Match Three Madness Part 1: Combine

Written by Colby Saturday, 11 February 2012 06:00

Combine is the anomaly in a hard core gamer's life.  First of all, Combine is the ultimate in social gaming in that it only exists on the Facebook and iOS platforms.  Second, my girlfriend introduced it to me, when usually that happens the other way around.  Match three games had apparently reached the peak of their evolution in games like Bejeweled 3 and Puzzle Quest, but Combine has pulled me back in.  

What makes Combine interesting is all in the name.  You drop two sided blocks, like in Dr. Mario, and try to get three of the same color in contact with each other.  When you do, however, the blocks do not simply disappear, but they combine into the next higher color level.  When the game begins, only green and yellow blocks are available to drop, but combining three or more yellows will form an orange block and unlock that color, meaning it will also appear randomly as a color to be dropped.  Ten different colors make up the Combine rainbow with white at the very top.  If you are able to get three whites together, they will finally disappear altogether.  The combining mechanic makes for some very interesting combos.  The brick that results from a combination always pops up in the bottom left position of where the matched blocks were.  Success requires a lot of thinking and planning ahead to avoid getting certain colors in positions where you won't be able to use them in a match.

The best way to play Combine is to have a friend that also plays.  On Facebook you have the ability to taunt your friends on their walls whenever you beat their high score.  That chase for the high score is reminiscent of what makes arcade-like games interesting. 

The iOS version has three different versions, so you can change the way you play, but classic mode is by far my favorite. 

If you plan on listening to music or your favorite gaming podcast while playing Combine beware - for some reason the music and sound effects will cause the game to crash if you are listening to something else, so you need to go into options and mute them. 

Combine is my favorite type of mobile game, as it is great in small bits and is fun to compete with friends.