Fruit Merge : Juice Jumble

In Fruit Merge : Juice Jumble you fill a box with falling fruit and score by combining pairs. Two fruits of the same type merge into one larger fruit, so the contents keep growing as you play. You decide where each piece goes by dragging it to a spot and letting go, after which it falls and joins any matching fruit underneath.

The twist is a pair of shift buttons, one on each side of the box. Pressing one pushes every fruit inside towards that side. Each side has only five uses, so the buttons are a resource to spend with care rather than a free fix. The game is over when the box is full, and the target is simply the highest score you can manage before that point.

Click and drag the fruit waiting to drop until it sits above the spot you want, then release it. It falls into the box. If it comes to rest on a fruit of the same kind, the two merge into a bigger fruit. Use the buttons at either side to shift everything left or right when the layout needs it, remembering the five-use limit on each.

The developer's own advice is to keep similar fruits close together, the larger ones in particular. Their example: with a pear sitting beside a cherry, dropping another pear there could start a chain of merges. Hold the shift buttons back for when a match is stuck one place away, since each side only gives you five.

A drop-and-merge fruit puzzle in a landscape frame. The instructions describe mouse controls: drag, release and two on-screen shift buttons. Each run continues until the box is full, and your score is what you are playing for.

Watermelon Stack 3D has you throw fruit into a bowl you can rotate around, and Fruit Merge Arena adds a rewarded-ad option that removes every copy of one fruit you pick.