Doge Match

Thirty-six levels, and the game is upfront that they were built one at a time rather than generated. That shows in play: boards here have a shape, and the awkward one is awkward on purpose rather than by accident of a random fill.

A designed run of this length asks something a thousand-level saga never does — that you actually solve the board in front of you. There is no next-board-will-be-easier cushion, so a level that resists is a level to read again rather than to skip past.

The doge faces keep the tone light against that, and the whole thing is pitched at all ages: nothing here punishes you beyond making you look properly.

The result is a run you can finish in an evening and remember afterwards, which is rarer in this genre than it should be — most boards blur together precisely because nobody placed the pieces on purpose.

1. Read the board before the first move — the levels are designed, not random.
2. Swap two adjacent tiles to line up three or more.
3. Work out what makes a level awkward rather than clearing on reflex.
4. Finish all thirty-six.

When a designed level resists, look for the piece the board is short of rather than the biggest cluster. Hand-built boards usually have one scarce colour doing all the blocking, and finding it turns the level around faster than any amount of tidy matching.