Fish are friends
For anyone who's into their simple but addictive little puzzle games, like Columns or Tetris, then Big Kahuna Reef is going to be a must play. It's a classically styled color matching game that is full of charm and offers heaps of casual entertainment. The game presents you with a geometric shape which is then divided into squares and filled with nautical themed items, such as starfish, pearls and so on. As with other such games, your goal is to swap two squares in order to create lines of three or more matching items, so that they vanish and bring new squares into play. You've also got wooden and metal squares which need to be destroyed by combining chains over them while there are a few other tricks and such things to watch out for. You've got two main modes to try out, the most interesting of which is the timed mode, as if you run out of time, you lose a life, thus adding more pressure to proceedings. As a nice aside, completing levels gives you access to new items to decorate your own personal fish tank, while there's also a level editor so you can create your own and challenge your friends. Although match-three games are ten-a-penny these days, Big Kahuna Reef remains a fine example of the genre. It doesn't do anything you haven't seen before (although it is quite old, remember), but it does everything with style and elegance. The underwater theme gives the game a lot of charm and it helps to make it a strangely relaxing experience too. There's enough levels to keep you going for a while but the added bonus of the editor means this is going to be with you for some time.
