Pepe, it's a member of the Match Three (on up) game family: the best way to describe it may be 'Bejeweled with extra sadism and a semi-optional payment installment plan.' I've only been playing it for a few days and I can already see where this is going: straight through the whips and chains, hard left when you see the electrodes and if you ever spot daylight, you're going the wrong way.

The very partial compensation for the various evils of the level design: the special items you get for matching four on up can be combined with each other for board-blasting effects. What gives the game most of its charm for me is seeing just what each combination does.

The punch in the face was partially described by today's not-random trope: Bribing Your Way To Victory, with a nod towards Allegedly Free Game. I got the thing from the Kindle app store at no cost. And you can play through the first thirty-five levels for free.

However...

...this game may have started on Facebook. Which might just say it all, but let's detail the evil a bit. (And yes, I'm duplicating some of the trope bits here.)

You get five lives. If you run out of them while playing, you can pick up with the level you lost at once you get at least one back. However, the recharge rate is one per half-hour. Or you can beg your Facebook friends for them. Or, to hit the trope, pay ninety-nine cents for an instant full set.

You're dealt a random assortment of matching pieces for each level: play the same one fifty times and you'll probably have fifty arrangements. Some piece starts can make things nearly impossible -- but if you pay out another ninety-nine cents, you can start a game with one or more special pieces already in place. However, you're playing that fee each time you want that edge.

After level thirty-five, the game is still free -- sort of. You can pass three challenges to open the next phase. The game allows you to pass one challenge per day and will time twenty-four hours from the moment you beat one before allowing another to begin. Or... ninety-nine cents...

I heard that the designers offer a Booster Wheel where you can take one free spin per day to get a random something which would normally cost you ninety-nine cents. And that's fine if you hit the right item. But it's also 'Look at what your Cool Power does? Want some more? Only ninety-nine cents...'

You can see the accumulation beginning to punch you in the face. Someone on a stubborn 'I will beat this level tonight if it kills me' death drive can blow through twenty bucks in a single session just from purchasing the quick-recharge lives to keep losing with. Keep pushing through the game at maximum speed with bad luck plus open budget and the last level might as well be named Chapter 11. It's the Father Guido Sarducci game: ninety-nine, ninety-nine, ninety-nine -- and all gone.

So far, I've kept it at that free rate. But honestly? I kind of preferred paying for all of Bejeweled at the start and knowing the game was complete. And if this reaches the stage where the only path to victory is that series of mini-bribes? I'll probably quit.