Three's a Crowd

The pieces land where they landAnimals rain into a glass well and pile up like real objects, because they arereal objects — every one is a physics body that rolls, wedges and settles.Nothing snaps to a grid. Nothing lines up neatly. Clear any three or more of thesame animal that are touching, and watch the whole pile collapse into the gap.A round is twenty-eight seconds and a score target. Miss it and the runis over.Bombs do not care that you were in a hurryBombs and blocks fall in among the animals and cannot be matched. Click a bomband it costs you a life — and you only start with one. Blocks just sit theretaking up the space you needed.The way out is to clear around them: any hazard caught in a clear goeswith it, and pays a defuse bonus. So the question stops being "where are threeof the same animal" and becomes "which three, and what do they take with them".Miss entirely and you lose a slice of the clock. Clicking wildly is a strategythat loses.Ten rounds, then a decisionClear round ten and you have beaten the game. Bank it and the win is yours.Or push on into bonus rounds, where the targets keep climbing and the payoutgrows every time — and the whole pot becomes the stake. Clear the next round andit grows again. Fail it and you walk away with nothing, however far you got.The choice comes back after every bonus round. It is entirely your faultif you keep saying yes.Two layers of upgrades Between rounds, spend the coins that round earned. Widen what countsas touching, make pairs count as a match, clear neighbouring colours too, buyback time, defuse more bombs. These last for the run and then they are gone. Between runs, spend tokens on permanent upgrades — more lives, longerrounds, a bigger shop, a head start on score. Respec is free and alwaysavailable, because a build you are afraid to change is not a choice.One permanent upgrade makes the game harder. Menagerie adds anotheranimal to the pool, which thins your odds on every single clear. There is anachievement for beating the game with all of them in play. That is the onlyreward, and it is the point.Also 36 achievements, from your first cleared group to a long tail that will takea while Mouse only — one button, no keyboard, nothing to learn Colourblind mode puts a distinct shape on every animal Fullscreen or windowed, and it remembers which