Hatchlings

If nothing else, most match-three puzzlers are pretty immediate. Even those that take a spare weekend or two to master tend to hold back on complex rule-sets, elaborate plots and stodgy cut-scenes that bring your iPhone to a shuddering halt.

Those that know their trade focus on matching up those shapes and colours within seconds of starting up the app.

By the same token, Hatchlings certainly doesn't bother itself with any great forage into superfluous storylines. Indeed, even its setting – which sees you shifting lines of supposedly magic but most certainly strange looking creatures with a gecko's tail – thankfully doesn't extend beyond the superficial.

But while Hatchlings has the pick-up-and-play vibe so essential to your average match-three, it doesn't exactly have the signature immediacy needed to stop you putting it back down again.

Just why is a little hard to pin down. To its credit, Hatchlings doesn't get bogged down in any over-extended tutorial modes or overly forgiving opening stages. In fact, the whole concept of levels is somewhat cast aside, play essentially running in survival mode from beginning to end.

Instead, the Hatchlings experience is one of endless searches for potential matches. While you can only shift the creatures on the game's 7x6 grid horizontally – finger swipes from the left or right moving the row by one grid square - the matches can also be made vertically, so progress relies on being able to spot just which matches will be made with which moves.

As ever, lines of three are the minimum with any greater offering reward, but meeting a set quota of particular match-ups – a la Chop Sushi! - is what defines play. Similarly, the boss stages that sandwich each level (but pick up the grid exactly how you left it) come with a short checklist of requirements, such as matching a set line of three or causing a chain reaction of match ups.

It all comfortably sticks to convention, but by playing so safe, Hatchlings fails to stand out. While it places no real barriers to entry – you will, indeed, be playing within seconds - play feels comparatively slow and without sparkle, making the whole affair appear like a matter of routine rather than a romp.

When you throw in the fact that many of the match ups feel a little too much like luck, too, it's clear that Hatchlings, though conforming to match-three staples to the casual eye, is just a little bit too plain Jane to really be worth the while.