Consider yourself lucky that I don't have a pound for every match-3 puzzle game for the iPhone / iPod Touch, because if I did I would probably be rich enough not to be reviewing games any more.
To say there are many of them is an under-statement of epic proportions.
With that in mind I wasn't keen at first on playing Plantastic!, dismissing it as yet another create-sets-of-three-same-coloured-items game. Even worse, a match-3 game involving flowers.
But as it is from Handmark Games, who have put several good titles into the App Store, I decided to give it a try.
I'm glad I did because what I discovered was a charming and absorbing game which manages to offer a twist on the standard format.
This match-3 doesn't just have you swapping one flower for another on a grid to create lines of three. Instead you create your own grid of flowers by placing each one at a time into your garden.
You get to see which flowers are coming up via a queue at the side of the screen. Place three or more flowers of the same colour side by side and you create a bouquet - the flowers disappear and you score points. The more flowers in your bouquet, the more points you score.
The catch is that you can only place a new flower in close proximity to where the previous one was placed. Which one of the five slightly different game modes you're playing determines which planting pattern you can work within.
Choosing where to place each flower requires some careful thought because every move has a bearing on the next.
If you leave yourself with no more moves or your queue of flowers gets too long then it's game over.
Starting off at a nice leisurely pace, Plantastic! soon becomes a complex challenge as obstacles are thrown into the mix such as more flower colours, mushrooms which take up valuable planting spots and a mole who is intent on stealing flowers.
Luckily as the game gets more frantic there are power-ups to help you out such as being able to plant a flower anywhere in the garden, clearing a square of the garden and being able to plant a very helpful five-flower cross which can score big points.
Colourful graphics and a cheery soundtrack add to Plantastic!'s overall charm.
When all is said and done, Plantastic! is still a match-3 game and so isn't go to score top marks.
It does, however, have a lovely presentation and it offers an enjoyable mix of puzzle and strategy. What it does, it does well. It’s quite a bit deeper than most other games it’s up against in the puzzle/matching genre.
It's a nice game overall and deserves to bloom into a success in the App Store.
Verdict: 7 out of 10 – flower-themed fun for fans of puzzle games looking for something slightly different
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