Marvel Puzzle Quest

Marvel Puzzle Quest combined the match-3 puzzle genre with RPG character collecting in a way that wasn't yet a given back in 2013 — instead of tiles simply disappearing, every matched trio triggers a colored alarm that charges up the special ability of a specific hero, whether that's a direct attack, healing, or a board-wide effect that changes the entire play field. A team of three characters thus alternates during a single battle between passively matching tiles and actively unleashing abilities, giving even the simple match-3 mechanic a surprising layer of tactics, since the right order of abilities often decides the win more than the luck of falling tiles. Controls are purely touch-based, and swiping fingers across the grid will feel familiar to anyone who knows classic matching puzzles.

Developer studio Demiurge Studios built a long series of seasonal events and competitions on this combination, where players compete for rankings, exclusive rewards, and priority access to new characters, and thanks to a regular supply of Marvel heroes — from the classic Avengers to the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and all sorts of villains — the game has kept an active community for many years after release. Visually it's spare, icon-based graphics with no great ambitions; the game's strength lies in the system and in how differently each character behaves in battle.

New heroes, their upgrades, and key resources are handed out through gacha draws and time-limited events, so without spending, progress and access to the strongest characters slows down significantly and the player has to rely mainly on patience.

Why play it: For players who enjoy match-3 puzzles and appreciate it when matching tiles also gives them tactical RPG depth, even though the gacha pace demands patience or money.