Match-3 puzzlers–the kind of puzzle game where grouping three similar items clears them off the board–have been around for awhile now. The iPhone seems like the perfect place for the genre. You can play them for as little as five minutes, or much longer if desired, and because there’s no great time investment, they’re a perfect way to kill time with your phone.
Although Bejeweled may be considered the top dog when it comes to a match-3 puzzle game, The Treasures of Montezuma 2 makes a very strong argument that there’s a new king in town.
Montezuma 2 follows the same format mentioned above, but with a Mayan Temple flair to the game boards while bringing in some elements familiar to fans of RPGs. As you progress in the games story mode, you gain the ability to purchase special powers that correspond to each of the colored jewels that you’re matching.
For instance, purchasing the red jewel power-up might mean that if you match up two sets of red jewels in a row, all the red jewels on the screen will be collected. It’s not an essential part of the game at all, but especially on the later levels, when time is of the essence, the power-ups are a fun feature that give a player more incentive to dive into the depths of the gameplay.
The biggest issue Montezuma 2 faces is its sloppy menu system. Purchasing the power-ups can be difficult because the map screen zooms out a bit too much, and I’ve had to tap the level-select screen more than a few times in order for it to register which level I actually want to play next. These are small gripes that wouldn’t stop me from recommending this title to any fans of match-3 puzzle games; but if you’re going to be the best, you have to act like it.
