Match Connect Challenge

I was definitely underwhelmed by this game with "waves of excitement". The ONLY saving grace as far as I'm concerned was the great pirate-type tokens to match!

No instructions so most of my time was trying to figure out how to play the game. So hopefully the following will help others trying the game and be more informative than just a "thumbs up".

From what I gathered from the short time I played is:
o it is match 2
o matches are valid if:
...o pieces are in direct contact (side by side or above & below)
...o both pieces are on an outside edge
...o pieces can be matched if it takes 2 or fewer angles on the board (if more angles are needed it won't work)
...o as pieces are matched, the remaining tokens in the rows or columns matched may shift up, down, right or left leaving "holes" where match lines can go

I played on EASY difficulty and still found the time limit restrictive. It seemed like the time was the same regardless of the difficulty of the board.

Warning: Asset Flip!

Match Connect Challenge is an asset flip, or what Valve calls a "Fake Game". The "developer" paid for/pirated someone else's example/template/tutorial Mahjong style matching game, changed the name, reskinned it, and submitted it to Valve as if it was their own game.

Boogygames Studios have shown a repeat pattern of unethically dumping other people's work onto Steam as a cheap, nasty cash grab, through this account or through closely linked/alt accounts. Here's some examples so you can see for yourself:

• "Case Simulator Weapons and Armors" = Yet Another Case Opener developed by NeraQuam
• "Color By Number - Pixel Draw" = Pixel Art: Color By Number developed by Moana Studio
• "Pixel Art Monster - Color By Number" = Pixel Art: Color By Number developed by Moana Studio
• "Rainbow Duck" = Switch The Gravity developed by App Advisory
• "Weapon and Armor: Mahjong" = Mahjong Game Engine developed by SmallBigSquare
• "Loot Collection: Mahjong" = Mahjong Game Engine developed by SmallBigSquare
• "Food Mahjong" = Mahjong Game Engine developed by SmallBigSquare

Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.

The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just iPhone screen tapping stuff. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.

This looks and feels like a mobile app, but I wasn't able to find it on the app stores. Maybe it was removed, maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all).

Regardless, for all intents and purposes "Match Connect Challenge" might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers. We don't spend all this money building gaming rigs so we can pretend they're iPhones and play games that might as well be mobile apps.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

Match Connect Challenge is relatively cheap at $2 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. Because this is the kind of game you can just play for free on mobile phones, it's impossible to recommend anyone should pay money for the same experience on Steam.

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