If there is one genre that’s the toughest to crack in terms of coming up with fresh ideas, it would have to be the match-3 genre, right? I would honestly think that we’ve gone through every possible permutation of a matching game by this point, so there couldn’t possibly be anything left to break new ground in such a tired genre. Right? Wrong! Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you Shift Shaft, a matching game that’s actually interesting!
Ok, “interesting" is majorly underselling this one. This is definitely one of the most strategic games I’ve played in a while. First of all, let me state that this is not a game where you swap any tiles on the board, like most matching games. This is a “tap a group of 3 or more tiles to make them disappear" style of matching game. And let me tell you that I’m not normally a fan of those. Like, at all.
Somehow though, Shift Shaft makes it work. It’s likely because the actual matching of tiles is kind of secondary here. The meat of the game is moving your little hero around the game board in order to fight enemies or collect treasures. Yes, matching a certain number of blocks is usually how you unlock the exit, but rarely is that your only focus. This almost feels like a dungeon crawler first and foremost.
Which is all well and good, but also not the most novel thing, even in the world of match-3 games. What really blew my mind with Shift Shaft and the main thing that makes it feel unlike any other game out there is your ability to rotate the entire board at will. It sounds simple but this changes everything. It makes the tap-to-match much more interesting because you get to choose what direction “down" is and thus where new blocks will fall into empty spaces.
Not just the blocks either, but your character and enemies too. What might be some mindless tap-to-match gameplay actually has you thinking many moves ahead, and from every direction possible thanks to the ability to spin the playing field. Throw in a bunch of really cool power-ups, enemies with unique attack patterns to consider, and a bunch of permanent upgrades to spend your hard-mined gems on and Shift Shaft becomes so so much more than just another matching game.
I really can’t think of a recent game that I’ve had so much trouble putting down, but Shift Shaft has done that to me this week. Like the best roguelikes, sometimes even your best-laid plans can all come crashing down and you’ll find your run ending out of the blue, and when that happens I often feel like I’m going to break my screen mashing through to start up a new game afterwards. This is truly a thinking person’s matching game. Shift Shaft is just a few bucks with no ads or IAP, and if you pick it up be prepared to get sucked in for a long time to come.
