Beglitched

Beglitched (2016) is a puzzle game that combines Candy Crush's matching with Minesweeper's mapping challenges in missions where you foil computer hackers. Play is first traversing the computer network grid and then taking on hackers in match-three puzzles when you (inevitably) run into them. It combines and innovates two classic puzzles that rely on deducing the location of what you can't see.

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First you carefully traverse a grid of computers to find the exit, collect useful items and (hopefully) avoid the eggs that scramble the positions and make you start over. The trick is you can't directly see what's on a computer before you Login and it's too late. Instead, you get Minesweeper-style clues: each computer displays the items on the computers it is connected to.

In this way you move through the network until you encounter a hacker and take them on in a matching puzzle. Like Candy Crush, you move the icons around to match or trigger them. But unlike Candy Crush, here you do this to home in on and then blow up the hidden hacker. Different icons grant you different clues like the Compass, Radar or Super Explosions. Once you blow them up you have won.

The result is a challenge that creates the feel of exploring the inside of computer networks. It has some neat ideas to extend both Minesweeper and match three games. But also, having to deduce what to do rather than simply solve puzzles works well with the narrative about computer (and personal) insecurity.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Beglitched 21 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 9 months ago.