Fish Connections

Fish Connections drops the connect board underwater. The tiles carry reef fish in bright colours, the soundtrack is soft, and the job is to pair identical species until the field is bare — with the line joining them allowed no more than two turns.

There are twenty-four levels and each one has its own time limit, which gives the game a shape. The early fields are open enough to solve at a glance; by the twenties the fish are packed tightly enough that routes close as fast as you open them, and progress means clearing before the countdown does. Shuigo keeps the pace of this one.

The centre is the pressure point, as it is on any link field. Fish in the middle have no room for a path to travel, so working outward from there keeps options alive, while tidying the edges first tends to leave a knot nobody can untie. A hint is available when the field stops making sense. The full shelf is the full Tower list.

The build takes mouse and touch input alike, and the full screen toggle is the difference between tracing a two-turn route confidently and guessing at it, since several of the reef species are drawn in the same palette. Emoji Link: The Smile Game belongs to the same easy-going list.

1. Find two identical fish on the field.
2. Check the line between them bends no more than twice.
3. Click both to remove the pair.
4. Clear the whole field before the level clock expires.
5. Work through all twenty-four levels, using the hint when the field stalls.

• Open the middle — species in the centre lose their routes first and strand you at the end of a level.
• Read the colours twice — several reef designs here share a palette and differ only in the fin shape.
• Match fast, not perfectly — with a clock on every level, the visible pair beats the elegant one.
• Ration the hint — the later levels are where a marked pair actually saves the run.
• Turn on full screen — a packed field of small fish is where two-turn routes become invisible.