One of the biggest attractions of match-3 games is that they feature some very useful power-ups that players can utilize during levels in order to turn things in their favor if the situation is grim. However, while power-ups are fun to use, too many of them can actually be a bad thing for a game and in this article we'll be analyzing why.

Usually, most match-3 games only have three different power-ups that players can utilize and, in all honesty, these three on their own are more than enough. There are a few match-3 games that implement a lot more than three power-ups into the gameplay and this actually ends up creating a bunch of gameplay related problems.

While there’s no denying that having more power-ups would add a ton of functionality to the gameplay, the biggest issue that this creates is that it essentially removes all strategic depth from the gameplay. Players won’t need to worry about using their moves properly because, even if they make mistakes, they’ll be able to immediately remedy those mistakes through the multiple different kinds of power-ups at their disposal. Having a lot of power-ups would mean that you won’t ever be punished for your mistakes thereby making the gameplay a lot less engaging.

Of course one obvious problem that’d surface from implementing too many power-ups is that players will be able to breeze through the game no matter what their skill is. Even if you’re completely new to a match-3 game, if it has tons of different power-ups then you’ll likely have no difficulty cruising through its levels, even the difficult ones, because you can just use power-ups to brute force your way through whenever you get stuck. While yes, progressing through levels quickly is definitely something that would motivate players to keep going, it’s still worth bearing in mind that making things too easy would simply make things a lot less engaging and there’s simply no doubting the fact that beating a level and overcoming its challenges by using your own skills is way more satisfying than using power-ups.

One major design flaw that games with a high amount of power-ups have is that certain levels become completely dependent upon the use of these power-ups. While match-3 games have their fair share of micro-transactions, the charm of these games lies in the fact that you can actually complete all of their levels without having to use a single power-up if you’re skilled enough. However, this usually isn’t the case with games that have tons of power-ups because they have certain levels that are straight up impossible without them and this can definitely put some hardcore players off who try to complete each match-3 game that they play without any kind of assistance.

All said and done, the aforementioned reasons are why we feel that the amount of power-ups in match-3 games should be kept in check. While on the subject, we definitely recommend that you try a few of these games out as they’re quite enjoyable and addictive.