Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones

Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones is a family-friendly tile-matching puzzle game set in a fantastical pirate world. Players embark on a swashbuckling adventure to break the curse of Davy Jones’ Locker, a magical realm where time stands still, by solving match-three puzzles. The game follows a character named Bobby as they navigate this perilous Caribbean-inspired setting, aiming to escape the locker’s eternal pirate games.

Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones: A Forgotten Keel in the Match-3 Ocean

Introduction: The Unremarkable Buccaneer

In the vast, treasure-laden seas of the casual gaming market, few genres have been as consistently plundered as the tile-matching puzzle, pioneered by Bejeweled and monetized to global saturation by Candy Crush Saga. Into this crowded, formulaic strait sailed Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones in 2019, a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve like a stolen coat. This review argues that Match Three Pirates! is not merely a game but a symptomatic artifact: a technically competent, aesthetically pleasant, and utterly derivative title that exemplifies the creative stagnation of late-2010s casual development. Its legacy is not one of innovation, but of efficient, forgettable production—a game that asks, “What if Bejeweled, but pirates?” and then does nothing more with the premise.

Development History & Context: The Studio Behind the Mast

Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones was developed by Graphium Studio, a small, obscure developer with a footprint primarily in the casual and hidden-object space, and published by Mindscape Northern Europe B.V. (and later Denda Games for certain platforms). The core credits point to a lean, likely remotely-collaborating team: Art/Graphics by Graphium Studio, Design by Alexander Tolchinsky, Programming by Dmitriy Martynenko, and Music/Sound by Federico Carpita. A team of six voice actors, including Jonathan Michael Cooke and Duffy P. Weber (both prolific in the casual/indie scene), lent their talents to the game’s cutscenes.

The game was built in Unity, the ubiquitous engine of indies and casual studios alike, which explains its cross-platform ease (Windows, macOS, and a later Nintendo Switch port in December 2020). Its release in April 2019 placed it squarely in the golden age of the match-3 boom, a time when Steam’s “Casual” section and mobile storefronts were glutted with titles following the exact same progression loop: linear level-based puzzle solving married to a light narrative and a meta-upgrade system. Graphium Studio was not inventing a wheel; they were applying a well-understood template to a popular thematic skin (pirates), targeting an audience seeking familiar, low-stress entertainment. The technological constraints were minimal—the game’s simple 2D art and modest system requirements (a 1.3 GHz processor and 2GB RAM) indicate a focus on broad accessibility over graphical ambition.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: A Tale as Old As Time (or at Least As Generic)

The narrative, as delivered through the Steam store description and in-game cutscenes, is pure pulp melodrama. The protagonist (implied to be a mother, though the description uses a second-person “you”) takes their son, Bobby, to a fair. Bobby touches a mysterious pirate pavilion and is magically transported to Davy Jones’ Locker—a realm where the legendary pirate, having sold his soul to the devil, created a timeless world to ensnare souls for an eternity of pirating. Davy Jones, portrayed here as a classic Faustian figure, intends to make Bobby his heir. The player must chase him across this magical Caribbean, rescuing Bobby and lifting the curse.

Analysis: The plot is a Frankenstein’s monster of pirate clichés and fantasy tropes. It lifts the “child in peril” motivation straight from the family-adventure handbook and grafts it onto the Pirates of the Caribbean reinterpretation of Davy Jones as a cursed, immortal captain of the Flying Dutchman. The theme is straightforward: familial love versus eternal, soulless ambition. The “Locker” is presented not as a place of drowning but as a seductive, endless theme park of piracy—a interesting twist that comments on the addictive nature of the very gameplay it’s wrapped around. However, the execution is barebones. Characters are archetypes (the sinister Davy Jones, the playful Monkey-hooligan, the Gull-thief). Dialogue, voiced by a capable but unremarkable cast, is functional at best, delivering plot points without depth or wit. The world is described as “seem[ing] cartoon…” but possessing a “dark” underbelly—a promise the art style, while hand-drawn, does not convincingly fulfill. The narrative serves one purpose: to provide a thin, actionable justification for the 100 levels of tile-matching. It is dispensable, a narrative checkbox that most players will skip to get to the puzzles.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Bejeweled Blueprint, Slightly Modified

At its core, Match Three Pirates! is a move-based, level-structured tile-matching game. Players swap adjacent tiles on a grid to create matches of three or more identical “pirate-themed” items (cutlasses, ship’s wheels, gems, etc.). Each level has primary goals (e.g., “clear 50 black sails,” “collect 30 treasure chests”) within a limited move count.

Core Loops & Innovations:
1. The “Leftover Moves” Choice: This is the game’s one notable mechanical twist. After completing a level’s main objective, the game does not automatically end the level. Instead, it presents a choice: proceed to the next level, forfeiting remaining moves, or continue playing to use all moves. This decision point is critical. Continuing allows the player to generate more of the game’s two key meta-resources: Coins (for ship upgrades) and Pirate Tokens (for permanent boosts). Earning the maximum of 3 Tokens per level is essential for long-term progression, making this a strategic pause rather than a simple completion.
2. Progression & Meta-Game: Earning Coins and Tokens feeds into a ship customization system. Players upgrade various parts of their vessel (cannons, hull, sails, figurehead), each providing passive bonuses—more coins earned, extra starting moves, a higher chance of special tiles. This creates a slow, satisfying power curve, where earlier levels become easier as you upgrade, a standard but effective treadmill.
3. Special Tiles & Combos: Matching 4 tiles creates a “special” tile (often a bomb that clears a row/column). Matching 5 creates a more powerful “lightning” tile. Crucially, matching a special tile adjacent to another special tile triggers a combined, board-clearing effect—a visual spectacle that the WWGDB review correctly notes makes players “go WOW.” This is a well-executed, common mechanic that provides peak moments of power fantasy.
4. Obstacles & Enemies: Levels introduce hazards like impassable “sails,” locked treasure chests requiring multiple matches, and disruptive enemies (the Monkey-hooligan, Gull-thief) that move around the board and must be contained or eliminated. These add necessary variety and challenge to the 100-level roster.

Flaws: The “family-friendly” and “relaxing” user tags are accurate, but the game’s difficulty spikes can feel arbitrary rather than clever. The core match-3 mechanic is not reinvented; it is implemented. The eShopper Reviews critique is spot-on: this is essentially a “knockoff of Bejeweled.” The boosters and “Pirate Roulette” mentioned in the ad blurbs are just reskinned familiar concepts. The interface (point-and-select) is functional but lacks the snappiness of premium mobile titles.

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Pleasant, Generic Harbor

The game adopts a 2D, hand-drawn art style with a fixed, flip-screen perspective. The visuals are bright, colorful, and clear. Gems and items are easily distinguishable—a non-negotiable requirement for a good puzzle game. The pirate theme is applied consistently: tiles are cutlasses, skulls, rum bottles, compasses. The UI is pirate-map styled.

However, “hand-drawn” does not mean “detailed” or “characterful.” The art is competent but generic, lacking the distinctive flair of a studio like Artifex Mundi or the crisp polish of a Royal Match. Backgrounds are simple, character portraits in cutscenes are stiff, and the promised “dark” atmosphere of Davy Jones’ Locker is conveyed more through blue/purple filters than through truly eerie design. The world feels like a themed lobby for the puzzles, not a place with its own history.

The sound design is where the game earns its most consistent praise. Composer Federico Carpita delivered a soundtrack of instrumental sea shanties and nautical themes. This is an inspired choice. The music is melodic, evocative, and crucially, non-intrusive. It establishes the pirate setting more effectively than any visual element and provides a relaxing, rhythmic backdrop for puzzle-solving. The voice acting, while not award-winning, is clear and sufficiently expressive for a casual title.

Reception & Legacy: A Whisper in the Crowd

Match Three Pirates! met a fate common to its genre: critical indifference and commercial obscurity.

• Critical Reception: The sole critic score on MobyGames is a 58% from eShopper Reviews, which labeled it a “basically… knockoff of Bejeweled” with a generic theme and a $10 price tag that feels “a bit much.” The review succinctly captures the consensus: it’s “worth the $2” on sale but “hard to recommend… against the crowd” of superior match-3 games on the Switch.
• Player Reception: Steam user reviews are Mixed (50/100 based on ~16 reviews). Common praises note the relaxing gameplay and decent music. Common criticisms cite the generic feel, occasional difficulty spikes, and feeling overpriced at full retail.
• Commercial Life: The game’s standard $9.99/€8.99 price point is frequently discounted (to as low as ~$1 on regional eShops, as seen on the Tinfoil Media listing), indicating a reliance on the classic “high initial price, deep discount” casual game model. Its inclusion in bundles like the “Match 3 Adventure Collection” and “Super Puzzle Pack” further suggests its role as catalog filler.
• Legacy & Influence: The game has no discernible influence on the industry. It did not innovate a mechanic, define a trend, or cultivate a fanbase. It exists as a data point in the ecosystem of casual game production. Graphium Studio released a sequel, Match Three Pirates II, in 2021, confirming the business viability of the formula for its creators but not its cultural resonance. It shares a thematic lineage with the Nightmares from the Deep series (also involving Davy Jones) but is tonally and mechanically distinct (hidden-object vs. match-3). Its legacy is that of a competent, disposable product—the video game equivalent of a supermarket-brand puzzle book. It demonstrates that the match-3 “template” can be skinned with any theme (pirates, magic, farms) and produced at low risk, but without significant creative input, it will sink without a trace.

Conclusion: A Ship That Never Set Sail

Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones is not a bad game. It is a functionally perfect example of a by-committee design philosophy. It has a clear goal, a learnable system, a progression loop, and a pleasant aesthetic shell. Its music is genuinely good. For a player seeking 20 hours of undemanding, mindless puzzle-solving on a lazy Sunday, it will suffice, especially on sale.

But as a work of game design, history, or art, it is a nullity. It adds no new arguments to the conversation about puzzle games. Its narrative is a placeholder. Its mechanics are borrowed. Its presentation is adequate. It is the gaming equivalent of a perfectly cooked but unimaginative piece of toast. In the grand ledger of video game history, Match Three Pirates! Heir to Davy Jones will not appear as a debit or a credit—it will be an ignored, blank line. It proves that the lowest bar for commercial release in the casual space is not quality, but the successful application of a known, profitable formula. Its true historical significance lies in its utter forgettability, a testament to a genre running on fumes and a market content to refill the same old bottles with the same old wine, merely changing the label to “Pirate’s Grog.” It is a game that plays like a ghost—it has all the form of its inspirations but none of the spirit.

Final Verdict: A technically proficient but creatively bankrupt match-3 clone that serves only as a cautionary example of genre fatigue. Its place in history is as a forgotten cargo ship, sailing in the wide, crowded wake of Bejeweled, leaving no wake of its own.