Match-3 reviews written after the levels are finished
Read the reviewsFour candy boards, attribute by attribute
Glitchoridex Arcade Lab is a small Sydney project about one narrow thing: candy boards where sweets fall, chain and clear each other. Everything below is free to download on both stores, so the grid is about what the game asks of you rather than what it costs to install.
| Candy Blast Mania | Gummy Candy Blast | Sweet Candy Bomb | Candy Go Round | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| App Store rating | 4+ | 4+ | 4+ | 4+ |
| Move | Swap two | Swap two | Swap two | Swap two |
| Chains run | Short | Medium | Long | Medium |
| Stage length | Under a minute | About a minute | One to two minutes | Two minutes plus |
| Suits | Two-minute bursts | One-handed play | Chain hunting | Longer sittings |
Prices and age ratings come from the Australian App Store listings and can change without notice. Stage lengths are our own rough timings, not measurements.
Three rules we hold ourselves to
We play before we write
No review is published from a trailer or a store description. Every game here has been installed on a personal handset and played through its opening chapters.
We say when a game stalls
Cascade puzzles are designed to slow down. Where that happens, we write down roughly which levels it happened on and what the game offered us at that point.
We link to the stores only
Downloads go to the official Google Play and App Store pages. There are no mirrors, no APK files and no third-party installers anywhere on this site.
The current shortlist
Four titles we keep coming back to, in the order we started playing them.
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01
Candy Blast Mania
The most direct candy board on the list. Swap two sweets, watch the column collapse, repeat. Stages are short enough that a failed board costs you almost nothing, which is exactly what you want on a fifteen-minute tram ride.
Colours are strong and well separated, so the board still reads at arm's length in bright sunlight — not a given in this genre.
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02
Gummy Candy Blast
Chunky gummy pieces on a tight board, with combo boosters that fire along a row or clear a colour outright. The satisfying part is stacking two boosters next to each other and setting off a chain that runs the length of the screen.
Everything happens in the lower two thirds of the display, so it is comfortable with one thumb on a large phone.
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03
Sweet Candy Bomb
Built around the cascade rather than the single swap. Cleared sweets drop, refill from the top and often clear again on their own, so a well-placed move can keep resolving for several seconds without another tap.
It is the game on this page most likely to make you sit and watch the board finish before you plan the next move.
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04
Candy Go Round
Order-collecting rather than pure clearing: each stage asks for a set number of specific sweets, which changes how you read the board. You stop chasing the biggest match and start hunting the two colours the level actually wants.
Stages run longer than the rest of this list, so it is the one we open at home rather than in a queue.
Terms, taxes and fees are shown at the next step on the store page.
How the testing runs are set up · Reading a store listing before you install · Thumb angle and long sessions
Made for the lab
Glitchoridex neon silicone grip and stand
from $18.99 AUD
A moulded silicone grip that sticks to the back of a phone and folds out into a low stand. It exists because four-hour cascade sessions are hard on the little finger, and because a phone flat on a café table is at the wrong angle for a board game.
- Material
- Moulded silicone with a 3M-style adhesive pad
- Colours
- Neon pink or cyber cyan
- Fits
- Any flat-backed phone or case up to 6.9 inches
- Dispatch
- Sent from Sydney, usually within three business days of payment
Sold by Jack MacLeod as a private individual. There is no checkout on this site — send the form and you will receive an email with the total, postage and payment details.
Questions we get by email
Do you get paid by the studios you review?
No. Nobody on this list has paid for placement, and none of the store links carry an affiliate tag. The only thing sold here is our own phone grip.
Are these games free?
All four are free to download in Australia and all four include optional in-app purchases. The store page shows the current price list before you buy anything.
Why so few games?
Because we only write about titles we have actually played. The list grows when a game earns a place on it, not on a schedule.
Do you ship the grip outside Australia?
Not at the moment. Postage is quoted for Australian addresses only.
Can I suggest a game?
Yes — email the name and the store link. If it is a cascade, blast or tile-matching puzzle, it goes on the queue.
Who runs this
- Published by
- Jack MacLeod, private individual
- Address
- 20 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia