Halloween Link

Halloween Link is block elimination with the holiday painted over it. Two similar blocks are removed at a time, and the condition is the link one — the line joining them may contain a maximum of two turns. Every card on the board has to go before a level is done.

Lof Games shipped twenty-one levels in the 2020 build, and finishing the last of them is the whole ambition of the game. The pacing tightens as you climb: early boards are sparse enough to solve by eye, later ones fill in and the routes between matching cards start to run out. Flags is catalogued beside this board.

A clock sits over each level, so the board is a race as much as a puzzle. Hints and shuffles are provided for the levels that stall, and the shuffle is the one that matters — when no two cards can be joined, a redeal is the only way forward. Connect 2 is filed under the same heading here.

The eerie soundtrack and the pumpkin-and-bat card artwork run on an 800 by 450 stage. Touch input is supported, and the full screen toggle keeps the small holiday motifs distinct on the crowded later boards. From the same group, there is also Connect A Dot.

1. Pick out two cards showing the same Halloween motif.
2. Check the route between them uses two turns at most.
3. Select both to eliminate them.
4. Remove every card on the board to finish the level.
5. Push through all twenty-one levels before the clock beats you.

• Work the centre outward — cards trapped in the middle are the ones that end a level early.
• Count the turns — two is the ceiling, and a route with three corners is not an elimination.
• Hold the hints — the last third of the twenty-one levels is where they change an outcome.
• Shuffle a dead board — with no joinable cards left, the redeal is the only move available.
• Play it large — full screen keeps the bats, pumpkins and ghosts apart when the board is packed.