Lantern Alley: Match 3

Mouse or keyboard on desktop, tap on mobile. Arrows move the cursor, Enter or Space selects, Esc goes back. 1. Tap a tile, then a neighbour — they swap. Swaps work up, down, left and right, and only if they make a line of three. 2. A swap that matches nothing costs nothing. 3. Four in a line clears a row or column. Five gives a rainbow; an L or T gives a bomb. 4. Watch the ring around her portrait. Closed and green means your heroine is ready. 5. Tap the ability button. If it needs a target, the label turns into "Where to?" — then tap a cell on the board. 6. Abilities cost no move, but only her own tiles feed the charge. 7. Double-tap a power-up to detonate it. That costs a move — decide which is worth more. 8. Goals sit in the right-hand column, or on top on a phone: a picture and a counter. 9. On the map, tap the lanterns: sparks light them and mark how far you came. Out of moves with the goal unmet? Restart the level, or take five more moves for a short ad.

Match lines, charge your heroine, unlock the whole cast. A lantern-lit night board with heroines on the tiles. Swap two neighbours, match three in a line, and the board collapses in a chain reaction. Four or five in a line leave a power-up that clears a row, a column or a square; double-tap it to set it off on its own — that costs a move, and there lies the choice. Pick a heroine before each level. She charges only from her own tiles, so her colour decides how you play. Each has two abilities, the second unlocking with tenure. 160 levels, each with its own goal: score, colour, break crates or boulders, sometimes two at once. Five kinds of blockers: a boulder yields only to a direct hit, vine spreads while you ignore it, honey candies the board. Stars earn sparks, sparks light the twelve lanterns along the path. One run will not light them all — come back and replay for the third star.