Jewel Monsters

Jewel Monsters puts a fight inside the grid. You make your way through a forest where monsters lurk among the trees, and your only weapon is matching gems. Each monster has a colour, and lines of three or more gems in that colour are what damage it. Clear enough of them and the monster is gone, so you can pass through to the next.

Time is part of the challenge. Take too long and the monster hits back, so there is a health total to look after as well as a board to read. Recovery comes from bigger matches: line up four or more gems and a heart bonus appears inside one of the gems on the board. Collect that heart and some of your lost health returns. The board sits in a narrow portrait frame, a little taller than it is wide.

Drag a gem onto one of the gems next to it to swap the pair, aiming for a line of three or more in one colour. To attack, build that line in the same colour as the monster in front of you. Keep landing hits until it is defeated, then carry on through the forest. Match four or more to produce a heart, then collect it to heal.

The developer does not list the controls for this game. It runs inside the frame above, so a click or a tap on the game is the place to start.

Look at the monster's colour first and search the board for that colour, because those are the matches that hurt it. Speed counts, since a slow player gets attacked. When health is running low, a four-gem match matters more than usual, as it is the way hearts are created.

A swap match-3 with a battle layer: matches in the right colour are attacks, and monsters strike back if you are slow. Portrait frame, 525 by 700. Health can be restored with heart bonuses.

Wizardry Match 3 also turns matches into attacks, with potions against dark creatures and bosses, while Gem Dojo uses gem matches to charge ninja abilities against rival ninjas.