Holiday Bonus Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: January 18, 2007 The holidays are a strange mix of seasonal warmth and stress. That's why a game like Holiday Bonus from Grey Alien Games can be a welcome respite from the rush of family visits and last minute preparations. It's a casual offering in which you swap holiday decorations on a grid to create matches of three or more objects. Doing so turns the squares underneath the matched pieces gold. You win the level once you've turned the entire grid gold. Frozen items and a selection of clever powerups (including snowballs and matches) and round out the features. The above paragraph seems redundant because just about everyone knows how to play match-three games by now. And Holiday Bonus makes no effort to push the envelope. You won't even find a timer -- meaning you can take as much time as you need to complete each level. Yet the lack of innovation doesn't hurt the game. The wintry visuals are beautiful. The original holiday music is superb. And the relaxed approach to gameplay is just what the doctor ordered for relieving the anxiety that marks this otherwise wonderful time of year. Scoring (out of five stars): Graphics: Ease of use: Gameplay: Challenge: Sound effects: Music: Final analysis: Click here to download the free trial version of Holiday Bonus.