Chip Chain Review

Chip Chain is one of those ideas that, in hindsight, I'm surprised no one else came up with before. It twists the Match Three genre around and produces a rather entertaining and strategical puzzle game.

Players are presented with a screen of numbered Poker chips. They must match three or more of the chips together in order to accrue points and thereby earn a more valuable chip. Match together chips numbered 1 and the result is a number 2 chip and so forth. It's ridiculously simple but there's more challenge to it than one would think. There's the challenge of setting up a run of combos, meaning more points, for instance. There's also the matter of trying to line up chips to reach that all important yet awkwardly placed out of the way high value chip.

A series of power-up cards can help matters, such as by enabling the player to move a chip across the screen or by simply adding one to the number on the chip. It all comes together for a rather addictive yet simple mix.

Different modes are available to entice players and this is also where the in-app purchases come into play. Each day, players are given 2 modes to play for free. These range from a timed and brief game to a set number of chips, or simply competing with friends for the highest scores, by using the same chips. Buying the in-app currency, gems, can lead to unlocking these permanently, although it isn't essential as things rotate on a daily basis.

Because of this, Chip Chain neatly avoids any excessive in-app purchasing problems. It's a high quality game without it. Sure, it might not be the most attractive of games to look at, but there's a heap of fun here for Match Three fans looking for something with a bit more strategy.