Big Kahuna Reef

Brief Description of Big Kahuna Reef

One layout from the game

The basic game move is much like Bejeweled. You swap two pieces to create three or more in a row. All the matching pieces vanish. The goal is to make the colour of the game board a uniform blue behind all the pieces. Helping you is a fish net. Opposing you are the fish skeletons.

There are three levels of game play. With a normal game, you have to clear all the boxes within a time limit or you will lose a life. With relaxed play, you don't lose lives with the time limit, but you will still get bonus points for finishing a level within the time limit. There is also mouse party, if you can have multiple mice on one computer, you can also have multiple players.

Game play and hints

Each time you start the game, you will again be able to choose between normal or relaxed game play. Once you make that choice, you will resume the game in progress, even if you switch between the play modes. So when you find that normal game play is getting a bit rough, you can easily switch to relaxed and continue playing. When you quit the game, the level you are working on will be saved in the current state.

Totem with tiki

The first is that your real goal is to break all the boxes behind the pieces. A wooden box only requires one match to be destroyed. A metal box requires two matches. Pieces may be chained in place and each chain requires one match to be destroyed. Matches aren't worth anything unless you break a box or chain. However, if you can keep breaking things quickly enough, you will start building the tiki bonus. As the tiki rises on the right side of the screen, the bonus points increase. If you can get the golden tiki head completely out, you'll gain a bonus.

You get a fish net to assist you. The fish net can only be used after you make a certain number of matches and then you can only remove one object. So planning when and where to use the net can be vital to finishing a level.

Other things to note about the game are that levels have shapes and sometimes it's difficult to make a match in one or more areas in a level. Plus some levels have fish skeletons. If you drag a fish skeleton to make a match, it will reset the boxes to the original state. If you can cause three skeletons to fall into a row (by using the net or by matching something that causes the fall), you remove the skeletons and gain 250 points.

Gripes about Big Kahuna Reef

The time limit for the demo is one hour. That isn't very long to evaluate a game.

Conclusion for Big Kahuna Reef

Game with additional sets

A great and addicting little puzzle game. It's one of the most interesting of the 'match three' type games that I've played. The original download has 100 normal levels to complete, and once you do, you unlock a bonus 50 levels to play. The game is suitable for young or old, anyone who likes a bit of a challenge. Rated 5 of 5 stars.

Some final thoughts on the game

Not enough puzzling yet? Well, the game does come with an editor, so you can create your own levels. Don't feel that energetic? How about downloading a user submitted level set. When this review was written, there were 670 level sets that could be downloaded which should be enough to keep anyone playing the game.