Parents' Guide to Merge Magic

While match-3 puzzle games could use some new mechanics, the ones in this puzzle-ish game are undermined by a lack of challenge. Like other match-3 puzzlers, Merge Magic tasks you with linking together three more of the same pieces on a board. Except where similar puzzle games then remove those pieces from the playing field, this one combines them into other, more helpful items. These include flying fairy babies and cat-goat hybrids called dryads, both of which harvest certain plants and leave behind blessing orbs you then use to lift the curse or complete some other task. And it's all done with a cutesy approach.

But while some aspects of this puzzle-ish game are interesting, other remove any sense of challenge. For starters, you can move pieces wherever, and as often as you like, which does away with any need to strategize or even think about it. There are also times when you'll be working your garden and the dryads will leave to take a twenty-minute power nap, leaving you in the lurch unless you're willing to wait...or watch an ad. The irony being that while some might've gotten tired of this game's cloying approach and twee music, it's the lack of any challenge that will drive most players away from Merge Magic.