Many match3 games have stuck with the simple swap-and-match formula, and others have took a different approach - either by doing simultaneous matching, or controlling drop direction with the orientation of the device. Puzzlings uses a rotation mechanism that can flip the entire board if you want it to, but in actuality it's merely a means to an end. That end is collecting outfits for your onscreen avatar.

It's a blissfully addictive premise on paper - new clothing shows up at a solid pace, which means you'll be speeding through the game finding all that you can lay your hands on to deck out your chap with the right gear. Each item is organised into a handful of categories, and you also have the opportunity to change the colour of them to suit. You find everything; from facial expressions to accessories, t-shirts and more.

In the main game, once you've swapped a number of blocks, four chunks of a circle will land on the board. Join them up together quickly and then you'll have found your item, but don't delay as the timer meter will count down faster whilst they are on the board. A nice touch is that your character's mood will reflect how you are doing - he'll be walking proudly with you in the best of times, and slouching along if you're not doing so well. If your guy is striding along most of the time, it's usually a good indication that you'll get an speed bonus - an extra item at the end of the level. There isn't any indication in the level of how much time you've got left to reach this additional goal however.

The candy coated visual aesthetic is definitely appealing

As you progress through each of Wardrobia's levels you'll find new elements to challenge you - you'll soon encounter 1x2 blocks scattered amongst the normal 1x1 blocks, and 2x2 blocks make an appearance later on. These make life more difficult as you still have to match at least 3 blocks in a row or column to clear them. However the difficulty of the game isn't really very high, even on the challenge stages. Most players can simply go straight through and finish within an hour or two.

The candy coated visual aesthetic is definitely appealing on the other hand, especially with all the different items that you can place on your avatar. You can even pose the avatar and take a picture—in one of the half a dozen or so places that you discover in the game—or view your statistics on the computer screen. The music wasn't really to our taste though.

Offering a different take on the match3 genre, Puzzlings looks set to captivate young minds with it's cutesy style, and amicable avatars that you can dress up in a wide array of different clothing. The problem we have is that it's not different enough, and whilst the freeform block rotation is a novel idea, the game's short length may put some off, especially once you've had your fill of collecting apparel. At £1.79 it's a good introduction to the genre, if you haven't played a match3 game yet then it may be worth a look.

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