Bejeweled

Bejeweled arrived in 2001 with a recipe so simple that hundreds of other games would copy it within a few years: swap two adjacent gems on a grid to form a row of three or more matching pieces, then watch the board gradually clear and refill with rewards and bonus gems. No complicated story, no extra controls to learn – just colorful gems, a satisfying chime on every match, and an escalating pace that kept players glued to the screen far longer than they'd originally planned, without even realizing it.

PopCap Games defined the entire genre of match-three puzzle games with this title and demonstrated how a simple mechanic could be sold as a full-fledged gaming experience on almost any platform and for almost any player. Bejeweled subsequently appeared in dozens of versions and sequels, from the web browser to mobile phones and game consoles, and its influence is visible in the huge number of games that later adopted the match-three recipe and simply repackaged it with different graphics or theming.

Although Bejeweled was a complete novelty in its day, today's players might find it oddly familiar precisely because of how many clones have appeared across every gaming platform since. That doesn't change the fact that it's one of the most influential and successful titles in the entire puzzle genre, one from which a large part of the modern mobile gaming market and the free-to-play business built around it can trace its roots.

Why play: For fans of relaxing puzzle games who want to experience the match-three recipe in its original, unspoiled form, before countless clones wore it out.