Wild West Match 2: The Gold Rush

Wild West Match 2 sets its board in the Gold Rush and fills it with the period’s props: nuggets, cowboy hats, horseshoes. The goal across hundreds of levels is digging — finding what the frontier has buried.

Its one distinctive tool is dynamite, which does two jobs rather than one. It clears obstacles, and it reveals hidden gold, which means the decision about when to use it is not purely tactical. Spending a stick to escape a blocked board is sometimes worse than spending it to open a square you suspect is hiding something.

Beyond that the game is a straightforward themed match-3, and a legible one: the pieces are strongly different in shape, which counts for a lot when a late board fills up. The Western dressing is thorough without getting in the way of reading the grid.

1. Line up three or more nuggets, hats or horseshoes by swapping neighbours.
2. Set off dynamite to break obstacles or expose hidden gold.
3. Clear the level target to unlock the next dig.
4. Watch for squares that look deliberately blocked — something is usually under them.

Dynamite is worth more as a probe than as an escape. If a level has an obviously walled-off corner, open that rather than using the charge to scrape a clear you could have found by swapping.