our 10 Best Puzzle Games!
