Candy Connection

Candy Connection works on a chequered field. The area is divided into equal squares, some of them holding a sweet, and the job is to get three or more identical sweets standing in a line. The short definition takes the same rules apart step by step.

What sets it apart from the row-and-column crowd is that the oblique counts. A diagonal run of three clears exactly as a horizontal or vertical one does, which roughly doubles the number of lines worth watching and makes the field harder to read than its plain squares suggest. The Moving Tiles board shares this board’s place in the catalogue.

Every completed line disappears and pays out points, so the layout keeps opening up as you play. New Kids Games laid it out at 1280 by 720, wide enough that a diagonal running from one corner towards another is still easy to follow. The same section of the catalogue also holds the Grand Connect board.

1. Look over the squares and note which sweets repeat.
2. Build three or more of the same sweet into a straight line.
3. Remember the line may run horizontally, vertically or obliquely.
4. The completed run clears from the field and scores.
5. Keep building lines as the layout opens up.

• Watch the diagonals — most players read Candy Connection in rows and columns and miss the oblique run entirely.
• Look for four — the rule asks for at least three items, so a longer run is there whenever a fourth sweet sits in the same direction.
• Work the crowded squares — a dense corner of the field offers more directions than an isolated sweet ever will.
• Clear, then re-read — every run that disappears changes what the remaining sweets can reach.