Jewel Link

Jewel Link borrows its look from Bejeweled and its rule from the Connect2 family, which is a more interesting combination than it sounds. The gems glitter like a match-three board, but the move you actually make is a link: pick out two identical jewels, join them, and both disappear. The Connect section holds the rest of the group.

GameBerry Studio lets the placements do the work as you advance. Early boards hand you obvious pairs sitting in plain sight; later ones bury the match you need behind jewels that have to be cleared first, so the skill stops being recognition and becomes route-finding. As the studio puts it, this is less about what you see than about how you navigate the board to reach it. The Animal Connect board puts the same rule on a board of a different size.

Reading order is therefore the real discipline. The 800 by 600 frame keeps the whole grid in view at once, the colours are saturated enough to tell apart at speed, and the board takes taps as well as clicks. The Connect board sets out another one-layer board on the same rule.

1. Look across the grid for two jewels of exactly the same colour and cut.
2. Link the pair to clear both from the board.
3. Carry on as the placements tighten and the obvious pairs run out.
4. Empty the board to finish the puzzle and move on to a trickier arrangement.

• Think two pairs ahead — Jewel Link rewards spotting the link you will need after this one, not just the one in front of you.
• Colour before cut — the gems repeat in similar shapes, so match on colour first and confirm the cut second.
• Free the crowded corner — a jewel with neighbours on every side stays unavailable until one of them goes.
• Do not rush the early boards — that is where the linking rhythm is learned cheaply, before the placements start hiding things.