Royal Match Review (Android & iOS)

The pandemic might’ve caused a bit of a stir among the general populace, but if there was one silver lining that came out of it, it was the globalization of couch puzzlers and annoyingly addictive match-three games. One of these games, aptly titled Royal Match, was one to ignite the wick and prove that, even during difficult times, something as simple as swatting a screen could be highly beneficial for the soul. It was a release, albeit a short one that didn’t offer much sentimental value. But it was a release all the same—a quick solution for eliminating boredom during the lulls of the pandemic. It might have blazed a trail similar to that of Candy Crush Saga’s illuminating scorcher, but it made a breadcrumb trail nonetheless, and one that, frankly, was a lot of fun to follow along with whilst the world learned to lick the salt from its wounds.

Royal Match might be long past its coronation debut as the new kingmaker in the match-three space, but to say that it’s currently without social standing or the power to move mountains just wouldn’t be true. No, because even after several years and thousands of stages, it would appear that old King Robert still has a kingdom without the proper foundation of an ironclad empire. Royal Match might have provided the tools to build a stable infrastructure several years ago, but it seems that there are still countless corridors left to craft, and not to mention thousands of potential wings to design and manufacture. Like Candy Crush, then, but with more vases and Royal Eggs than the usual lollipops and chocolate truffles.

While Royal Match doesn’t do anything particularly exciting with the traditional match-three blueprint, the game does feature all of the elements of a long-lasting couch puzzler. In addition to having clean and simple swipe-based mechanics and transparent goals, it also provides thousands of unique levels (a little over 12,000 the last time we checked) as well as other notable avenues of play, including its signature Tournament, Quest and Challenge modes, all of which feature separate paths with distinct perks and rules of progression. To add, the rolling saga adopts a Teams feature—a separate mode that requires players to frequently collaborate in order to complete levels and carve deeper into the kingdom and its vast wealth of stages.

The good news is that, even if you are unfamiliar with the match-three gameplay format, you don’t need to know how to solve puzzles in order to make headway on most of Royal Match’s objectives. Like all games that have come before it, it primarily involves swiping or stacking tiles in an orderly manner to align three or more of the same symbol to remove them from the board. As you remove more tiles from the equation, you earn various Boosters—items that you can utilize to aid your quest to clean the board and progress to the next stage. All of this is rather straightforward, and in no way a tough process to solve. The only issue with it, however, is that you must complete each stage with a set amount of lives. If you fail to complete a puzzle in so many moves, then you essentially have to wait for your lives to either replenish or, in a worse case scenario, purchase more lives to continue. And that, unsurprisingly, is where the headache comes into play.

As much as I’d love to say that Royal Match doesn’t lean into forced paywalls and pay-to-win schemes — it does. Thankfully, you don’t need to spend a dime to enjoy Royal Match, though you do need to be willing to tolerate its dependency on in-game transactions and the occasional pop-up. To call it an inconvenience wouldn’t be all that far from the truth. But, again, it’s to be expected of a match-three puzzle game; Candy Crush, for example, follows the same pattern. The question is, should you dig into your back pocket to play Royal Match? Eh — I wouldn’t, but that’s just me. It depends, I suppose, on how long you’re willing to wait for a second batch of lives.

To state the obvious, you still have a great mobile game here with a lot of quality components and perks to chase. Even with the occasional off-the-cuff ad or paywall problem, Royal Match still provides a clean and satisfying experience that has more than enough to keep you plugging away throughout the seasonal shifts. With that, you won’t have an issue with sourcing a worthy alternative for the likes of Candy Crush Saga and other match-three puzzle games here. The question is, which of the two is the better puzzler? The jury’s out on that one, to be fair.

Verdict

Royal Match sits atop the throne not as a jester in the match-three puzzler field, but as an equal to the likes of Candy Crush and Bejeweled. Courtesy of its sizable library of stages and fleshed out gameplay modes (and not to mention its adoption of an alliance system with vast rewards and avenues of choice), Royal Match fits snugly into just about any pocket as a reliable source for quick-fire entertainment. It might not do anything to elevate the fundamentals of a traditional match-three puzzle game, but with a generously packed catalog of stages and challenges to overcome, it does provide the weight of an evergreen experience that can keep you swiping Royal Eggs for months.

As with most mobile games with turn-based fixtures, Royal Match does come with a downside: the in-game paywalls. Granted, it isn’t intrusive enough to ridicule your progress, though it can dampen an otherwise seamlessly satisfying experience. But that’s a small price to pay for a game that can, in all fairness, keep you ruthlessly distracted for weeks, months, perhaps even years. It isn’t a deal breaker, and it certainly isn’t mandatory. It’s a minor headache, if anything. But then, when you have upwards of 13,000 stages to work with, a headache feels like a small sacrifice, really.