Treasure Island is a match three game with a pirate theme (and a little comedy) to it (I'm sure we've all read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson; or, at the very least seen an adaptation of it on TV).

The game starts in a window by default, but you can change it to full screen via the options menu. There's also a custom cursor available. From the main menu you can choose to play either in a relaxed mode or the classic timed mode. The timed mode includes a barrel of gun powder and a rope fuse, that burns down. If it reaches the barrel, you lose a life. You start with three lives. The fuse is fairly slow burning, so most levels are relatively easy to beat. It wasn't until level nine where the design of the table made it harder to complete matches in some area's of the board, that I took more than a few minutes to finish a level. There is a difference from the usual match three game in that you have a token attached to your mouse pointer and have to find a match using that token. The token you click on to create a match of three or more for the one you are creating a match of three or more, will then attach itself to the cursor. You can make horizontal, vertical and diagonal matches with this game, which makes it a little different in two ways to the usual fare we see. At the end of a level you get one or more dancing skeletons (the comedy aspect I indicated above) with various items of treasure raining down.

If the tile you pick up cannot be used to make a match in the next turn, it will immediately be exchanged for another token; ( I haven't figured out if there is a pattern to this exchange yet). If you take too long to make a match a red arrow will appear indicating where you can make a match.

At the end of each level, for both the relaxed an timed modes you get a level stat's board that includes the best time, the best score etc. You can create multiple profiles; making this an ideal family game. If you leave the game before completing a level, it does save your progress, so that when you next boot up the game it will open with a small window asking if you wish to continue where you left off or start the level again from the beginning.

Some of the best times recorded in the Best Time slot by Tester are impossible, for example the level nine result quotes a time of 3 seconds (see the last image below) to complete the level; (it took me 5 minutes and 37 seconds, despite working pretty fast to clear the crates). From level 10 some crates will require two matches to remove them.

To pause the game double click on the background or press the space bar. If you see a glowing effect on a token it will be one of a few different power up's. These include a bomb that destroys the surrounding tokens and ones that destroy horizontal and vertical tokens.

The latest game from Epic Games called Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition is now available free HERE. It's a a 2D metroidvania platformer full of mystical creatures and boundless exploration. Next Thursday's game (4th Feb) is called For The King, a challenging blend of strategy, turn-based combat, and roguelike elements. Each playthrough is unique with procedural maps, quests, and events. Explore Fahrul in either single player, local, or online co-op.

There's also a nice little walking simulator available over on Steam for free. It's very short, but worth taking a look (IMO); it's an ideal accompaniment with your drink of choice taken during a short break from other games. It received a 92% positive rating from the Steam community from 1499 reviews. You can find it HERE. I wrote a short review of it HERE