A long time ago, a game called Triple Town came out. You built a town by matching pieces, going from bushes to trees to houses, or bears to graves to churches. Village Match is a triple town-like game where you place pieces on an island to form towns. Match 3 huts to form bigger huts. Match churches to make cathedrals. Fields to make windmills, which then get surrounded by fields. It was apparently made by one guy on his computer and it shows. Its not bad game, I kind of like it. Except there’s no tutorials or anything. Just start an island and get going. It would have been nice if they you told you 3 big fields can only make a mill once, and once that’s made, you can only surround it with the same big fields. There’s also a limited number of tiles to place, but I’m not sure what exactly gives you more tiles.
Match Village has the basics down, but simply lacks some serious polish that something like Triple Town had. I mean one man teams have created glory with stuff like Balatro. This seems like a game Jam entry that was picked and put out for a few dollars. It seems to be a thing(like Shivering Stone as well). This would have been better with more polish and documentation. On Keymailer’s website it even says:
Hey, before you buy, know that this is an indie game, developed by a guy in his room. Don’t expect a AAA experience with hours of content in this game, ok?
That’s really not excuse for this lack of polish with Match Village. Calling it minimalist and simplistic doesn’t necessary help. Take Oxytone, which got a Must Play. Minimalist, and simplistic, but it had polish. Here, the game feels rough and needed a few more minutes in the oven. Besides, Triple Town was free, Match Village is not. This gets a YMMV with a seven back-end score. It only gets a seven because there is a game here that is complete and playable. It is everything else that is lacking.
Overall: Match Village is a fine one man game, but lacks polish so its rough around the edges.
Verdict: YMMV
| Release Date | 3/14/24 |
| Cost | $4.99 |
| Publisher | Qubyte Interactive |
| ESRB Rating | E |
Game received for free from the publisher.
