Match 3D Reviews

This game was instantaneously one of my favorites, but the more I play, the more frustrated and irritable I become... 1. There’s WAY WAY too many ads. This developer KNOWS that his idea will attract the attention of many, and the fact that the developer put ads every 2 minutes DURING the game and one after or when you pause... it’s absolutely UNACCEPTABLE!!! This developer is greedy and he KNOWS the players will continue playing because of how challenging and fun it is. So what does the developer do? He makes it cost $6 or $7 JUST to remove ads DURING the game, not after (I have not bought no ads, but another reviewer said they did and all it did was take away ads during the game, not before or after the game. This is RIDICULOUS and the game is RIGGED to get you to pay. 2. Lives take 30 minutes to refresh and you can only have 5 at a time... and with the increasingly difficult levels, it just isn’t possible to keep going. It would be nice if that number was bumped up to 10 but it is what it is... 3. Another reviewer pointed out the 30 minutes of infinite lives is automatically started and with no choice of when to start it, which, if you weren’t able to play the game during that time you couldn’t use the infinite lives.

Overview: Addicting game, UNACCEPTABLE amount of ads (to the point it should be illegal imo), RIGGED to get you to pay, and ads aren’t even completely removable (I think).

I have never seen a game try so hard to make money. It is a timed, race against the clock game, but ads popping up in the middle disrupts your concentration and throws off your momentum. Especially since some ads can drag on for a full minute. To make matters worse, after a few levels you reach levels that are impossible to complete without boosters. You can get boosters for free, but to pass some levels it would take days of playing and losing the same level over and over to get enough free boosters to win the level. The only alternative is to pay for boosters. I know app developers don’t work for free and they need to make money by selling Match3D , in-app purchases, and/or ad time. I have paid for other apps, boosters, extra lives, etc., and have patiently watched ads between levels in other games. It’s the price of entertainment. But in other game apps, you can enjoy the game for free just by sitting thru the ads because the ads pay the bills. This game tries to force you to buy things despite selling ridiculous amounts of ad time. The number of ads and their placement in the middle of games made me not want to pay for anything in Match3D from the beginning, and after seeing how they make it nearly impossible to enjoy the game without buying things I have decided to stop playing altogether. It is a shame too because it is a fun game.

This game has amazing graphics and physics that is fun to play with and watch. However there is a price to pay that seems to get greater with time. You have to pay for things even after you earn them. You think that you are earning coins by playing and passing goals and filling your piggy bank, but when your piggy bank is full and you would like to uses some of your earned coins, you find you have to buy the coins you earned!!! And once full, any coins you earn after that just bounce off and you lose them. The game does not save the place you were at if you leave Match3D , so you can continue where you left it. You have to start from the beginning of the level you were at every time you start Match3D again. The ads you have to watch last some times 30 seconds. Some are two part ads, where you watch one and have to pick “Next” and then you have to watch the same ad over again. Not good for the advertiser, if the potential customer doesn't respond to an ad, why should you show the same ad again instead of another ad to get a response?!? Some ads only show how you lose the game, not showing what would happen when you become good at it. I got to level 36, but finally got fed up with the ads and limitations. I contacted the developers with questions and suggestions and never got a response.

I started playing it daily over a year ago and am playing it much less now. I’m at level 2200+. I probably should’ve quit a thousand levels ago. Way too many ads. Too frequent as well, every 2 minutes. The ads are super-long. You’ll have to watch an ad stream about 30 seconds, then when you close it, you find another countdown timer of about 15 seconds, then another one for another 10 seconds. All during supposedly “one” ad break.

And of course there’s an ad before the start of every level and then after you complete each level. It also locks up and goes black after some ads and you lose whatever progress you made for that level. Also, it’s really annoying when you’re playing a level with a lot of items, they don’t stay in the “container” unless you take the time to be careful and drop them in. Otherwise, they bounce around in and out of the container and you have to grab them again and waste time.

And finally, the most frustrating thing is most level timers will only give you 1 minute, 15 seconds when it’s clearly obviously you’re not going to finish in time, right from the get-go. So overall, if you’re patient and don’t care about wasting time and effort - then this game is okay.

***If I’d known the game was this limited, and would be constantly trying to up up-sell me, I wouldn’t have bought the paid version. I’m sorry I did.***

UPDATE: I’ve decided to stop playing this game. I liked using it to relax and de-stress, but playing against the clock creates stress rather than relieves it, and there’s no other option to play it.

I like this game, think it’s a creative idea. I like interface overall. I’d easily give it 4 stars, probably even 5 stars — but there are no “practice modes”, or any way whatsoever to the play without a timer constantly running. I had been using the game in the mornings to help wake up my brain, but am constantly irritated that I have to rush against the clock instead of having the option to let my mind relax and find the matches in varying levels without a stress-inducing clock running. ***The only way to change that is to spend money on boosters that add to the clock, which is manipulative.*** I purchased the paid version of Match3D , yet I’m still having purchases pushed at me, which cheapens the game for me and makes me want to not play it, and even worse, not recommend it to others. If a “play without the clock” option was available, and there weren’t “Buy boosters, give us more more money” things in my face all the time, I’d love it.

Getting really sick and tired of this ‘glitch’ I kept hearing about and am now experiencing. In the final moments of the TIMED game, the pieces ‘stick’ and you have to double and triple tap them to get them to budge and sometimes that doesn’t even work. Half the time I end up wasting my boosters due to this ‘glitch’. That other reviewer was right. They have it rigged to do this as it never happens at any other time during the game.
I’ve seen some 5 and 15 second ads which I noticed are newer so they are listening and improving that a little. They have to play the ads in the middle otherwise people can just restart Match3D between games and never watch them. I don’t like it either but that’s why. They need to learn to only put in 5 second ads there and stop losing customers over their greed.
That said, I love the game. It would be more successful than candy crush if they knocked off the ad crap. Hint - If you play in Airplane mode, ads can’t pop up!

Now the ads crash, which makes the game freeze and i have to close the game and reopen. I lose a life or don’t earn my bonus at the end of the game. Even though I landed on 5x points and watched a 30 second ad, it crashes at the end and I don’t get anything. I didn’t even care how many ads there were. I accepted watching 10 ads to earn 100 coins. But now the ad won’t finish playing. Then Match3D thinks I watched the ad and reduces my videos I’m allowed to watch to earn coins. But it doesn’t give me the 10 coins per video it was supposed to. The game itself has started freezing in the last minute of playing, never earlier in the game though. The seconds are still being deducted but the pieces are frozen to move them. I’ve made it slightly past level 500. It started messing up badly after I got over level 400. I have updated to the latest version of the game and even the latest software update on the iPad and I still have the problem just as bad. Now the game has started making my iPad do a hard reset and lock up the restart. My iPad has only done this twice and it was in the middle of trying to watch ads on this game. It looks like I won’t be able to play this game anymore. You’d think the developers would want to fix this stuff since you know they’re making money on the ad views during the game.

I have a hard time finding a game that can challenge me. Most games I try I get bored of quickly and delete. This game has actually kept me coming back until recently. The ads keep freezing up. They play and then I am unable to go back to the game. Then I lose whatever boosts I used and I have to start all over. This has been happening for over a week. I have been patient waiting for the bug to be fixed but nothing. I am really enjoying the challenge of this game but I hate being cheated by it constantly freezing up after the ads are done. It’s not even like it’s a glitch that pops you back to the game after a minute. It just sits there at the end of the ads, no X pops up, or if it does you can’t click it successfully, or the screen turns black and I wait but nothing else happens and I lose my boosts and have to start the level over. I’ve uninstalled it and reinstalled didn’t help. I’ve made sure my iPhone is up to date no changes. I’ve turned my phone off and restart it but that doesn’t help either. Nothing helps. Hopefully support can because I would really like to continue playing. Thanks for your time.

I really like this game. Sorting things is really relaxing and the visuals are great. The timer helps make the game more challenging, although it would be nice if there was an option to play without a timer. As others have pointed out, there are too many ads. I don’t mind there being ads between levels but it’s really annoying when you are playing a level and an ad pops up out of nowhere; and this happens several times each level! And these aren’t short ads either; they tend to be about a minute long. The biggest problem I have with this game is that the timer doesn’t pause for ads and that’s a problem when you only get a few minutes to complete each level. So for example, if you get 4 minutes to complete a level and an ad pops up that’s 1 minute long, then you’ve just lost a quarter of your time and you’ll likely get more ads that will steal even more of your time. I could tolerate pop up ads if the timer paused for them. There are also frequent glitches in which the game abruptly pauses for a few seconds. A lot of other people have voiced the same complaints as me so I hope these problems will be fixed soon.

I like the game itself but they CHEAT! They show the big magnet as booster but then you sit waiting for it to come AND IT DOESN’T! This means you just wasted precious seconds waiting for NOTHING! Also, many times it would stop the game & text 60 seconds UP, so then you continue & 28 seconds later (I had friend time it) it texts 60 seconds UP! which was a total lie, so I continue & 34 seconds later again: 60 seconds UP! So that it takes all the $1,000s of coins you’ve saved up PLUS the $600 coins from the piggy bank you just PURCHASED and leaves you with next to nothing. Then it tells you you have to watch videos to get $1,000 to play again (10 videos!) even though your extra lives are TOTALLY FULL. This game just steals your game coins, plays way too many video ads & tricks you into buying more & more coins and extra crap from the store to steal all your REAL money in order to play their stupid cheating game! It doesn’t matter how good you are at it, they’ll cheat you out of your coins & make you spend $20 just to play 1 round of their game! I don’t like games where they set you up & cheat so that there’s NO WAY you can possibly win! I QUIT! And I’m wiping your game off my iPad. Unless you like cheaters who steal your money by cheating you out of time, STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME!

The game is super relaxing and I would keep it on my phone if it didn’t do a couple of things. There are way too many ads for it. An ad when you start the game, three ads in the middle of the level, when you pause it and want to go back there is also an ad, when you want to go home or the next level there is an ad. Of course you can just pay the $3 to get ad free, but the game definitely makes sure it annoys you to the point of buying it or quitting the game. In the later levels it gets harder to pass the short time levels and it becomes almost impossible to do so without extra time or one of the boosters. The first few times you can get extra time through an ad, but after that you have to pay 100 coins to increase the time limit. You can get coins from the chests but you don’t nearly get enough to pay for it. So the only option is to buy it it’s $2 for 200 coins. And sometimes even the extra time still isn’t enough so you would have to buy extra time multiple times. The game really is a short term game that either gets you to spend as much money as possible or to watch as many ads as possible.

The game was really fun at first and it is quite relaxing, but there are a couple of things throughout the game that are really annoying. 1 being the amount of ads. That's an obvious one, as most games have a lot of ads, but this game has random ads that pop up during the play through of a level and not only that, but most of the ads are really repetitive as well and you get tired of seeing them so fast. It'd be better if ads can pop up before you start a level and after a level instead of there being so many that pop up randomly. 2 is the timer. Yeah, the timer makes the game more challenging but in some levels it isn't very fair. Like there are so many items in one level and there is only a 3 minute timer or something. It gets very annoying when you're so close to finishing the level but then the timer runs out. It'd be a lot better if there was no timer at all, an option to turn the timer on or off, or even if the times were a bit more fair. Otherwise, the game is a pretty fun and interesting concept, but there could be a bit of work put into it in order to make the game more appealing.

The game is good but as mentioned before there’s toooo many ads. For everything even when you pause the game there’s an ad and I get it, you can pay to remove ads but what’s the point of it’s a “free game” ads aren’t bad just wayyy to many ads. Aside from that sometimes the ad freezes when it’s a few seconds away from finishing and you can’t do anything about it so you exit the game and go back and you lose a live and okay that’s fine but it’s not like you re start the level. It starts off where you left !!!! That’s TRASH! So for example there’s 57 seconds left to the timer, and a ad pops up.. it stops when there’s “16” seconds left and it doesn’t continue and you wait and wait and you exit the game, you go back and it shows the main page of the game you click play and realize you lost that one live for exiting the game you ASSUME you start the level over with the amount of time you start off with (example 5 minutes) but NO you looooose a live and you start off with the 57 seconds you had left when the ad popped up so I feel THAT needs to be fixed!! If I lost a live RESTART the game and don’t take my live away and leave me with the remaining time i had left !!!

This game has potential to be extremely fun... if you’re willing to spend pointless money on it. To begin, there are too many ads. These ads pop in between levels and even while you’re in the middle of playing which can be very frustrating and interrupt your focus. Turning your phone on airplane mode solves this problem, but then you’re risking missing important calls and other notifications. Additionally, there gets to be a point where the given time to pass a level is simply not enough, and you have to use numerous boosters to get through them. Sometimes this can happen five levels in a row! You obviously have to pass levels and gain stars to earn these boosters, but even then that may not be enough. That’s when you’re given the option to buy the boosters for an unnecessary amount of money. It’s a fun game to pass the time when you enjoy matching a searching and have no care for completion and progression, but if you are one of those people (like me) that do gain satisfaction from completing a level, this game is not for you. Unless you’re willing to spend your money on it.

As many MANY others have pointed out, while this game is extremely fun and a great type of game I’ve not played like this before, the Ads are destroying my enjoyment or even my ability to play! I hate ads of any sort BUT, I can tolerate ads that pop up between levels and the ones who try and entice you with adding more time to a level you couldn’t finish. But these Ads pop up in the middle of the game!! Not only does it STEAL your precious time but it takes you out of the concentration you’re in while playing which is VITALLY important for this type of game on a time limit! It quite literally makes it impossible to play now that I’m in the higher levels. Just not enough time because the ads steal it in many ways. And the truly sad part is, if the ads were like older games like I explained above in between levels etc, I have at many times just purchased the game for no ads! But this is so ridiculous that I’m not wanting to give them my money because I’ve seen reviews that are almost a year old and nothing has changed! So this company must not care! Sad! I would have bought this game had it not been for that.🤷🏻‍♂️

I never write reviews, but I’m so annoyed by this game!!I’ve been playing this game for quite some time and I WAS addicted! I put it down for a while to play other games and suddenly every aspect of the game “cost” something!! I PAID to get rid of the ads, PAID for coins and boosters, and finally have accumulated enough coins and boosters to no longer need to purchase them and be able to finish most levels... but when you don’t successfully complete a level, you are now penalized, not only have you used a “life” but in order to attempt the level again you must now pay with accumulated coins or forfeit future boosters??!! This is whack... we have 5 lives, if we don’t successfully complete a level in those 5 lives, then charge coins or boosters!!! I’ve been playing so long, in the beginning this game let you just continually attempt levels as many times as you wanted, there were no “lives” just a fun, timed, matching game!! I could just quit a level if I knew I wasn’t going to finish and start over, then you added “lives” and that was cool and made it interesting... but now you take our lives and charge us to attempt said level again??? DONE! Huge waste of time, which really is frustrating!

I want to start off by saying that, at first, I really did enjoy this game. However, for no apparent reason, the timer for each game seems to adjust to shorter amounts of time. Also, The game does not provide an overall description or instructions as other games do. For example, when you finish a level and receive a bonus, there are icons that appear. It would be helpful if you could find out what these icons represent. But that is not shown anywhere in the game. As for my title of this review, I have written a few times about these issues, but I have not seen any responses or corrections. As with other reviews that I have read, the game does have glitches where it freezes pieces that you are trying to move, while the timer continues. That causes you to lose the game. If these issues were corrected, I would absolutely give this game a five star rating. But since it is very frustrating to encounter these problems (not to mention the incessant ads that pop up in the middle of a game and use up your time), I have given it only a three star rating. And I feel that is generous.

Game itself is very good, but ads are very long and so numerous that it is impossible to play this game. Have to pay for the game but there is no option to buy the game on Match3D Store. You must download the game and then in app pay money to get rid of most of the ads. I still get ads but infrequently. We have family share and while this game says it works with family share, it does not. Caveat under family share for this game on their site says no in app purchases can be shared. So what then is shared is the game with all the ads, continuous ads even in the middle of a game. So in fact there is no family share of this game. This is a memory game and interruption of the game with a long ad makes it very difficult to focus again when one has to keep looking for the ability to get rid of the ad on the screen even after the ad is done. Once back to the game lots of time is lost (timed game) while studying the screen seeing where you were.

Second problem this inability to family share causes is that anyone on the family share cannot pay to get of the ads. Can’t even get to that page it appears.

Developer needs to take off their site that it is compatible with family share because it is not!!!!

I am so addicted to this game! I paid to remove the ads and now there are none. At all. Unless I want to watch and earn more lives. I don’t think $6 is unreasonable because I used to buy a puzzle magazine for $6 before smartphones. I had deleted this because I was spending too much time playing but reinstalled it and I still don’t have ads..yay! The only problem I have is that if I pause the round, I often accidentally tap the incorrect picture to restart it which causes a NEW round start. So if I used a booster it’s still used up and that’s aggravating!! Especially if it was your last ditch effort Lol! Oh and I’ve accidentally hit the freeze snowflake several times with my hand but I don’t know what the solution is for that. I still think it deserves 5 stars!!! Great design! I love how there are shadows so you know you’ve picked up a small piece, how they spin when you hold them, and how they interact with the other items if you drag one across the pile.

This game is incredibly addicting. I find myself closing my eyes at night and drifting off by matching objects in my head. Once you reach a certain level you have enough coins and boosters to beat any level even if you run out of time which is nice.

Unfortunately, this game is absolutely unplayable if you keep the ads (unless you like to torture yourself). They pop up unexpectedly in the middle of every single level - usually more than once - and you instantly lose the flow you were in. I paid to remove them. The coin flow is very slow I will add, but it’s been okay. My only UX complaint is that this game is INCREDIBLY detailed and touch sensitive until the last few moves. It always amazes me when I see an object barely visible under a pile of others and it still recognizes I’m touching that one to move it. However, once you’re at the end and the board is nearly clear, it stops being as sensitive and I find myself swiping on a tiny object 10x to move it. It’s really annoying to lose your streak over it too.

I’ve had this game for over a year now and I play this game on a regular basis. I enjoy all the features of this game. Two added feature I would like to see add to this game. First the ability to see how many minutes long my next game will be. This would an excellent feature to add because it would give the player the ability to see if the next game is a two minute game or an eight minute game. Why does this matter to a player? It would give the ability of choice to the player when or if to use their boosters. If it’s a short two minute game I might want to use both the clock booster and the magnet booster. If it’s an eight minute game I might chose to skip using either booster because I feel I’ll be able to clear out all the objects before the time is up. I want the ability as a player to know how long my next game will be so I can personally decide if I want to use, one, two or none of my boosters for the next game. Second I would love to be able to use my boosts after the game has already started. For example, I decided not to use any boosters before the game started. But after I start playing the game I realize I’m having some trouble with the game and I want to use my clock boost to help me finish the game. Since they are my boosters, I should be able to use them whenever I feel it is the most beneficial to me. Please add these two features. Thank you. - Melissa

I 100% love this game but again WAY TOO MANY ADS. We all understand the need for ads and sponsorships, but I see more ads than I do of the game itself. 5 ads in a 15 minute timed round is a bit much. One whole day of me playing this game was the great “ Acorns” ad. Realistically, I bet that ad showed up over 150 times. This game is great but the amount of ads makes it hard to continue playing. Yes I can spend the $5.99 to stop the ads, but I chose not to. Also a huge complaint is the very short timed rounds which are purposefully made impossible to complete without using coins for an extra 60 seconds. Sometimes those rounds can be passed but not when the game glitches and won’t let the items be moved to the platform. There’s only been maybe 2 times I’ve passed those rounds without having to use coins and the game did not move the items. As I stated before, I love this game and play it a lot but I think the developers could do a better job with the ridiculous amount of ads and the frustrating glitches. Oh, btw, let a full round go without interruptions of the same ad over and over and over again...just saying!! 🤷‍♀️