so, like. as far as you know, are there any match-3 games that are as good (mechanically and/or in terms of story engagement) as HuniePop, but aren't... like... HuniePop? it's such a good game but it's also so, uh. HuniePop.
Oh, there’s loads of them. A few personal favourites:
Battle Chef Brigade - Leading off with one of the most oddball titles in my collection, this one’s a cross between a match-three puzzler and a side-scrolling brawler. It’s competitive cooking with a twist: you have to gather your ingredients by hunting monsters! You start each battle with an action platformer section to obtain ingredients, then rush your spoils back to the arena to cook them up via puzzle-based minigames. The story’s competent, if conventional, and the protagonist is... well, uncomfortably relatable.
Beglitched - A match-three puzzler/turn-based strategy hybrid with a self-described “cyberpink” aesthetic, this one casts the player in the role of an aspiring hacker who’s stumbled upon a laptop formerly owned by the mysterious Glitch Witch and thereby become her unwitting apprentice. Match-three hacking battles alternate with simple node-based exploration segments that push the story forward. Very cute, and a lot more challenging than it looks!
Legend of Fae - An early project from Carolina Moya’s EndlessFluff Games, here you play as a young girl who’s discovered that she’s the heir to a lineage of powerful sorcerers. It’s a split-screen deal, with a match-three board at the bottom used to build power for JRPG-style battles up top. The story ain’t exactly deep, but the gameplay is quite engaging; bonus points for a physically disabled protagonist where her disability is actually game-mechanically relevant.
