More jewels then fall from the top of the screen, filling up the empty spaces on the board. On first appearance Treasures of Montezuma Blitz is your typical Bejeweled clone: line-up a minimum of three jewels of the same colour horizontally or vertically to remove them from play and score. So it's a pity that the game is a run-of-the-mill match-three puzzler, beset by a few technical shortcomings and premium content that feels miserly. Since matches can sometimes last 3 or 4 minutes, you can play for quite a while before running out of lives.As the first foray into freemium gaming on the Vita, Treasures of Montezuma Blitz represents a big step forward for handheld consoles, which so far have failed to embrace in-app purchases. The game does have some annoying trappings of modern free games, namely that you have a limited number of rechargeable 'lives' which refill with actual money or every six minutes. A good score for me when the game launched may have been 500,000 points, but now I'd only be proud if I got over 50 million. The game has been through a few updates, each of which has made it easier to get higher scores. For example, you might activate a bonus that causes red gems to explode nearby pieces when they're matched. These include massive explosions, electricity taking out a row and column, or giving you more time. You can also arrange to have a variety of bonuses at the cost of in-game currency. Since the leaderboards are filled only with your friends there's a good chance you might be at the top - and you're going to need a high score multiplier to dominate.

Each 5 gems you match gets you a +1 score multiplier. Games like Bejeweled just move too fast and make such combo's very difficult - if not impossible.Īnother thing that elevates this game is that some of the game pieces have gems in them. This is the perfect amount of time for a challenge - specifically in trying to get as many matches as possible in a single move. It takes a second for the matched pieces to be destroyed, and during this time you can make other matches. It's hard to describe why, but I'll try.įor one thing, the movement of the pieces just feels right. However, I would say that this is probably the best one I've played. This is a free PS Vita game that basically plays like Bejeweled and other 'match 3' games.

Montezuma Blitz! free