Match-3. Yes, you’re probably sick of those words by now. You’ve played the hell out of one at some time or another, be it Bejeweled, Tetris Attack, or Puzzle Quest.

Well, tough luck. Welcome to Triple Town, an aptly named match-3 game with a town-building twist.

So, what separates Triple Town from the rest of the pack? First off, you place random pieces of terrain anywhere within the grid. However, you have a VERY limited 6×6-1 grid. That last space, the storehouse, is used to store a piece that you can swap out at a later time. Once three or more pieces are matched, they combine to make a different piece wherever you placed the last item. Points are rewarded, basically, for the difficulty of the match. Match more than three of the same type of piece and you’ll get an advanced piece worth additional points.

To complicate things, there are enemy pieces that can throw a wrench into your plans. Like the other “terrain” pieces, you place “enemy” pieces wherever you want. Bear pieces move around one space at a time once placed and can only be killed by being cornered or with the rare “Imperial Bot” piece. Ninjas, the other enemy piece, jump around the board and only die when killed by a Bot or when you’re out of spaces. Once killed, both enemies leave a “Tombstone” piece, which can then be matched.

You can use the Imperial Bot pieces to destroy any piece on the grid, but you lose points if you remove a terrain or settlement piece. Only pieces made of stone (tombstones, rocks, mountains) can be removed without penalty. Unlike the terrain pieces, enemy pieces can be removed completely from the board after a few matches and reward you with a small treasure chest.

It’s a lot to manage, and you’ll need to play a few times before you truly understand the game’s mechanics. It sounds simple, but due to the limited space and the way the pieces form when matched, combining similar items becomes surprisingly difficult. You need to plan ahead and work backwards. Once you get the hang of things, you’ll easily be making huts and houses. Matching beyond that, though, becomes an exercise in frustration unless you have the wildcard “Crystal” piece.

The game’s tutorial doesn’t do a lot to help you out, either, as it provides a couple of vague sentences to get you going and likely was a development afterthought. It wasn’t until about halfway through my first game that I even realized I had control over the grid. Triple Town is your good ol’ fashioned trial by fire.

Not since Dr. Mario has a puzzle game made me shift from the feeling of total control to expletive-laced panic mode  in such little time. You can be doing well, having a perfect game, only to have things spiral in a hurry because of one small mistake. Plus, the aforementioned ninjas are such a hassle that having more than one on the board will quickly end your game, which happens when you can no longer make any moves.

Five ninja bears. I'm not a religious man, but I imagine this is what Hell looks like.

Triple Town is an interesting game, one that takes the standard match-3 formula and changes it just enough to make it feel new again. It’s addictive and familiar, because you have played games like it in the past, but it also manages to be unlike anything else out there. Even the game’s take on the pay model, free for 2,000 turns that slowly regenerate, seems unique.

What’s not unique, however, is the “whale” section of in-app purchases. I’ve never been a fan of buying an advantage, and it rears its ugly head here. The game imposes a maximum limit of 14,150 coins, which are awarded at the end of every game based upon your performance. However, if you buy coins via IAP, you can surpass this limit.

The coins are used to buy pieces, meaning you have more control over your town. Need a bush but don’t have room to make one out of grass? Buy it. Only one space left on the board but you didn’t get that tree you needed to keep going? Let’s go to the store. While “settlement” pieces are not available in the store, you can purchase Imperial Bots and Crystals to keep things moving. On the plus side, the number of times you can purchase each item per game is capped at seven. I like that Spry Fox gives you a little extra control and sets a limit for the whales out there, but would much rather have a level playing field with a set amount of coins or selectable pieces to use every game.

Triple Town has its fair share of bugs. Right now, I keep receiving a GameCenter achievement notification every time I pass 20,000 points. Additionally, my high score was not saved for whatever reason and I lost a couple of achievements. Finally, turns are not regenerating properly, meaning that you ONLY get 2,000 total turns for free right now.

If you like the game regardless of the problems, and there’s a damn good chance you will, then you can purchase unlimited turns for $6.99 (an absurd amount by App Store standards, but currently $3.99 while Spry Fox works out the bugs). My 2,000 turns lasted about six games, likely enough to know if you want to keep playing or not. It dug its hooks pretty deep into me. Unlimited turns seemed like a no-brainer.

Selling point: The game supports both vertical and landscape screen orientation.

In the past three days, I’ve already sank about ten hours into the game and keep coming back for more. I’ve had a great time playing Triple Town but know I’m still not playing particularly well. I still can’t plot moves far enough out to be succeed. If you can past the steep learning curve, which you won’t likely notice until you realize just how wrong you’ve been playing the entire time, then Triple Town could well become your new obsession.

(Note: If you don’t have an iOS device to play on, you could always play the expanded, full version of Triple Town over on Facebook or Google+ instead.)