Byte Master

Asher Vollmer, the developer of Threes!, recently reiterated why there can be so many blatant clones of his game.

It's because he patented the look and name of Threes!, but not the core mechanics.

Take that ingenious puzzler, give it a new skin, call it something else, and you have yourself a competent and perfectly legit puzzler that might make you a few quid.

Here's another example in Byte Master. It's Threes!, but with a curious computer-tech theme. So, instead of numbers, you're swiping to double up bytes in a tight grid.

It's a much less clear, concise concept, and I'm still a little hazy on the convoluted levelling-up system. Which doesn't bode well in such a simple puzzler.

Byte Master plays just fine. After all, it's based heavily on one of the best puzzlers of recent times. But do you really need another Threes! clone in your life? I don't.