Match Three Madness Part 2: Triple Town

Written by Colby Friday, 17 February 2012 06:00

This article is part of a continuing series that looks at match three games. Last time we looked at Combine, a match three game that introduced the idea of having matches not disappear altogether, but combining into a higher level brick type.  Today we look at Triple Town, which is very different, but does include this same idea of building up higher level structures from low level blocks through combination.  Triple Town, which is also on Facebook and Google+, follows the freemium model which raises some interesting questions about the future of mobile games.

The differences between Triple Town and Combine are immediately noticeable.  While Combine uses a very basic visual aesthetic with colored blocks, Triple Town uses a six-by-six grid and tiles that are nicely drawn parts of the town that you will build.  In addition to differences in the visual style, the method used to match three is different.  Rather than having blocks drop from above, you are given a random tile piece that can be placed anywhere on the grid.  Three grass tiles turn into a bush, then a tree, a house, a mansion, and all the way up to a sky castle.  Along with this main line of progression, another set of tiles lead to another line of progression.  Bears can also be placed on the grid which will walk around your town until they have been completely blocked off.  Once they are blocked off, they die and three of their gravestones can be turned into a church, three churches into a cathedral, and three cathedrals into a treasure chest containing 500 gold pieces.  Eventually ninja bears, which can teleport anywhere in the grid are also introduced.  Yes, that's right, I just said there are ninja bears in this game.  

Building your small village into a more developed little community is much more difficult than I expected.  When three matching tiles are combined the new tile is placed wherever the last of the matching tiles was placed.  A great amount of planning and foresight are required to land big combos.  Players do have a couple of resources to make it easier and are mostly available in the store.  Using the coins that are awarded throughout playing the game, you can purchase specific tiles and even crystal tiles, which are essentially wild cards.  The prices are pretty steep, so it's going to take some pretty deep pockets if you lack the necessary skill.  A recently added undo option in the store is also a welcome addition.  For a game like this, there is one feature that is noticeably absent, a leader board.  For games like Triple Town that are based around building up high scores, some way to keep track of personal high scores and compare them to your friends' scores would be a great improvement.

Another important aspect to this game is that it follows the freemium model.  Developers are constantly finding new ways to monetize their games, usually by getting the player hooked in and then offering micro-transactions that make the game more playable or more enjoyable.  This is the first time I've seen this type of game monetized in this way.  Starting out you are given 1500 tiles to place and as you place them, a timer runs to give you an additional tile every minute or so.  Once you have used up the initial tiles, you can only store up 150 tiles, which allows for 5-10 minutes of playing.  So essentially the free version only allows you to play ten minutes out of every couple hours.  There are two ways to buy additional tiles.  One option is to use the in game currency to buy additional tiles - 950 gold for 200 turns.  This will extend how much of the game you can play, but means that you have far less gold to use on special tiles.  Additionally, you have the option to pay $3.99 for unlimited turns.  I do really enjoy the strategy elements to this game, but $3.99 for any iOS match three game seems like a pretty steep price.  The good news is you don't have to take my word for it, you can play the free version and then decide if you want to make that investment.