Zynga’s reputation as a clone factory isn’t entirely undeserved. Today’s announcement that a Sims competitor The Ville and Farmville 2 are both in the works certainly doesn’t help. But not everything the company does is a spin on what someone else did first. Today’s launch of Matching with Friends shows that the social gaming powerhouse is capable of fun and original social gaming experiences as well.
As its name implies, Matching with Friends follows Words, Chess, Hanging and Scramble as the latest title in the “…With Friends” line-up. Like its predecessors the game is built on turn-by-turn multiplayer, allowing you to catch up on all your running games at your own leisure.
The big difference here is that Matching takes the player-friendly asynchronous multiplayer set-up the series is known for and applies it to a wholly original puzzle concept, instead of riffing on already-popular concepts like all the other With Friends titles.
Each round gamers are given a set of multicolored blocks that must be assembled onto the game board. Making sets of like-colored blocks scores points and clears them from the board. 2X and 3X multipliers litter the play field in key spots adding an extra layer of strategy. The player that manages to score the most points over 12 rounds wins.
The concept is very simple – anyone can match colors. But after just one afternoon of play it’s already obvious that Matching contains plenty of hidden depth. For example, if you have no good moves during your round it is a totally viable strategy to simply clutter the play field, making things more difficult for your opponent.
Matching with Friends is free to play with ads, with an ad-free version for sale for $2.99. Players can purchase coins which can be redeemed for power-ups like board-clearing bombs, but in my early games I haven’t ever felt like I needed to take advantage of these items or that the experience was “pay to win.”
Download Matching with Friends Free to try out the multiplayer puzzler for yourself.
Source : ign[dot]com
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