Vineyard Valley: Design Game

Though the game mechanics found in this Match-3 title are fairly typical for this kind of puzzle game and home improvement game, the combination works rather well. In Vineyard Valley: Design Game, you have to help your Aunt Margaret restore the Tangled Vines vineyard. But since new wine racks aren't cheap, you have to earn money, and a lot of it, by solving a series of connect color puzzles. Specifically, you have to tap on tiles that are next to two or more of the same color. As always with these kinds of puzzle games, you have a limited number of taps per puzzle. Tapping a tile that's next to more than three of the same color gives you special tiles that, for instance, will take out an entire row or every tile in a two tile radius.

Now, as these things go, this doesn't add much to the puzzle genre. That isn't to say it's not fun; it just doesn't break any new ground in the Match-3 formula. The same can be said for the restoration/home design segments of the game. Using in-game money you earn by solving puzzles, you get to buy new kitchen counters and other items, with some being free, others being expensive, and none having any real impact on the game or how much fun you'll have with it. Well, unless you want your Aunt to work in an ugly vineyard with mismatched furniture. And yet, this combination works as well as other puzzle game mash-ups we've played. Which is why Vineyard Valley: Design Game is a fun opportunity to test our skills as both observers and interior designers.