Place houses, fields, and other structures on a hexagonal strategy board game-like grid to create your own little town in Match Village.  When you set three or more of the same structure together, they’ll match up and upgrade to a better building so you can get more points.  This chill and laid back puzzler is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

When you start a new game, you’ll have a randomly generated island to work with.  You’ll move buildings with the L stick, place them with the X button, and rotate them with the L and R buttons.  You can undo one move with the triangle button.  Placing down a building costs points, and you can see which structures come next so you can plan accordingly.  When three of the same buildings are next to each other, they’ll usually match up and combine into a bigger building and you’ll earn more points.  Some structures even let you earn bonus points when you place other ones around it.  But some will lower your score so you’ll have to be careful.  When you run out of building points, the game is over and they’ll tally your score and you can start on a new island.  If you place enough buildings without running out of points, a meter will fill on the bottom right of the screen and when it’s full, you can choose to start an expedition to a new island and build again. And that’s pretty much the whole game!

At the beginning of the game, there’s a message that says to not expect a AAA game experience here, as it was made by just one person.  I admire the transparency and honesty, and it’s pretty cool that only one person made this game.  But I still had a couple of problems with this one.  Sometimes I would put three of the same houses together and they wouldn’t match, even though they looked the same to me.  A small tutorial or even some hints or strategies to make the most of the game experience would’ve been nice and helpful.  But as a chill and relaxing stress-free puzzle game, this one is still kind of neat.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but not necessary just to play.  Match Village is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews