Monster Busters is a mobile puzzle game released for Android and iOS.
The game's basic playstyle consists of moving colored pieces, "monsters", one square at a time in a 9x9 board space to put 3 pieces in a row, which makes them disappear and their space gets filled up with more pieces - a genre of puzzle games commonly known as match-3.
Gameplay
These rules apply when moving a piece:
The player can tap on a piece and drag it to an square next to it to move it. Each move counts as one turn. A piece can only be moved in one of the four horizontal or vertical spots - no diagonal moves or moves further away than one square is allowed.
When the piece is moved, it swaps locations with the other piece that was there before.
A piece can only be moved when it creates a 3-piece row in its new position. It cannot be moved into a square where it will not match with 2 other preexisting pieces. The player cannot move the same piece two squares, one square at a time, with the goal of creating the 3-piece at the end of its "journey".
Pieces can be matched to form a 3-piece row, 4-piece row or 5-piece row. 4 and 5-piece rows leave behind a bonus piece with special properties. 6-piece rows cannot be formed, as the formation of a 6-piece row would mean that a 3-piece existed beforehand. Once a 3-piece row is formed, automatically reacts and consumes itself - it cannot be "saved" for later. Often the player moves a piece with the intent of forming one 3-match, but they end up unwittingly creating another 3-match elsewhere at the same time.
Once a 3-piece match is created