Angry Birds Match Guide 

The game will have you matching things, collecting things, using things, and, overall, doing things. You can call in the usual avian suspects Red, Chuck, and Bomb for help when the matching gets hard, which is probably going to be quite often given that the game is free to play. Match sets of four or five items to spawn Red who clears one row, Chuck who clears an intersecting row and column, or Bomb who clears three rows. Levels will include different challenges such as clearing pigs, glue or mud and collecting specific numbers of items like popsicles and cake. Angry Bird Match relies on their cutest characters The Hatchlings, to motivate continued gameplay. Levels are broken up by scenes such as a beach party or a dance party and as you advance through puzzles, you collect different Hatchlings to “invite” to whatever scene you’re currently occupying. By the second scene (the dance party), you must complete several puzzles to unlock your next invitee. The scenes are purely visual with no interactivity; tapping doesn’t produce conversation bubbles and there are no triggered effects. This feels like a missed opportunity.Along with inviting the baby birds to your event,  you can also dress them with little accessories such as silly necklaces or festive shirts. The first accessory is free and additional accessories can be purchased with gold coins or by opening chests. Birds can only wear one accessory at a time, and the only benefit to adding accessories is that you earn a pittance of a coin bonus (+1 coin) when you complete a level.

Angry Birds Match is near replica of just about every other basic match-3 game, offering very little beyond a nominal collection mechanic. To successfully contribute a new entry to the overcrowded match-3 space, there must be something special about the mechanics, the characters, the environments, or the extra features. Though it's far removed from the original game, this match-3 puzzle spin-off still manages to be fun whether you're a bird lover or militantly pro-pig. At its core, Angry Birds Match is a fairly typical match-3 puzzle game. You have to move different pieces one space so that there are three or more of them in a row, which causes all of them to disappear. Also, if you match four or more in a row, you get a power-up. The difference being that here, those power-ups are annoyed avians who, depending on how many pieces you match, can be sent running in different directions, or multiple ones, taking out everything in their path. That includes (and this is important) any pigs who are just standing around doing nothing. Otherwise, though, this is a fairly straightforward match-3 puzzle game, with everything that kind of gameplay implies. It gets increasingly clever, and difficult, and will give you hours of problem-solving fun before you get bored or so supremely stuck that you quit in a huff.

As you rescue the kidnapped baby birds, you are gifted with a treasure chest for each one and an outfit of your own choosing. Each of the little ones has a total of six outfits that you can either buy for fictional money or earn from chests which cost twenty gems to open.The outfits for all the hatchlings is a fun little customization, but also adds a benefit as well. Once you unlock outfits four through six, you earn more coins for defeating the levels. The final hatchling doesn’t become free until conquering level 610, so there is no shortage of stuff to unlock.The main game starts out small by of course introducing you to the basic mechanics of this match-3 in which you connect 3, 4, or 5 of the same colored object to make them disappear or transform them into a power-up. This is where the birds come in, and you begin to recognize the link to Angry Birds. The game also offers three power-ups to equip before a level begins, but unfortunately, they are the same and only offer you to start with 1, 2, or 3 birds on the board.

The most useful aspect of these power-ups is that they help with some of the later levels as piggies begin to become a threat. As you progress through the game, pigs start showing up and taunting you in a variety of ways. The green fatties eventually hide under muddy tiles, swim in a moat while pushing your tiles around, and even wear armor in the form of a wooden barrel.Luckily, your heroic birds can kill all these villains in one shot while it takes two or more matches to kill them; the barrel-wearing pig requires four matches. Sadly, this is where the game stops changing aside from the occasional new obstacle like TNT or ice blocking your tiles. It takes a level anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes to complete. Event levels are quite difficult and may require multiple attempts to get the right combinations and random drops to finish. Also, if you lose an event level you may need to restart from square one to unlock the Royal Chest. The first campaign levels are simple and teach you the mechanics of the game.The graphics illustrate bird movements well, yet could use some work in showing you what your current match placement is for normal tiles. The controls could be a bit nicer to new players. I’ve launched a few birds in the wrong direction. I understood Red’s frustration at missing the pigs. Just keep your finger down until you know what you’re doing. Kind of like keeping your hand on a chess piece until you know where you’ll place it. The levels have a variety of obstacles to stump your strategies.

As you progress through the game, pigs start showing up and taunting you in a variety of ways. The green fatties eventually hide under muddy tiles, swim in a moat while pushing your tiles around, and even wear armor in the form of a wooden barrel.Luckily, your heroic birds can kill all these villains in one shot while it takes two or more matches to kill them; the barrel-wearing pig requires four matches. Sadly, this is where the game stops changing aside from the occasional new obstacle like TNT or ice blocking your tiles.There is a little side quest which rewards you with the white treasure chest for your efforts if you want to escape the hatchlings for a bit. If you want the spoils, you’ll need to beat anywhere from 5 to 15 levels without losing a life in the process.

One nice thing about the game is the rewards received from treasure chests. Unlike other games, Angry Birds Match is not stingy about free lives, coins, or gems. I’ve been rewarded with things like unlimited lives for an hour and starting the next level with extra moves which would be incredible if I actually needed them.Another refreshing change from other games is that the ads aren’t as insidious as you’d expect. Aside from the pause menu and first starting up the game, you really don’t see a lot of ads or them begging you to rate them. All the ads are for other Angry Birds games though.