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I’ve always had a mobile game on my cell phone (clamshell) and more likely than not it was a form of match-3. This type of puzzler has always been my pick of choice for casual gaming on the go. Although my clamshell is now replaced with an iPhone, not much else has changed. I still have a match-3 puzzle game on my phone and am always on the lookout for another so I was more than happy to receive a request to check out iIsland.

iIsland is in a tropical setting where you swap around sea life tiles in order to match-3+ tiles. The brightness of beaches as well as sea life is pleasing to look at…especially when the weather is gray and gloomy out. Besides the nice ocean theme the graphics bring flashy spell affects from power-ups. The effects are crisp and outshine the majority of other match-3 games (in the graphics department) that we’ve played/reviewed.

Swapping tiles is very similar to what we’ve seen in the past from creating chains of matching tiles to moving a certain tile (puzzle pieces in this case) down to the bottom of the game board. There’s also a couple different match-3 modes where one gives you a time limit while the other lets you move at your own pace. Included are a good assortment of power-ups to choose from that’ll aid you in advancing through the 60+stages.

Sure, this is all “been there and done that” (but iIsland does all this very well), there is a new aspect that we haven’t seen. This time around you can go into your Lab and combine power-ups to create new power-ups. This feature alone is easily the most innovative portion of iIsland and what helps iIsland stand out in our mind.

The Bottom Line: 7.5 (Good)

If you haven’t spent much time playing match-3 games, iIsland is a great place to start with it’s bright and friendly graphics as well as use of power-ups. However, if you’ve gotten your iPhone full of match-3 games you won’t find anything too new here.

If you like to try out a game before you buy, iIsland also includes a Free version as well (Click Here).