Treasures of The Sea

Treasures of the Sea knows exactly how long it wants to be: forty levels, no more, with hidden pirate treasures as the reward for working through them. Matching three or more of the same items removes them, and that rule holds from the first level to the last.

A fixed, modest length is rarer than it sounds in this genre, and it changes the experience. Nothing is padded and no level exists to slow you down — the difficulty simply rises to the end, which makes it a genuinely finishable game rather than a permanent installation.

The underwater setting keeps the palette cool and readable, and the treasure hunt gives the run a destination. If you would rather complete something in a couple of sittings than start a game with four thousand levels in it, this is the shape you want.

1. Swap two adjacent items to line up three or more of the same kind.
2. Clear what each of the forty levels asks for to move on.
3. Watch the difficulty rise as you approach the last levels.
4. Finish the run to uncover the hidden pirate treasures.

With only forty levels, there is no reason to save anything for later. Spend whatever the board gives you on the level in front of you — hoarding is a habit from games ten times this length, and here it just makes the run harder than it needs to be.