To be honest, when I saw the game "Happy Match", I, an old player from the Saipan era, was quite emotional. I'm not going to brag about it, but the current mobile game market, especially in China, has been held hostage for too long by all kinds of big-name games that charge money for cards and inflated values. But this game allowed me to see another possibility - it brought the classic gameplay of "Match 3" back to what the "game" itself should be.
I am someone who has experienced the Nokia N-Gage era. At that time, mobile games were about "easy to get started and easy to get addicted to". Many mobile games nowadays only require you to click through the novice tutorial for 10 minutes, making you want to fill your eyes with the mall and VIP levels. But I downloaded and played a few games of this game, and the core idea is very clear: eliminate messes, complete orders, and build stalls. There is no forced pop-up window, no "Orange item for first deposit", and even the charging mode says "0" - if it is truly completely free with no in-app purchases, then this will be an anomaly in 2025. 😮
In fact, there has been a trend in the mobile game industry in the past two years called "return to playability." If you look at the popular independent games on Steam, many of them take classic gameplay to the extreme. The same goes for mobile. Like "Happy Match 3", which combines match 3 with simulated management, and packages it with a light narrative of "night market management", it essentially gives the elimination a sense of purpose, rather than simply scoring points. This is much smarter than those "Match 3+" games that force card drawing.
Of course, from an industry perspective, whether this completely free model can be sustained is a question. Either it relies on advertising to make money, or the developer has other profit points. But at least in terms of user experience, it reminds me of "Plants vs. Zombies" back then - buyout system, no krypton gold, purely relying on quality. There are fewer and fewer games like this these days, so I would like to make a post recommending it.
In addition, the "night owl" setting in the game is also quite interesting, and it fits the pace of life of middle-aged players. After all, for a 30-year-old like me, I work during the day and have some time to myself at night after the baby is asleep. I turn on the game, listen to some relaxing background music, complete orders one by one, and watch the night market slowly build up. This "healing feeling" is much more comfortable than those games that emphasize social interaction and ask you to rank every day.
Finally, as the mobile game market has developed to this day, everyone has become increasingly aware that graphics and IP made with real money may not be as good as a well-polished core gameplay. I hope that "Happy Match" can stick to it and don't see any "limited time gift packs" popping up later. 😌 If it maintains its current quality, I think it can be kept as a long-term game.