Dream Pet Link 2

Two difficulty settings sit in front of the same board, and choosing between them is the only real decision this game asks of you before play starts. The short definition walks through the same rules from the start.

Easy mode puts fewer tiles on screen and hands out more hints, which Azerion recommends for a leisurely run. Hard mode drops both crutches. Underneath, the job is identical: find the doubles among dozens of cute animals and clear them off the game screen, board after board, with the linking described as endless rather than capped at a level count. The same group of boards includes Crush Saga.

The 800 by 600 layout is compact enough that hard mode genuinely crowds. Players who bounce off it usually do so by leaning on hints until the habit sticks — switching over early, while the tile set is still small, teaches the animal faces faster than any number of assisted clears. The Link the Dots board was filed here for the same reason.

1. Choose easy mode for fewer tiles and more hints, or hard mode for the fuller board.
2. Look across the screen for two animal tiles showing the same picture.
3. Link the doubles to clear them from the layout.
4. Empty the screen and carry on into the next board.

• Switch up early — hard mode in Dream Pet Link 2 is easier to learn while you still know few animals.
• Use hints sparingly — easy mode offers more of them, and leaning on them stops you learning the tile set.
• Learn the faces — dozens of animals appear, and a few differ only in colour.
• Clear the crowd — on a compact 800 by 600 layout the middle jams before the edges do.